I noticed Israel Shamir’s incredibly stupid article recently, I wonder how common his views are amongst ‘Russian’ ‘Nationalists’ these days, I notice the Saker peddles the same Islamophilic crap. On the other hand, the Pope has now just practically come out openly in favour of homosexual adoption.
You do realize that Shamir wants to put away ‘Russian’ ‘Nationalists’ in jail (as I have pointed out not on one occasion, quoting his own words)? Must have been quite the shocker to you, he’s said so many “based” things about Jews and the Soviet Union after all…
Russian nationalist opinion outside Israel-Sweden/Florida seems to range from total indifference to Caucasoid squabbles (e.g. Prosvirnin) to moderate pro-Armenian positions (e.g. myself, Kholmogorov, Sergey Grigorov).
Great shots at the foolishly wrong neocon, neolib and flat out Russian hating pronouncements. Russia is a “threat” in the sense that it doesn’t live up to their expectations. Bravo Strategic Culture Foundation and Patrick Armstrong.
Not much if any outrage, serving as further evidence that the Russian election meddling claim is a hypocritical crock. Try finding a top Russian government official endorsing any US candidate. On the contrary, they’ve gone out of their way to steer clear of such.
Once again, recall Schiff saying he has proof of Trump-Russia collusion, as the US mass media pretty much glosses over that, while asking Biden which ice cream flavor he likes?
Putin’s like of Steven Seagal is utterly unaccountable. Not only is he a known A-hole, but was he ever in a single good movie?
I mean I could understand it if it were Chuck Norris (even though he’s Conservative, Inc.) or Van Damme (even though he’s probably an A-hole too, and it’s been a while since he made a good movie.) I could even understand it if it was relative C-listers like Don “the Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, or Ernie Reyes, Jr. But Stephen Seagal???
I blame the relationship on the relative decline of Western martial arts movies.
Seagal’s movies can sometimes fall into the ‘so-bad they’re almost good’ (On Deadly Ground is one of the worst movies ever, the environmentalist hero blows up an offshore oil-well) category, though I can’t imagine watching anything of his sober, alone or since turning turning 18.
Well Putin seems to have pretty pedestrian tastes, there’s that story of him being inspired to join the KGB after watching Щит и Мечь, apparently he’s also a big fan of the classic Брат and even its markedly inferior sequel.
I could even understand it if it was relative C-listers like Don “the Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, or Ernie Reyes, Jr. But Stephen Seagal
Well, I’ve never even heard of any of them except Seagal, so that proves something I guess. I can’t think of any ‘classic’ action actors that could at all act except Bruce Willis, really. Anyway, I don’t think anyone watches, say, Escape From New York for Kurt Rusell’s acting.
It would’ve been cool if USSR had kept up some construction of impressive looking buildings. Did they even build anything attractive looking after the 50s?
Are you talking about his views of Armenia? And do you mean by “nationalist”?
When I was growing up, the word “nationalist” has to me always implied a kind of racist person, who dislikes non-slavic/non-white people, and possibly uses their face for kickboxing workout. Of course, racist people in Russia will typically hate “hachí”, without distinguishing between their variants.
But in this forum, “nationalist” has a different meaning (and perhaps this is how the word has also changed in recent years and transnationally) – more similar to “imperialist patriot”.
In terms of normal political opinion in Russia. In the media, liberals are supporting Armenia, as are one or two kremlinbots like Solovyov (a television host). But of course, the vast majority of audience do not care at all, are neutral between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the media is generally neutral.
On the forum, Karlin is the only pro-Armenian person I have been reading. It would interesting to see a post where he explained about his pro-Armenian orientation.
I remember a forum thread last year where we discussed about Georgia and Armenia, and there was no indication of Karlin’s pro-Armenian views.
Re-reading it now – it was an interesting discussion. Melanf was warning the forum against brown women, while Gerard was recommending Armenian cognac. Then sudden death is posting photos of Filipp Kirkorov. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/color-revolution-in-georgia
Are you talking about his views of Armenia? And do you mean by “nationalist”?
More or less, yes. It’s rather blatant hypocrisy from him considering how involved Israel is in this whole conflict. Although it doesn’t really matter, both him and ‘Saker’ have no influence, both almost exclusively write for an Anglophone audience that barely knows anything about Russia.
Well Saker paints himself as Russian nationalist (lol), Shamir doesn’t, although their views are almost identical these days. At least Shamir can be entertaining, Saker is the personification of an armchair general without a shred of humour or self-awareness.
In the media, liberals are supporting Armenia, as are one or two kremlinbots like Solovyov (a television host).
Well, a broken clock is right at least once a day. Like, Navalny is right about the ruinous scale of government corruption, ironically his unpopularity outside of his core-audience probably allows people to dismiss it where they wouldn’t otherwise.
I remember a forum thread last year where we discussed about Georgia and Armenia, and there was no indication of Karlin’s pro-Armenian views.
As I’ve repeatedly re-iterated, I don’t expect Russians to have any special affection for Armenia, but simply that a Azeri-Turkish victory would be deeply harmful to Russia’s long-term strategic interests. Islam and Turkish presence is continuing to grow in Russia and doesn’t look to be changing soon.
Shamir is an eccentric columnist from Russian newspapers. In Russia, it seems he has been banned from publishing much recently, I guess because he started writing anti-Israel content (which is against the general newspapers’ positions). Well he just writes on the RT website now and keep him away from the Israel topic https://russian.rt.com/opinion/blog/israel-shamir
Yeah he seems to be writing everything while intoxicated with LSD – I read a few articles by him, and felt like I have taken some strange psychedelic drugs, and was reading about some parallel universe. But I respect that he comes down out of his “highs” to write to us, and answered my comment when I wrote something on his blog.
Also remember when Admiral Martyanov used to write here and have endless arguments with Karlin?
Wilson was a kickboxing champ. Rothrock was actually popular in HK (she was a star there), partly because of her Western looks.
As Dmitry would say, America had a “bourgeoisie” martial arts subculture in the ’80s and ’90s which was possibly unique outside of Asia. There were martial arts magazines like “Black Belt Magazine” They came with posters kids would hang on their walls. There were countless direct-to-VHS movies. There were celebrity chains of martial arts studios. Little kids would get into heated arguments at school over what Asian country had the best fighting techniques.
A lot of these “lone extremists” are basically mentally ill people who are found by FBI operatives online and then ‘encouraged’ to act out so that they can be arrested.
This was a model used against moslems in the early 2000s, but rightoid racism prevented them to see how this game could be used against mulitiple groups, so everyone ran away with dumb islamophobia back then. If you look at the background of many of the terrorists that attacked Europe in the 2014-2017 timeframe, lots had Western intelligence backgrounds. The manchester arena bomber, the nice truck driver etc. These were all mentally ill people recruited/encouraged by Western intelligence agencies, some had been used in Syria, and then came back all fucked up. It was essentially blowback.
Some ask why moslem terrorism slowed massively in recent years. It’s not that Western intelligence services suddenly got great at stopping them, it’s just that they stopped these mentally ill recruitment binges from moslems. Now they are just using the same tactics against another group domestically. But rightoid racism prevents them from seeing the parallels and learning from others. That’s the price you pay for a closed mind, so no sympathies from me.
The recent 2020 election in Bolivia is a victory for humanity. The blatant 2019 coup – supported by many US “liberals” posing as concerned humanitarians to justify Western imperialism – removed democratically elected Evo Morales.
Now his party (MAS) stormed back to power. Bolivia has one of the highest lithium deposits in the world, and Elon Musk wants it. He openly supported the coup.
The right-wing puppets in Bolivia were geared towards only two constituents: the upper-middle class in Bolivia and Washington elites. Yet danger is not gone even if they were temporarily removed in the recent election.
Washington is more subtle than most other operators, so they know it isn’t smart to once again blatantly remove MAS. I expect a shift in tactics (buying up local media, NGOs etc) to push a soft coup, to slowly delegitimise the government and then do a color revolution instead. If Biden wins, these more sophisticated tactics rather than Trump’s blatant removal of Morales will likely succeed as liberal imperialists are more sophisticated than Trump’s hamfisted approach.
When people speak about Latin America, I find it remarkable how little attention is paid to imperialist meddling by the US.
If their armies take to flight, do not take it as an actual flight. It is a war tactic of theirs. Beware, beware of them for a second time. They turn back and set fire even to water – Jangnamah – Qazi Nur Muhammad (Court Poet of Ahmed Shah Durrani)
Thus did the Khalsa reply: (to the Afghans)
“Nobody gets sovereignty by asking.
How can Singhs and Turks (Muslims) be friends?
It is like a game between fire and gunpowder.
I literally agree with everything in your comment besides this:
If Biden wins, these more sophisticated tactics rather than Trump’s blatant removal of Morales will likely succeed as liberal imperialists are more sophisticated than Trump’s hamfisted approach.
Yes, Bosnia 1995, Serbia 1999, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, etc …
Democracy has been a disaster for Latin America, much of the educated class is now in Miami, I can only see Latin America declining further. Militarised police states run by ethnic Europeans and Near Easterners worked better.
My bad, I meant the NATO aggression against Republika Srpska in 1995 that killed over 1,000 Serbs (both civilians and military) despite earlier proto aggressions against Srpska in 1994.
This is important to clarify because Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a real country but a US protectorate-semi-Islamic State occupation of Serb land forced upon Serbs with the Treaty of Dayton (which had some favorable terms for Serbs, but nearly all of them have been flagrantly dishonored since 1995).
An interesting map of West Eurasian (that would be Indo-European) and East Eurasian (Sino Tibetan or Mongolian) admixture in ancient burials in Central Asia.
Given what we recently learned about the genetic makeup of the elite Hun burials, I think the overall trend towards the formation of Central Asian Turk populations becomes clearer.
For the Chionite (Xionite) Hun genetics read here:
Basically it appears that Xiongnu ended-up speaking some Altaic language, while their Hephtalite Spenta Huna (White Huns) cousins ended up speaking an ancient form of Dardic (i.e. Indo-Iranian).
I suppose that despite this marked difference in language, the genetic makeup of both populations was more or less similar with perhaps more Uralic Y haplogroup N in the Xiongnu.
Recently, an haplogroup N subclade mainly present in Central Asia and Volga Turks has been described.
I came to think that the people carrying this Y haplogroup might be the descendants of the earliest Turkic language speaking populations.
Which brings me to the “Scandinavian” Y haplogroup N, perhaps it was not so Indo-European after all. Might it have been an offshoot of a similar Siberian population, which ended up speaking Ugro-finnic languages and then Old Norse through admixture with local populations?
Also Y haplogroup N is found among ancient Hungarian burials.
Given that ancient Rus Rurikid lineage is mainly haplogroup N, that they seem to have initially called their princes Khagan, that they used Tamga style signs to identify their clans and that early Moslem travelers on the Volga described early Rus as “belonging to Turks “, could it be that basically Y haplogroup N elite warrior clans spread all the way from Siberia and influenced such a large territory from modern day Scandinavia and Central Europe to Xinjiang?
Also, all that Old Norse sagas mythology about the Aesir conquering the Vanir takes an interesting new twist. Perhaps Norse Seidr shamanism was a surviving
remnant of some Siberian tradition?
For the IQ explains everything crowd here, how do people explain that Episcopalians do not dominate the US social elite, instead of Jews, considering that Jews actually have a lower IQ than Episcopalians, and Episcopalians outnumber Jews in the US by a factor of 15 to 1, so shouldn’t dominate Episcopalians dominate the US elite, like they used to before WW2, instead of Jews?
Yes, I think it was related to American troops being in Japan and Korea. Norris started his training in SK. Possibly also the small population of citizen East Asians. And the presence of Hollywood, which fed people’s ambitions to take risks and finance their own movies, when VHS came along – some were quite terrible.
And I forgot the tournaments. I think America’s scale helped a lot. Pay-per-view made the UFC possible in the ’90s. I don’t think it would have worked financially anywhere else.
Last martial arts movie I enjoyed made chronologically was “The Raid”. Not Western unless you count the director. I didn’t like the sequel. Someone recommended “Man of Tai Chi” to me. It has Keenu Reeves in it, so it is partly Western. It was okay, but pretty derivative.
Yeah, trying to pin “collusion” on Trump seems like a fruitless affair, especially after how he characterized his dealings with Russia during last night’s debates:
“”I’ve got the Nato countries to put up an extra $130 billion going to $420 billion a year, that’s to guard against Russia”
” “I sold, while he was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank busters to Ukraine. There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump,”
The idea that Muslims absolutely detest Jews is a bit of civ nat “counter Jihad” myth I think. Their beef with Jews/Zionists is in a very specific sense over Palestine, and even that seems to be waning to a certain extent what with countries like the UAE and Bahrain normalising relations with Israel and possibly even more Muslim countries to follow shortly.
The fact of the matter is Muslims hate Christians much more than Jews, with Jews their hate is really just over that one Palestine issue, but their hate of Christians is culturally and historically ingrained. It seems to me that Muslims and Jews are perfectly happy to collaborate with each other geo-politically, especially against Christians. They also collaborate with each other against the native people in white countries too.
The Tarim Basin mummies prove that white presence in that region is very ancient and certainly predates Mongoloid presence there. It seems to me that the Chinese government have been very uncomfortable about those mummies since their discovery and in latter years have started actively suppressing research into Tocharian history and genetics in the region, probably related to their increasing crackdown in Xinjiang.
Something I find odd is that Spain on one level is very left wing, was one of the earliest countries in Europe to legalise gay marriage and is known among gays as being a very “gay friendly” country, and is also known for having liberal drug and prostitution laws.
Yet at the same time Spain is thought of as a very Catholic, very conservative and traditional country. No one thinks Spain and thinks “sodomite land”. I would imagine most people basically think of Spain as a Catholic country with nice weather, rich traditions as well as very civilised.
I guess what I’m saying is that it seems Spain is an example of a country where extremely liberal/left values and trad con values can exist side by side completely harmoniously with no apparent “cultural war” that exists in most other Western countries.
I would guess that most people would say that the UK and Germany are degenerate sodomite countries far more so than Spain, despite the fact that in many respects those countries’ laws are less liberal and permissive than Spain.
Taking an analogy from aboriculture, and thinking of American elms and chestnuts which were severely damaged by blight, caused by globalism, I wonder if it would be possible to breed poz-resistance into different European nationalities, or into new hybrid nationalities, seeking to preserve the good characteristics – the stately shade of the elms, or the tasty nuts and beautiful lumber of the chestnut tree.
Like a breeding program that sought out short serotonin transporter allele people. I wonder how far that one gene would get you, if you segregated people with it in order to try to limit betrayal and facilitate cultural production.
I mean, wouldn’t it be theoretically easy to breed “Sweden, no” Swedes and then encourage them to segregate into a high fertility culture, within Sweden. I think it would take 3-4 genes max – much easier than many would suppose. Provided segregation was possible, such an area would easily monopolize tourist dollars.
Is it not ironic that the people and bloggers here decry the social ills brought forth by liberalism in Western society, and yet their only solution seems to be…………..more liberalism?
Has anyone changed their mind about Joe Biden’s touching kids being sexual, after the new allegations of what is on Hunter’s laptop? The apple does fall far from the tree.
I don’t mean to say that it is 100% sexual in every case – and I’m not sure he ever broke the law in that sense – but I mean that he may have cast his net a bit wider to make it slightly less obvious, like how gameshow host Richard Dawson would kiss grandmothers, so that he could kiss 12 year old daughters.
Something I find odd is that Spain on one level is very left wing, was one of the earliest countries in Europe to legalise gay marriage and is known among gays as being a very “gay friendly” country, and is also known for having liberal drug and prostitution laws.
Yet at the same time Spain is thought of as a very Catholic, very conservative and traditional country. No one thinks Spain and thinks “sodomite land”. I would imagine most people basically think of Spain as a Catholic country with nice weather, rich traditions as well as very civilised.
Yes, it is popularly perceived.
Popular views about foreign countries is usually about 40-50 years ago out of date. Look at the American boomers who still believe that Russia is Communist country, because this was what they were taught during childhood.
The same effects is here – today’s Spain is as Catholic as is today’s Russia Soviet.
The view on the left (based on the lefties I talked to), is that Franco and his supporters got away with what they did. Spain was ruled by a dictator for 30 years, tens of thousands of people were killed, and yet when Franco died, there were no tribunals or exiles or even cancellations. Instead, much of the bureaucracy of Franco’s government simply merged with the democratic government. Worse yet, the main Spanish conservative party was built by Francoists and is still run by their children. These people and their at least semi-fascist ideology never paid the price for what they inflicted on Spain.
On the other side, my totally outsider’s perspective is that Franco and the nationalists decisively lost on the cultural battlefield. Just as (almost) nobody in America looks back fondly on the pre-civil rights days, almost nobody in Spain seems to pine for Francoism. As an example, the Reina Sophia Museum, Spain’s second most famous museum behind the Prado, has a very pro-Republican bend in its art exhibition, and IIRC, the museum even flew Republican flags on its exterior when I visited. Such flags were also hung in balconies and windows throughout the cities. In Madrid, I even stumbled upon a Republican rally where people called for the end of the monarchy and the imprisonment of the remnants of Franco’s supporters.
Well yeah Afansaievo and Andronovo cultures were certainly White. There was a progressive admixture between these ethnic groups and the Mongoloid/Altaic ones and it ended-up producing Scythians and then after the Hun/Xiongnu domination the population there mainly became Turkic speaking.
True, I think both also share a lot of similarities such as ritual slaughter of meat, prohibition of pork consumption and male circumcision, the Muslim and Jewish lobbies often work together in this regard. The much more powerful Jewish lobbies often use Muslims as a first line of defence.
The philosemitic counter-jihad types also run into a problem when they talk of banning halal because then the Muslims retort “well then you have to ban kosher too” which is a fair point and discrimination or quasi-discrimination against Jews elicits a very strong reaction in almost all Europeans of all political convictions bar a small minority on the very fringes of the right.
If I recall correctly, it was the Jews who opened the gates of Toledo to Muslim invaders, Jews have also historically enjoyed a far better lifestyle under Islamic rule compared to Christian rule (the recent antagonism is entirely due to Palestine as you say, Jews enjoyed a great life in Arab countries before the establishment of Israel)
For many, that moderator is an easy to convince hack – no pun intended. Clearly a foreign policy military industrial complex type, downplaying the idea of giving the benefit of doubt to a perceived adversary and seeking a diplomatic route.
Biden went unchallenged on the rehashed lie that the Russian government paid a bounty to kill US forces in Afghanistan – something that NBC reported on as lacking credibility by top US military brass.
Well, he speaks with a Brooklyn accent, and I’m sure he was asked about it and didn’t deny it, though he probably downplayed his identification a bit. But the fact is I do recall a commercial spot where he said his parents were “Polish-Americans” or “born in Poland” or something – seems implicitly dishonest, even though the latter is technically correct.
Central Asia has always been a kind of leakage area of West and East. Just look at Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains which was inhabited at various times by Neanderthals and Denisovans.
The ancient Chinese were quite surprised to discover civilization in the Tarim Basin. It was certainly not a Chinese offshoot. For a while, there were walled roads connecting the two civilizations. Regardless of the question “who was there first?”, China’s ability to assert dominance is the main determinant of its borders.
I, for one, do not covet the region as it is filled with Muslims, and I believe the sand particles cause lung cancer.
Chinese history has always noted the present of Turkic people, note Tang statues or mentions in the War of Heavenly Horses. They were really quite sparse all things considered though.
Probably not Turkic though. Although certainly there were Turkic people there throughout thousands of years, as well as Indo-Iranian, and probably both in greater numbers and over long time scales, Tocharian seems to be something else. It’s kind of a mystery though. Linguistically speaking it is an extremely ancient IE split that probably split long before most of the other IE languages even differentiated. And unlike Iranian, Turkic isn’t even an IE language.
Thing that stands out to me is, the mummies, besides having tall stature, big noses, pale skin and red and blond hair, had plaid tartan pants. Possibly closer to Celtic than Turkic.
There were Indo-Europeans living in Tarim Basin, Gansu, and even Southernmost Mongolia long before the Turks. The Wusun and the Ordos culture, actually Turkic people came relatively late from the area of Yenisey and Altay mountains, the Mongolic people inhabited before them Mongolia, known as Donghu and Wuhuan in ancient Chinese chronicles. No one knows what language or languages Xiongnu and Huns spoke, but there are many competing theories.
But these Indo-Europeans didnt exactly look like modern “whites” and had some Asian admixture. Red hair was more common in ancient times because of the distances and relative isolation between the populations. My mother and grandmother claim that there are red haired Mongols, although I have never seen, but I have one cousin who looks completely Asian but has natural hazelbrown hair. One my Asian great grandfather had grey eyes, but I think that Mongols, Buryats, Oirats and Altays have some ancient Indo-European admixture. Of course Im not sure, but their physiognomy varies greatly, some look very Tungusic, some almost like Kornilov, some like Chinese or Korean, who by the way look somewhat different from each other.
White Nationalists trying to claim every light skinned ethnos in EurAsia is v cringe||
Look, first of all, all white women bigger than stick thin belong to Jatts||
Beyond that, on what linguistic, cultural or theological basis are you claiming kinship?
You’ve been Christian for 2000 years, and your idea of a unitary, authoritarian state comes from the Catholic church.
Fact is, you’re more alien on a personal level to your ancestors than they are to Andamanese.
Pagan Euro Nats, sure they get an esteemed place among the Aryas for playing the same role as Vibhishan against you Rakshashas||
If you’re going to do ancestor worship, then do it properly and whole-heartedly.
This we wuzzing is just small dick energy,
Also if you’re asking me the ethnic origin of a bitch instead of responding WB or WNB
”I’ve got the Nato countries to put up an extra $130 billion going to $420 billion a year, that’s to guard against Russia”
“I sold, while he was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank busters to Ukraine. There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump,”
Yes, he also mentioned the incessant sanctions but forgot to add the attacks in Syria and the withdrawal from the arms treaties.
In general, the 2020 Trump has nothing to do with the 2016 Trump. Let’s remember that he ran (and won) on a platform of building a wall with Mexico, deporting all illegal immigrants, preventing the entry of Muslims into the US, ending foreign wars, improving relations with Russia and disengaging from US military commitments in Asia and Europe.
For those who voted for him based on this platform, there is basically zero left to vote for in November.
To be fair, it will be extremely amusing to watch the meltdown of all MSM talking heads, celebs, academics and big-tech bosses if Trump happens to win again. I won’t be able to avoid having a good laugh. But perhaps the best thing that could happen to Trumpism is the defeat of Trump in 2020. He showed that a platform like that is still a winning combination in the US and, after some disastrous years with Harris/Biden/AOC, we might get a more articulate and clear-minded personality with a similar, more focused agenda who will actually try to implement it seriously. Tucker Carlson or even Kayleigh McEnany could be much better Trumpists than Trump.
”I’ve got the Nato countries to put up an extra $130 billion going to $420 billion a year, that’s to guard against Russia”
“I sold, while he was selling pillows and sheets, I sold tank busters to Ukraine. There has been nobody tougher on Russia than Donald Trump,”
Yes, he also mentioned the incessant sanctions but forgot to add the attacks in Syria and the withdrawal from the arms treaties.
Trump also forgot to add that he derailed the Nordsteam2 pipeline whose beginning occurred under Obama’s watch. The delay has probably added a few billion dollars to Ukraine’s budget.
For those who voted for him based on this platform, there is basically zero left to vote for in November.
No.
What Trump did is not permanent. All can, and most will, be undone if he loses. Packing the Supreme Court will undo the effect on the judicial system.
Trump losing would involve the rescinding of executive orders – ban of people coming in from dangerous Muslim countries, and banning the teaching of evil Critical Race Theory in federal settings.
Trump has also started examining and pushing back against this brainwashing in schools. I would expect this to start bearing fruit in a year or two if he wins, lawsuits are already in the pipeline. This will be stopped if Trump loses.
If Puerto Rico and Washington DC are granted statehood, the Senate may be lost for a long time (automatic 4 Democratic Senate seats). I’m not sure how feasible that is , I’ve read that in the case of DC it may require a constitutional amendment. But there is the possibility.
The Wall he partially built probably won’t be torn down, but immigration will be opened up.
To be fair, it will be extremely amusing to watch the meltdown of all MSM talking heads, celebs, academics and big-tech bosses if Trump happens to win again.
None of the self created Scythian images that I’ve seen seem to incorporate any Mongoloid features?
In fact most depictions look very much like the Vikings to the north. The bottom gold relief looks Slavic and could pass for the Ukrainian Symon Petliura’s death mask. 🙂
This funerary mask looks like my cousin’s face.Of course it is en European phenotype, but the Scythians controlled an immense territory from modern day Ukraine to modern day India and Mongolia. They varied greatly according to the territory. The Siberian Scythians ended up thoroughly admixed with Mongoloids. The Turks appeared on the territory that has been settled by Scythians for a thousand years. We witness a progressive change of phenotype on the Dunhuang frescoes. Y haplogroups of the Uyghurs are around 30% descended from Afansaievo people, 30% from Andronovo people and 30% Eastern Eurasian (Okunevo, proto-Han, other?). The Kirgiz are descended from Tagarian culture in which burial masks we see a progress change towards the Asian phenotype. They are around 50% of Scythian Y haplogroup R1a.
Yes, but the dynastic armies encountered the Tarim Basin people along the way and defeated them in 102 BC. Their combined encounters led to the first defeat.
While crossing the Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert (of modern Xinjiang), Li’s army was forced to attack the nearby oasis states because they refused to provide them with supplies. Sometimes they were unable to overcome the oasis states. If the siege lasted for more than a few days, the army moved on without any supplies. Due to these numerous petty conflicts, the army became exhausted and was reduced to starvation after their supplies ran out. By the time they neared Dayuan, Li had already lost too much manpower to continue the campaign.
Their surrender in the subsequent expedition helped lead to the creation of the Silk Road as Tang standards and systems were standardized across.
Facing a determined Han expedition army, most of the Western Regions states along the Hexi Corridor simply surrendered without a fight upon seeing the overwhelming display of power. The only state that put up any resistance was Luntai, for which Li had its populace massacred
A lot of what we know about them is due to Chinese paper being used by the oasis states to record their official events; some of this paper was used to wrap grave goods, keeping the official notices on them.
From what I’ve read about the Scythians, the ruling clique was known as the “Royal Scythians” and probably mostly included one tribal affiliation, most likely of a European phenotype that are commonly depicted on the lavish golden drinking vessels and funerary masks, etc. The larger territories that were under their control undoubtedly included large numbers of members of other more Asiatic tribes. This would not be unlike other nomadic movements and their inclusion of a core central organizing group or tribe. I’d include the movement and consolidation of the Mongols, Turks,
Hungarians and even the Rus to a smaller extent in similar processes.
I believe that most people are not aware of the extent and the duration of the Scythian cultural phenomenon in Eurasia.
Unlike other Steppe Empires, the Scythian cultural phenomenon lasted for a very long time. The European Scythians, known to ancient Greeks, are just a fraction of what Scythians represented in both area and time.
Basically, one could talk about proto Scythian ethnic groups as early as the demise of Tripolyan civilization and still find Scythians as late as the Indo-Scythian kingdoms. This means an era of around 3000 years. In fact, when we say Indo-Iranian, we could as well say Scythian.
The Scythians had a lasting impact on a very large part of Eurasia both in space and time.
The French seem like utter morons, they invite millions of Muslims to live in their country, and then go out of their way to antagonise them with anti-Muslim cartoons in an attempt to force them to be secular, left wing, pro-multikulti French citizens, with disastrous consequences.
Most of the “Je Suis Charlie” types are pro-mass immigration, but they believe that they can force secular republican French values on the Muslims, they believe they can bend the Muslims to their will if they keep forcing these anti-Muslim cartoons on them.
In Britain those Charlie Hebdo cartoons would never have been allowed in the first place, what these left wing “Je Suis Charlie” types do would be considered racist here and prosecuted.
The reality is when you live amongst people who are much more warlike and fanatical than you are, you are best not to deliberately antagonise them regardless of what ever idealised secular republican “values” you believe in.
For me exonym Scythian means just those Shakas who lived near the coasts of the Black Sea, then there are Iazyges, who were Indo Iranian people living in the area of the modern day Hungary and Transylvania and were closely connected with the ancient Scythians.
The Buddha himself was very probably descended from the Indo-Iranian Sakas and even his clans name Shakya means Scythian/Shaka in Sanskrit. As I have once mentioned before here, the Shakyas shared more cultural similarities with the Sakas of the steppes than with the Puranic or Vedic Indians. The Stupa or Kurgan as a burial place for a great king, the belief that fire is sacred and purifying, the immense respect for the horse, horse was for them an animal above other animals. Shakyas worshipped the Sun and the Fire, and they believed that they as descentants ofthe Sun belong to the Solar race, Suryavansha. Then they had other embarrassing Indo-Iranian traditions, like marrying with cousins, so that their divine blood would not be defiled, which was common among Iranian royalty. Although it was done only when they couldnt find brides of suitable pedigree. But for Vedic Indiands such marriages were a horrible transgression. There were also many other traditions shared by the Shakyas and Shakas. The tradition of the Shakyas tells that they came to foothills of Himalayas 5 or 6 generations before the time of the Buddhas father Suddhodana. Their reason for migrating was quite funny from the modern day perspective, the Buddha tells that they wanted to uphold the purity of their lineage. Also Shakyas had only a one caste, the caste of warriors, all Shakyas were warriors like the Scythians of the steppe and they thought that the warrior caste is superior to Brahmins or priestly caste.
In Mahayana we always call the historical Buddha Gautama by the name Shakyamuni, the Sage of the Shakyans!
I was aware of the Gautama’s descent from a Scythian clan. BTW his description as being blue eyed and having a “golden hued” skin color also matches the Scythian phenotype of the earliest times. This phenotype changed progressively through acculturation with BAMAC, Davidian and Siberian populations. Ar the end of the day we got Scythian Y Y haplogroup R1a Z93 widely distributed among different Central Asian populations. In Europe it is mainly present among the Tatars. Slavs are not descended from Scythians.
Now is probably the best time to invade Canada, since the Canadian army has a higher proportion of trannies than the general pop and is stacked with gays and Sikhs (but I repeat myself.)
But seriously, contra expectations, Sikhs seem like the most pozzed of Indians in the West (including Muslims.) I would almost posit that it has something to do with their costumes – that for signaling value, they are akin to the skin of blacks, causing multicultists to promote them, flatter them, and generally pander to them, just as the Church of Scientology treats celebrities. But the problem with this theory is that many have dropped the old customs. Perhaps, it is better explained by HBD.
I was aware of the Gautama’s descent from a Scythian clan
Yes, on this basis some weird Ukrainian ridnoviry were claiming that Buddha was a Ukrainian. One of them (Sylenko) lived in India for a time and compiled a Ukrainian-Sanskrit dictionary:
Why should we pander to you when you’ve never done us any favors?
Since when have white nationalists ever helped themselves let alone any allies?
What possible reason could we have to help you, and what common interest can you conceive of?
You taking being powerful as being pozzed, or paying lip service to liberalism while carrying a sword.
I think you believe in this delusional reality where “rational” minorities accept white supremacy and flatter you and your devilish critiques.
Let’s be honest, being racist is incompatible with being Christian, and the Pagan Europeans are on our side anyway.
many have dropped the old customs.
Many more have come back to them, those political leaders they’re Canadian born..
Now is probably the best time to invade Canada, since the Canadian army has a higher proportion of trannies than the general pop and is stacked with gays and Sikhs (but I repeat myself.)
It is now a competition between the Chinese and the Sikhs to see who can take over Canada first, will Canada become part of of the Chinese Co-prosperity Sphere or will it become part of Greater Khalistan?
The official casualty figures for the army were 83 dead and 249 injured; however, Rajiv Gandhi disclosed in September of 1984 that 700 soldiers were killed.
Singhs were hitting targets all the way in Romania.
Would you like to be next?
We speak of defending the weak, punishing the wicked.
You cheer on the massacres of the innocent & slaughter of the defenceless.
Is it any wonder you find no ears in your home, and no banners sympathetic?
What will write on your tomb, that a great man lived here?
No, that this one had the spirit of a Rakshas but none of the vigour||
If you consider the Sarmatians as a closely related and cultural offshoot of the overall Scythian world including an Iranian outer veneer, then there was certainly a lot of intermixture between the two groups. Before the Slavs started to make a name for themselves by constructing their own huge Slavic Empire known as Rus, they were closely allied with the Sarmatians.
The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe
Lev Sylenko was an erudite and charismatic religious leader that counted among his followers not only the lost Ukrainian hippie generation of the 1970’s, but also various movers and shakers within the larger Ukrainian community, of which the most famous was perhaps Viktor Yushenko’s wife’s family the Chumachenkos from Chicago. I also remember seeing photos of Sylenko along with no other than the first patriarch of the Ukrainian Kyiv patriarch church, Mstyslav, graciously entertaining him within his home drinking tea and smoking cigarettes (Mstyslav could never, it seems, quit his lifelong addiction).
Back in the 70’s when the Ridna Vira really took off, several houses of worship were constructed in North America for the ever enlarging new (old) faith. Even in Minneapolis, rumors’ were riff of several prominent Ukrainian artists/intellectuals that left the environs of the traditional Ukrainian churches in favor of this more “nationalistic” church. As you can see from this photo, they were building their temples for the long term, don’t know how they’re doing today?
It seems to me that British imperialism was always much too soft, despite the continual whining of Indians, Chinese, Irish, etc, who blame the British for all their problems.
Look at South America, that’s how colonialism is done. The original native cultures were all but wiped out and they are now nothing but a reflection of the colonialists/conquistadors.
Britain in contrast more or less totally failed to have any meaningful and long lasting cultural and demographic impact on its colonies. I suppose some might cite North America and Australia as counter examples, but I don’t think those really count because the natives there were few in number and also primitive, not really a “civilisation” per se. They are almost 100% settler states, little to no assimilation of the natives has taken place.
That’s why I find it bizarre when Indians and Irish whine about the “brutal” Brits, because if Britain really were so brutal would those countries/civilisations even exist any more in the way pre-Colombian civilisations in Latin America no longer exist in any meaningful way? You could say the same about the way the Japanese wiped out the Ainu for that matter.
Wasnt Sarmatian just a later name for the Scythians of Ukraine and Southern Russia? I wouldnt think it strange if many of them were later assimilated by the Slavs, but there are still the Ossetians/Alans who are at least linguistically direct descentants of Sarmatians.
Although I have lost some goodwill towards Sher Singh/Jatt Arya, I still wouldnt laugh too much. Sikhs survived 700-800 years of being under Muslim rule, they ferociously and untiringly broke the Muslim power in India by constantly revolting against the Mughals in the very heartlands of the Islamic power in India. Lets see in what kind of condition Britbongs will be after 10 generations of Sadiq Khans. I would be very surprised if some Englishmen in future would develop an unified and martial ethnoreligious group identity. Yes Sikhs have some problems, but they are pretty okay for people who have survived much longer under Islam than Serbs or Greeks, and didnt fall in dhimmitude like the Copts of Egypt.
The Slavs have not much to do with Scythians, those who are mostly related to Scythians on genetic level in Russia are Volga Tatars and indigenous people of Altai mountains.
Nevertheless, Sanskrit speakers find learning Slavic languages easy as there are hundreds of cognate roots between Sanskrit and Slavonic lexicons. There was a strong Indology school in Russia since the early XXth century and I believe that the earliest Russian-Sanskrit dictionary was composed before the WWI.
Russian Sanskrit dictionaries and lexicons are found online, but even without a dictionary a Slavic language speaker can sometimes guess the meaning of Sanskrit sentences.
An example is the Prajnaparamita Mantra:
Gate, gate, paragate, Bodhi, Svaha!
If one knows that gat‘ is a way through a marsh or swamp in Russian, that get’ means go away in Ukrainian, that the prefix para is cognate to Slavic prefix pere and the Bodhi is of a cognate root to Slavic bud’, then one can guess the meaning of the mantra.
Also, if one knows that the Sanskrit prefix pra is cognate to Slavic prefix pro, that jnana is of a root cognate to the Russian znanye and that in Russian parom is the boat/ferry used to cross a river, one easily figures out the meaning of Prajnaparamita.
Therefore producing an Ukrainian-Sanskrit dictionary must have been an easy endeavor.
This being said, the Neopagans everywhere are mainly LARPers, although I do not see any problem with reviving the folklore and what is left of pre-Christian mythology of any European culture.
But since the fall of Retra and Arkona, the Balto-Slavic Paganism is dead and buried. BTW in Tocharian ratre means red which is coherent with the Wendish temples being described by contemporary witnesses as entirely painted in red color on their outside.
Speaking of colors: I have read somewhere (can’t recall where exactly) that in Old Tokharian blue was esyn’ (East Slavonic sin’), while the founding dynasty of the first Turkish empire was the Ashina Turks, with their Empire being called Gökturk or Blue Turk Empire (Gök being Blue or Heavenly in Old Turkic). Also Asana in Tokharian means worthy/noble (compare with Russian sanovnyi or Ukrainian shanovnyi). So basically the early Turks might well have been directly related to Tokharians through their ruling elites.
No, Sarmatians were not Scythians. All Sarmatian burials produce haplogroup R1b and the Sarmatian and Scythian languages were probably not mutually intelligible. Although both were Indo-European. Sarmatians are directly descended from Yamnaya. I believe that they become Bashkirs under Turkic influence.
Really? This is news to me? Where they were hidden then during the Classical era of Greek civilization? Not in Central Asia, because Achaemenid Persians and Greeks thought that Sakas of Kazakhstan were related to Scythians of the Black sea.
I would also add that the prevalence of the English language around the world today is a result of American pop culture/media and globalisation by American multi-nations and not a direct result of British colonialism.
In many respects the American Empire has been far more effective and ruthless in expanding Anglo cultural hegemony than the British themselves ever were.
Ural and Southern Siberia. The oldest remains of Sarmatian (Savromat) culture are found there. They were really a kind of relictual Yamnaya / Afanasievo population who wrestled back the power from the Andronovo Scythians after being allied with them. And you are right Alans were a subtype of Sarmatians who intermixed with sedentary Caucasus populations to become Ossetian.
He was a buddy of one of my grandparents, I think from their days at a DP camp in Germany after the war. His patriotism was admired but his ideas judged as rather strange and not taken seriously, we are Christians after all. I came across some of his writings and at my request he gave me some Ukrainian-Sanskrit stuff when I was curious about it in my teens, but I did not pursue anything further.
It identifies the Trypillian culture (3000–5000 BCE) as “Oryana” or “Orania”, assumed to having been the epicentre of the Indo-Europeans or Aryans (whom the book calls Oryans, evoking a connection with the Ukrainian word for plowing, oraty;[1] cf. the same cognation in Latin, arare). According to the book, the white racial type and consequently European civilisation first developed along the banks of the Dnieper, and ancient Oryans-Ukrainians are credited as the initiators of the philosophy later written down in the Vedas, developed as the Oryans migrated in different directions including the north of the Indian subcontinent.
A genetic study published in Nature Communications in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of the Ural Mountains) between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture.[29]
A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD.[32] The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1, I2b, R (two samples) and R1.[33]
A genetic study published in Science Advances in October 2018 examined the remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples),
A genetic study published in Current Biology in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332, R1a1e-CTS1123, R1a-Z645 (two samples) and E2b1-PF6746,
In a study conducted in 2014 by Gennady Afanasiev, Dmitry Korobov and Irina Reshetova from the Institute of Archaeology Russian Academy of Sciences, DNA was extracted from bone fragments found in 7 out of 10 Alanic burials on the Don River. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them possessed mtDNA haplogroup I.[37]
In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In these analyses, the two Alan samples from the 4th to 6th century AD turned out to belong to yDNA haplogroups G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while two of the three Sarmatian samples from the 2nd to 3rd century AD were found to belong to yDNA haplogroup J1-M267 while one belonged to R1a
I believe that there are thousands of cognate words between Slavic and Sanskrit. I cant read Sanskrit, but I know surprisingly many Sanskrit terms relating philosophy and religion, and I do often read Sanskrit Dharanis or Mantras and all the time I do recognize cognates that I did not notice before. Like Dana, which means giving and generosity, clearly its cognate of Дать.
Lets return to the question of the origin of the Sarmatians. Closest language to modern Ossetian is small Yaghnobi language in Tajikistan, Yaghnobi is believed to be the descentant of the Sogdian language. You probably know that Sogdia was the ancient name for the Fergana valley and surrounding areas. I am not sure, but I think that ancient Sogdians were Sakas or closely connected with them.
Buddhas people the Shakyas, sometimes used word Kanhe towards dark skinned people, kanhe means black devil. Shakyas seemed to be very proud, elitist and maybe even xenophobic? I could give more examples, but I fear tarnishing the reputation of Dharma by silly off topic facts. Especially nowadays….
In many respects the American Empire has been far more effective and ruthless in expanding Anglo cultural hegemony than the British themselves ever were.
English language hegemony, yes, but unlike the British Empire the American Empire is almost exclusively promoting subversion and deracination both at home and abroad, rather than promoting anything that could be historically recognised as Anglo culture. The rulers of the American Empire will not be spreading the English language so that the world can read Shakespeare in the original language. No, they will be spreading English to more easily inform the world, in English, that they should be burning Shakespeare’s books due to racism and anti-Semitism.
Lev Sylenko was an inveterate world traveler and aside from visiting several ashrams in India and Tibet, spent time in Iraq, Greece, Turkey, and had a monumental trip all throughout Mexico and Central America. He had an enormous interest in the cultures of the Aztec, Mayan and Toltaiac worlds. He even produced a documentary film about Central America called “Tropical Cantata”. I found this very readable biography about his life to be quite entertaining: https://www.dazhboh.org/v?id=uchs&pg=97
A very young and enthusiastic RUNvirist (in Chicago?) Katheryna Yushchenko (nee Chumachenko) who later helped Lev immigrate back to Ukraine to live out his last earthly days.
A genetic study published in Nature Communications in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of the Ural Mountains) between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture.[29]
This is what I was referring to. The early Savromat in the Urals and Southern Siberia seem more related to haplogroup R1b populations.
A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD.[32] The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1, I2b, R (two samples) and R1.[33]
A genetic study published in Science Advances in October 2018 examined the remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples),
A genetic study published in Current Biology in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332, R1a1e-CTS1123, R1a-Z645 (two samples) and E2b1-PF6746
I was not aware of these more recent studies although I was aware of a gradual admixture of Alans with the Balkanic and Caucasus populations (Y haplogroups E, G and J2).
So basically you and Altan Bakshi are right, it is quite possible that that the Sarmatians / Alans and Scythians fused after the Sarmatian domination was established.
Thanks for correcting me. I will need to have an update on the subject.
I would also add that the prevalence of the English language around the world today is a result of American pop culture/media and globalisation by American multi-nations and not a direct result of British colonialism.
I don’t agree. The prevalence of English in India has much to do with the British Empire.
The natives in all of those Spanish territories suffered heavily from disease, just like in North America. That is the difference. Not Spanish brutality. Africa and Eurasia already had disease exposure, so they were not so vulnerable to imported diseases. Most sub-Saharan Africa due to the climate and the presence of other great apes was difficult for Europeans to survive in without modern medicine. So the Europeans had little demographic impact, except in the far south of South Africa where the climate is more moderate(even this impact looks to be muted over time). It turns out disease is a major determinant of history.
Demographically speaking, Spanish/Portugese colonialism was much less total than that of the Anglos. This is because the Anglo migrations had large numbers of men and women, whereas the Spaniards were mostly men who mixed with local women. As a result, there is much more native ancestry in Mexico, Central America, and South American than there is in north America, or for that matter Australia or New Zealand.
There is plenty of native culture in Peru or Bolivia for example, much more so than anywhere in North America.
Whining from minorities only continues because Anglos listen to/support it. If the incentives were removed, Indians, Chinese, and even the Irish would shut up. The Irish in particular have nothing to whine about, the English have been excessively nice to them. Promoting overseas invasions and assassinations of royal family usually leads to massacres, but the English can’t be bothered. The Indians owe most of what they have to the English. The Chinese, who whine the least, actually have an air tight case that English intervention has caused them nothing but harm.
Btw the Bakshi in Mongolian language is not anyway connected to the Anatolian Turkish word Bakshi, which means garden, nor to Persian Bakshi, which means paymaster. Just to make this clear.
Although around the same time the so-called Русская Партия in the KGB also played with the revival of Slavic mythology and promoted early Slavs as a heroic and proud people as opposed to degenerate Byzantines and devious and aggressive Khazars.
The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe*
See footnotes 51, 52 & 53
ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatians
Certainly, if the Sarmatian presence seems to have been assimilated within the large East Slavic world, they must have added something to the genetic DNA structure of the Slavic inhabitants of this area?
Also, I’ve been hunting to obtain a book written by a Ukrainian historian, Oleksandr Pali, entitled “The Key to the History of Ukraine” where its main thesis is that there was indeed a large Slavic/Sarmatian coalition within Ukraine in early historic times. I haven’t been able to locate this book and would be very interested in finding it?
I have seen before Vasilyevs art, and in my opinion mostly tasteless kitch, his works resemble surprisingly much cheap western fantasy art during the 80s or 70s with fascist vibe or spicing.
Indeed, Vassilliyev appears to have been a very talented painter, with his attention to detail some of his work remind me of Ukraine’s current artistic phenom, Ivan Marchuk, as in this painting of Vassiliyev’s:
While scientific and legal English come across as a bit stilted versus conversational English, you can write things that are 100% precise and unambiguous. Some languages, especially in Asia, have almost insurmountable hurdles to this type of precision.
Which languages specifically and how do you know that? Do you speak any other languages or have a passing familiarity with them?
Someone once explained the relationship between Putin and Steven Seagal to me as being based on the similarity of Judo to Aikido, but I think Putin is really just trolling Americans about their lack of culture, like that Russian minister who says he likes Pollock and Dr. Dre (or some other rapper.)
Appreciation of art is always subjective. We have to remember that the “official ” Soviet art until the 60ies was Socialist Realism. Vassiliyev’s works clearly stepped outside of the official boundaries. Vassiliev died young and did not have time to completely develop his talents. I find some of his works quite good. Anyway, he was a Surrealist painter so he did not need being realistic. I think he tried to capture the Archetypal representations of Slavic culture and Rus history. I respect him for that.
Are you sure that is her? I don’t think people of that generation had tattoos (look at the girl’s raised hand) and the guy in the back doesn’t like like he is from the late 70s/early 80s. It looks like a recent picture of other people.
That having been said, now I recall that Sylenko did emphasize Jews doing bad deeds in Ukraine and how bad it was for Ukrainians to abandon their own Gods in order to follow a Jewish Messiah.
I found this about Katherine Yushchenko growing up in a Dazhboh-worshipping family (in Russian):
Don’t forget that she was probably a tri-lateralst, Bilderberger, Rothschildan Illuminati/Masonic agent too totally funded by Soros. It must have been her childhood upgringing as a RUNvirist that prepared her fully for her momentous role in Ukraine’s history. I feel cheated that the movement didn’t really take-off much in Minneapolis. 🙂
Good, maybe Habsburg rule left you Galicians with some artistic sensibility, unlike other Rus on this site who seem to like hyperemotional and sensational propaganda masquerading as art. Just joking….
Excuse me Ano4 archetypal representation of Slavic… what the hell, by mimicking fascist propaganda and dungeon and dragons art of the 70s? His use of colours and contrasts is like from Saddam Husseins favorite artist, dont remember the name… And no one demanded any realism from him. Wheres the surrealism by the way? Cheap fantasy art does not equal surreal art. Yes he could have been an excellent book cover artist for cheap fantasy fiction. Alphonse Mucha tried to capture the archetypes of Slavic culture, but he too failed, the man you are looking is Ivan Bilibin, his art expresses the archetypes and allegories of the Russian soul.
I think Putin is really just trolling Americans about their lack of culture, like that Russian minister who says he likes Pollock and Dr. Dre (or some other rapper.)
Do you mean Vladislav Surkov?
The only things that interest me in the U.S. are Tupac Shakur, Allen Ginsberg, and Jackson Pollock. I don’t need a visa to access their work. I lose nothing.
Putin often plays games with his foreign counterparts so it is harder to know, but Surkov was reportedly that kind of type even as a student (pink hair and listening to Pink Floyd), so I think he is genuine. He also produces various forms of countercultural art.
His most recent work:
“You could almost fit a person’s entire life in a poem like this,” said Russia’s monthly literary magazine Russky Pioner (Russian Pioneer), which published Surkov’s poem in its September issue.
To be honest, he reminds me somewhat of Dmitry. Both Russian part-Jews and having the similar far-too-serious interpretations of and taste for degenerate modern American art and life.
Oh we still have quite an obsession with bones and burial places, many monks have Tantric musical instruments made from leg bone and Skull cups are quite common in the monasteries. Among other things…. like carved skulls or dresses made from bones… our holy relics… et cetera….
To be honest, he reminds me somewhat of Dmitry. Both Russian part-Jews and having the similar far-too-serious interpretations of and taste for degenerate modern American art and life.
This was given to the US to commemorate the losses of September 11. Some thought it was a not so subtle insult. In truth, he is just a horrendous artist.
Chumachenko briefly headed the bigoted, anti-Russian pro-Bandera, Captive Nations Committee, when she was in her early twenties and at a time when she said some stupidly inaccurate anti-Russian views.
Yes. It was Dmitry who mentioned him originally, I believe. (And I believe he also likes Tupac) I thought it was a brilliant troll, but am disquieted by the poetry. Even though it is doggerel, it seems to be too much effort to be a troll. And what sort of young man ever dyes his hair pink?
And yet it is hard for me to believe that anyone really likes Pollock.
I dont like his art, but he clearly had a potential to grow and improve, I must acknowledge. Maybe his overtly sensational style was his way to react to the stagnation and greyness of late Brezhnev era?
I can’t attest for the authenticity of the photo, but that’s the way it was presented within the internet. You have a good point about the tattoo on her arm (you must have good eyesight). There’s plenty of information about the Chumachenkos friendship with Sylenko that you can find on the webosphere in Ukrainian. I don’t know that katherine continued in her RUNvira faith into adulthood, but she did seem to be sympathetic to Lev’s condition and was instrumental in getting him back to Ukraine around 2008 after he had a debilitating stroke. Taken from the BBC:
Учитель Силенко минулого року переніс інсульт. Лікування в США досить дороге і я звернулася в Україні до Катерини Ющенко з проханням допомогти госпіталізувати і полікувати вчителя, на що я отримала позитивну відповідь”.
Sometimes you guys seem rather stiff to me in your appreciation of more modernist trends in Art. If it’s not a renaissance masterpiece, it immediately gets relegated to the second hand heap of art…
Art has always evolved, one should try to learn to appreciate at least some of the modernist trends (says one who rarely has anything positive to say about modernist filmmaking). 🙂
I thought it was a brilliant troll, but am disquieted by the poetry. Even though it is doggerel, it seems to be too much effort to be a troll.
He is also known for Rock song lyrics and dingy novellas.
Close to Zero is the tale of a Russian publisher operating in a murky political system featuring paid-off media, corrupt officials, dubious politicians and law enforcement agencies on the take.
The short novel was published last month and passed unnoticed until yesterday [2009], when a newspaper reported that its author was none other than the Kremlin’s chief political strategist Vladislav Surkov, writing under a pseudonym.
[…]
In the novel, which advertised itself as gangster fiction, the main character Yegor Samokhodov orders a poet to write verse in the name of the regional governor to make the official look clever and win an award. Samokhodov, a publisher who does a sideline in political public relations, then tries to bribe a female journalist at an opposition newspaper to “correct” stories about damage to children’s health from a toxic chemical factory owned by the governor’s relative.
Fact or fiction?
The events portrayed are everyday fare in Russia, where local media sometimes take money in return for favourable coverage and those in power believe they can bribe or bully their way to victory in almost any situation.
A source at the Russky Pioner magazine which published the novella confirmed that the story was Mr Surkov’s work. “Yes, it was him,” the source said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
[…]
Andrey Kolesnikov, the editor-in-chief of Russky Pioner and also Russia’s best-known political correspondent, said he had decided to publish the work because of its artistic quality, despite not knowing who wrote it.
“I received the text by email with a request from the author that he was interested in my opinion,” he said. “I really liked the novel. I am convinced it is a work of quality … for the author, it was an act of self-discovery”.
In one revealing part of the story, the opposition journalist Nikita Mariyevna tells Samokhodov she hates those in power – a “greasy crowd” of governors, deputies, ministers, security service officials and police. But the book’s hero replies: “It’s not those in power you hate, but life”. He goes on to explain that unfairness, the use of force and stagnation are just part of life and urges her to live with this rather than try to destroy it.
I am pretty sure that he died before completely developing his art. And you are probably correct that the Volkish and kitsch overtones in his works were a kind of provocation against the norms of the Zastoy period.
That was the time when you had to walk the line as an artist. Vassiliyev didn’t and some say that he paid it with his life. The conspiracy theory is that he was killed on the orders of the “Cosmopolitan” or “Globalist” fraction of the Soviet Deep State. A similar story is told about the death of Igor Talkov.
Whether it is true or not is hard to tell, but Vassyliev died just at the moment when he started being known around USSR.
Anyway, for those who are not aware of the fact that Soviet Deep State also had its Globalists (not internationalists, but Club of Rome affiliated people):
There are many masterpieces of modern art, like art of Francis Bacon, but what evolution there is in kitsch? I think that many Baroque Catholic artists were too melodramatic and emotional, but at least they mastered the highly emotionally charged style.
Feel free to whip up your Jack Chick cartoon collection and start another subthread why Catholic church is satanic, anything is better than the never ending Ukrainian, Balkan or Caucasian debates 🙂
Oh you were serious, I thought that you were just joking last time when you replied to me that I shouldnt try to communicate with demons.
Its very wrong of British Museum to even hold such exhibitions, of course they seem demonic when taken out of their context. I dont know what you have seen, Buddhist secret practices or so called path of Hidden Mantra and Hindu Tantra is a huge topic with thousands of traditions and lineages. If you are just shocked from bones, then its your problem, whats wrong with bones?
Curious to know just what exact “stupid and inaccurate anti-Russian views” she proposed while heading the “bigoted anti Russian pro-Bandera, Captive Nations Committee”?
I agree that the Balkan and Caucasian debates are totally out of place here, but haven’t you heard that Ukrainians are in fact really “Little Russians” and therefore deserve a place at the table here, at a “Russian blog”? 🙂
Chandeliers and gothic arches made of human bones via Roman Catholicism is much trendier!
I can’t attest for the authenticity of the photo, but that’s the way it was presented within the internet.
Image search on google shows it’s almost always posted on anti-Ukrainian Russian nationalist websites. So a fake.
The tattoo is an easy giveaway. No way some white middle-class girl in the late 1970s would have her lower arm covered in tattoos (or, indeed, have any tattoos). It’s a double-giveaway: tattoos in that location are often used to cover up wrist-cutting. Wrist-cutting wasn’t as popular among young people in the late 1970s as it is now.
The hair, glasses, clothes on the people also don’t match the late 1970s era at all.
And FWIW Yat meant gate or water passage in Mercian English. Symonds Yat, a village name along the river Wye in Herefordshire is an example. It controled the main route through rapids.
-gate such as Meiklgate (Big Street) means street in Northern English dialects influenced by Danish. My favourite is Gallowgate in Durham City.
Penned a piece suggesting that blaming Russia/Russians for Communism is legit on account of no strong Russian anti-Communist movement. Not true for several decades following the end of the Russian Civil War. As time progressed, the newer generations born outside Russia became prone to losing some of that zest, while often times marrying another ethnicity.
Another matter had to do with anti-Russian/anti-Communist groups likely to be better received by folks connected with NGO type of aid. This holds true to this day. Some nasty anti-Russian/non-Russian nationalist types have found some headway in such instances (Soros included), as pro-Russian/anti-Communist stances don’t get the same outside support.
Really curious about that Chumachenko photo you posted. Were that someone of a Russian nationalist variant, in that salute pose and armband, who became the spouse of a high ranking Russian official, the Ioffes and Gessens would be going bonkers.
I appreciate your stance and ability to clearly articulate your preferences. As you point out, some modern art is accessible and interesting, and other is not. I too find a lot of the “way out” avant guard like what Pollock represents in painting or Sun Rae does to jazz music to be too grating to enjoy.
If I could recommend a jazz musician for you to listen to, it would be Chick Corea, A truly cutting edge and creative artist, whose been around for a long time now.
That Chumachenko’s biggest crime while working for the Captive Nations Committee was conflating communism with Russia doesn’t really shock me, for she was involved during the height of the cold war. She certainly wasn’t unique here with her views, as most Western pundits held similar positions.
Sure, we can step step back today and point out some inconsistencies in this blanket approach, but overall I don’t think that she wa too far off. It’s unfortunate but true, that Russia was the first big prize for the Bolsheviks to win, before this cancer spread to other countries.
Going back awhile, I’ve made it point tell neocon anti-Russian leaning folks (often but not only Jews) that blaming Russians for Communism isn’t so far removed from the Judeo-Bolshevism emphasis.
Nazism couldn’t have succeeded to the degree it did without many non-Germans. Ditto Communism not being a Russian monopoly. Some Western based/articulated ideals meshed, with someone (Lenin), who wasn’t a Russian patriot.
Now that you mention it a gate is a passage, a door, which is also connected on the semiotic level.
Anyway, the last time (if ever) most Europeans spoke mutually intelligible dialects was probably at the end of the Unetice culture period. It was probably the last time they also had a common religious tradition. Sad that they didn’t have a script then.
I sometimes think that someone should use a bioinformatics type of approach to compare different Indo-European and Indo-Iranian languages and deduce their LUCA. Perhaps reconstruct the language.
OTOH, what for? Not sure that much people are truly interested at finding out what languages their ancestors have spoken.
A lot of crazy ideas were in the air after the Perestroika.
But even before that, from 1975 to 1985, there were also some unorthodox thinking among Soviet Nomenklatura and Deep State. It is impossible now to reconstruct exactly all the conflicting trends and tendencies, but I believe there were at the very least a kind of cosmist/transhumanist trend, a globalist social-democrate and a (pseudo)nationalist and somewhat traditionalist trends all competing for the domination of the narrative.
The “globalists” won, but they had to share the power with organized crime and the siloviki (criminalized Deep State). I am not sure everything worked as intended. Just like in 1917. Russian affairs never work as intended.
Bones make a great bouillon. You can also make a fertilizing biomass if you have enough bones. That would probably take millions of them. You can make glue…
Speaking of demons, Bodhidhama wrote that demons have the power of manifestation. But the locus they manifest from/into is our own Buddha Nature. That is of course a Cittamatra take on the whole “entity problem”.
In line with Power aggressively seeking to unmask individuals, on the basis of her hypocritically biased notions. This fact based observation explains why Twitter has done nothing against Evelyn Farkas and Tammy Duckworth for tweeting facts as lies, as detailed by yours truly.
These points are a respectful counter to the likes of Aaron Mate, Noam Chomsky and Ray McGovern, who believe that Trump is bad enough to vote for Biden. Does McGovern really expect Biden to suddenly drop the foreign policy sources that the latter has favored, on top of the Biden-Harris flip flopping on several key domestic issues?
Demons in Buddhism? Its much more complicated than that. There are quite many kinds of malevolent or possibly malevolent beings in Dharma. There are 4 different types of Maras, then there are many different kind of evil spirits, ghosts and hell beings, although some masters say that the hellbeings are just a manifestation of ones mind in hell. Because otherwise how that kind of beings can ever gain enough good karma and get out from hell.
What exactly did Bodhidharma say concerning demons? Maybe translator just used word demon and not Mara, Rakshasa, Picasa etc? I have noticed that Buddhist masters mostly use precise and clear language, but often western languages lack equivalent words and translator chooses to use just some common western terms. This problem is especially prevalent with comparatively old translations of Buddhist texts from the 60s and before. But it seems to me that Bodhidharma was talking about the Devaputra Mara, for he resides in the “Heaven of Those Who Have the Power of Emanations over Others.”
Catvāri māra:
The four external and internal hindrances or obstacles to our spiritual progress. They are: 1) the mara of the (contaminated) aggregates (Skt: skhandha-mara); 2) the mara of delusions (Skt: klesha-mara); 3) the mara of the Lord of Death (Skt: mrityu-mara); and 4) the mara of the deva’s son (Skt: devaputra-mara), the demon of desire and temptation. https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/lam-rim/samsara-nirvana/demonic-forces-the-four-maras
We believe in Buddhism that the Kama or Kamadeva of Hinduism is the “Mara the son of the god,” devaputra-mara. The same being who challenged the Buddha before his awakening. Kama is by the way Krishnas son! Some gods can be extremely dangerous, more even than malevolent spirits.
Kent nationalist is partially right with his “dont try to communicate with the demons.” Its always a danger that when you see Buddhas or awakened beings that they are just demons in disguise, this problem is commonly acknowledged in Buddhadharma, we are taught to not to trust too much visions and apparitions, especially if we are beings lacking of merit. In this we share the Orthodox view of prelest, spiritual delusion, sober and calm mind is better than one which is is agitated and sees grand visions of Buddhas everywhere.
I am very grateful to you AP and Mr Hack, because before you two I really had what one can call as a Great Russian or Neo Soviet attitude towards the Ukrainian nation and I thought that all Ukrainian nationalists are just far right nutjobs. Instead you have made a good case for an independent Ukrainian nation even though your logic is sometimes not for my liking or too far fetched in my opion, mainly my problem nowadays is your strong emphasis on historical differences between Ukrainian and Russian nations, when in my opinion those differences have been relatively small in comparison to other great European nation states who all had feudal and decentralized origins, with many different regional cultures, dialects or languages, and even had extreme religious sectarian conflicts, like France, Germany and UK. But the question is off course extremely subjective. Still I must say now that thanks to you two I now understand better the reasons and motivations of Ukrainians desire for an independent nation and I am not anymore categorically against the independent Ukraine. Still no to Nato, thats the redline….. and shouldnt Ukraine just give up on Donbass, those people have suffered enough, its not even a gift to Russia, repairing everything there is going to take trillions of rubles. I have understood that most or all Ukrainian nationalists want to keep Donbass, and that you AP are an exception? I dont know Mr. Hacks opinion, he never seems to write anything about the question of Donbass.
By the way AP, if I can ask, do you really believe in Christ, like Christ as saviour and stuff, because you seem quite silent on that, except just expressing that you are an Uniate Catholic? I understand if its too personal question and you dont want to answer, people can be good without religion, if they havd a good ethical framework and morals, but I believe that self improvement is much harder without religion, after all individual must then depend on himself, and I do believe that only exceptional individuals are capable of that.
Or did I misunderstood your question, maybe you asked what Buddhism can give to non Asians? That ultimately depends on a person, but for those who take Buddhism seriously it will open door to liberation from all suffering, in other words it offers salvation, pretty basic stuff with religions, isnt it?
In my youth I was more of a cultural Buddhist, in those times I had no respect for Christianity, none at all. It was only after I got really interested in Buddhism, that I started to truly appreciate Christianity. From my fathers side my ancestors were Lutheran, but at least from the 1950s no one from that side of family have taken religion or Christianity seriously. Without Buddhism I probably would think that Christianity is just a meaningless and possibly dangerous relict of the past. But thanks to the Dharma I have now thought for a long time that only a (metaphorically) blind man cant see the therapeutic or healing truth of Lord Christ.
Its always a danger that when you see Buddhas or awakened beings that they are just demons in disguise, this problem is commonly acknowledged in Buddhadharma, we are taught to not to trust too much visions and apparitions, especially if we are beings lacking of merit
That was exactly the context in which Bodhidhama warned his student about the manifestation of demons.
Bodhidhama: The sutras say, “All appearances are illusions.” They have bo fixed existence, no constant form. They’re impermanent. Don’t cling to appearances, and you’ll be of one mind with the Buddha. The sutras say, “That which is free of all form is the Buddha.”
Student: But why shouldn’t we worship buddhas and bodhisattvas?
Bodhidhama: Devils and demons posses the power of manifestation. They can create the appearance of bodhisattvas in all sorts of guises. The buddha is your own mind. Don’t misdirect your worship.
Where is the ‘context’ where giving prayers and offerings to a statue of a demon with a man’s severed head drinking from a skull cup is not demon worship?
Surely you’re a fan of the great Soviet sculptures /monuments?
Obviously as part of Paris landscape, the Eiffel Tower is spectacular and beautiful at a distance , but up close it is extremely ugly, I would not want to live less than 5km away from it…. the great US skyscrapers from late 1910’s – 1940’s remain aesthetic from close or long distance.
I trust that you think as I do that anybody who gets satisfaction from viewing a nothing artwork like l’escargot by Matisse….. is an extreme cretin?
Seriously, why do you persist in pestering Anon4? He’s made it obvious here that he’s a family man and enjoys his family outings. His brand of Russian nationalism seems like the most intelligent form that I’ve seen expressed here. What’s your beef with him, Geraldina, not enough sheet music to keep you busy on the piano? 🙂
The question of Donbas is kind of a sticky one for me. When the violence there first occurred, I was up in arms about it all. After all, the region was first populated by Ukrainian settlers, and even today Ukrainians make-up most of the population. The Russian and pro-Russian settlers have mostly crossed over into the area from Russia over a long period of time, especially during Soviet times. I’ve known Ukrainians from Donbas that are very much in favor of staying put within Ukraine. But, as they say, “it is what it is”, and under mostly the persuasion of AP and his “Donbas is a cancer for Ukraine” theory, I’ve become more and more open to the idea, that perhaps it should be just cut off and left to suffer its own cancerous death. In reality, I would like to see it brought back, but what a high price to do so. It’s way too late for any meaningful plebiscite on the issue. 🙁
Another matter had to do with anti-Russian/anti-Communist groups likely to be better received by folks connected with NGO type of aid. This holds true to this day.
The problem is that non-Russians mostly don’t care about the anti-Communist struggle of some Russians during the 20th century, especially considering that it’s a matter of history of “Russia” now. There’s no way in hell Western/Liberal/Soros NGO’s are going to be sympathetic to the plight, wellbeing and cause of ethnic Russians (regardless of how “anti-Communist/Soviet” they may be), both past and present.
A better approach is to emphasize some of the most horrific episodes of The Russian Genocide in the 20th century done by the Communists (Jews, Latvians, etc.) during the Russian Civil War.
These include the horrific starvation, freezing to death and drowning under the ice of massive columns and convoys of ethnic Russians that as part of the White Army fled from Communists:
An uncomfortable fact about the Russian Civil War you would do well to accept instead of awkwardly whine about is that the international/western forces that supposedly helped the White Army were not genuine friends of the Russian White Army (especially obvious by UK royal family refusing to host Romanovs). Have you ever asked yourself why these “allies” never seriously supplied the White Army with arms, munitions and supplies (despite UK still bothered to use chemical weapons on ethnic Russians far north near Arkhangelsk and Komi) even though when the White Army captured Kazan it had access to most of the Russian Empire’s treasury?
Truth hurts.
Nobody of serious importance is going to truly start to like Russia in the West. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter for Russians because Russia is large and strong enough to be able to shrug things like sanctions off (not entirely cost free though) and capable of successfully, cost-effectively fight serious wars and wage prolonged geo-political struggle against stronger enemies (although Russia could improve its diplomacy and efforts to maintain influence among smaller countries).
I think our friend here is a Putler- worshipping Sovok. And he/she/it dislikes my take on Soviet history and post-Communist Russia’s predicament.
I can understand this. My opinions are not subtle at all: Revolution was bad, Perestroika was worse and Putin is not the Great Statesman a lot of people imagined. Russia is under a regime of corrupt siloviki allied with cosmopolitan oligarchs. Russian people deserve better. Russians have suffered enough and should have a good and peaceful living in their homeland. If that means giving up on geopolitical ambitions of the ruling elites, so be it, and the sooner the better.
Sunstein = I don’t think I need to explain further.
There you go. That explains why Cass Sunstein is so obsessed with “cognitive infiltration” and mind control over the masses.
In line with Power aggressively seeking to unmask individuals, on the basis of her hypocritically biased notions.
As for Samantha Power, Biden better not win because this bitch is going to be in power and as a hysteric believer in “Bosnian Genocide” and “Srebrenica Genocide” future prospects will look bleak for Serbs and Republika Srpska.
In general, if Biden wins a whole bunch of other officials bad for Serbs and enemies of Serbs from the 1990’s will stack key US policy positions and they will make types like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo be sorely missed.
Serbs will be in very, VERY serious trouble if Biden wins (His newly released Kosovo and Bosnia declarations are direct plans of attack on Serbs). The only ways out for Serbs from their current plight are Trump victory or a US Civil War.
Magnificent wit with the Liberace reference, I would have been proud to do the same type of joke ( I probably have)
I don’t know about this Israeli – Vietnamese creep Ano4’s family but I do know that:
His brand of Russian nationalism seems the most intelligent form I’ve seen expressed here.
Even by your standards Mr Hack, that is a staggeringly idiotic statement.
He is as much a Russian nationalist…… as I am a 16th century Zulu spear.
He is an obvious liberast who hates Russia and likes covering his ass in the most twisted way possible.
Even someone as foolish as you must realise if this creeps “nationalism” is acceptable to somebody like you…. then obviously it is because it is not Russian nationalism you dummy.
That you or anybody can’t even differentiate if he is into Russian nationalism or Russian ethnonstionalism is an indictment of the duplicitous,ass-covering game this animal Ano4 wants to play.
He is steadfast in his dislike of liberasts and distrust of “cosmopolitanism”, just read his latest comment #201. My reference to Vietnam was in response to one of your own, where you extolled the virtues of high brow culture on display over there (or something to that effect). Perhaps, Vietnam could be a bridge of rapprochement for you two, as you both seem to have an interest in its culture? 🙂
I now understand better the reasons and motivations of Ukrainians desire for an independent nation and I am not anymore categorically against the independent Ukraine. Still no to Nato, thats the redline
A reasonable position. If I were Russian I would opt want Ukraine to join NATO either. However recent events have pushed Ukrainians into wanting to join. Ideally Ukraine would have a strong deterrent on its own, without NATO.
and shouldnt Ukraine just give up on Donbass, those people have suffered enough, its not even a gift to Russia, repairing everything there is going to take trillions of rubles.
This has been my position for a long time. Donbas has provided coal and hard currency for Ukraine, but has been toxic politically and culturally. It isn’t worth keeping it.
I have understood that most or all Ukrainian nationalists want to keep Donbass, and that you AP are an exception?
Most do, out of a sense of outrage that Russia helped remove “our” territory. But this is a short-sighted and stupid idea. Why add millions of voters who are hostile or indifferent to the Ukrainian idea to the Ukrainian state? What good comes of that? Why does Ukraine need that? They will be miserable and troublesome, and the rest of Ukraine will suffer with their presence. Without Donbas there would never have been a Yanukovich presidency in the first place.
Also, there is a mistaken belief by any Russians that a person from Ukraine who considers themselves a Ukrainian (rather than a Russian) is a Ukrainian nationalist by definition. I consider nationalism, like other modern idolatries, to be an evil. It is not as bad as Communism because it is older and somewhat more rooted in tradition, but it is still bad. In a conflict between nationalists and Communists I will choose the nationalists. But nationalism gave Europe the fratricidal first world war.
Without being a nationalist, I do appreciate my forefathers’ traditions, language, and culture and would not want them to be snuffed out, I support their development. With respect to Ukraine vs. Russia, I would not want the unique culture and traditions of Little Russia/Ukraine to disappear and be snuffed out, like that of Novgorod, and for there to only exist Muscovy/Great Russia.
By the way AP, if I can ask, do you really believe in Christ, like Christ as saviour and stuff, because you seem quite silent on that, except just expressing that you are an Uniate Catholic?
Yes, I do, but it seems sort of profane to share such details of personal faith. I do pray and until COVID I attended church weekly. Our services are like Orthodox ones, liturgy is song by both choir and parishioners, there is incense, candles, etc. which I think heighten the connection. I find it harder to pray in Roman Catholic churches, they seem more sterile to me. But I also feel it in nature.
I try to be Christlike in my behavior towards others but of course fall short as do we all. There is a competitive, video-game quality in on-line squabbles and relationships which is okay, but I am gentler IRL.
In my family there was a tradition since the 17th century of the oldest son being a priest (our family were priests, merchants, and military officers). This was broken when we came to America after World War II, otherwise my uncle would have been the 16th. My great-grandfather and all the way down the line were priests with noble background (which meant that they didn’t worry about persecution or trouble from Poles):
But, as they say, “it is what it is”, and under mostly the persuasion of AP and his “Donbas is a cancer for Ukraine” theory, I’ve become more and more open to the idea, that perhaps it should be just cut off and left to suffer its own cancerous death.
Just to be clear, I wish no suffering upon the people of Donbas. Their suffering is mostly self-inflicted but I hope they find a good path out of their Sovok existence. It didn’t happen through Ukraine, let it happen through Russia.
Also, gangrenous appendage is probably more accurate than cancerous.
There are and have been Ukrainian patriots from Donbas but they are outnumbered, like Russian nationalists in Kiev. Let them each resettle to where they belong; this has already been happening.
The only ways out for Serbs from their current plight are Trump victory or a US Civil War.
This is an implicit admission that Serbia’s reliance on Russia is insufficient to safeguard its interests. As I’ve maintained for a long time (and got ferocious pushback from various serb bootlickers on this blog).
It is true though. Russia is too weak to be Serbia’s protector, and changes in the US administration and policies have far greater impact.
Let them each resettle to where they belong; this has already been happening.
But herein is where part of the problem lies. Donbas was originally settles by Ukrainians’. Great Russian settlement into the area occurred later. In the countryside today, Ukrainians still constitute the majority.
Russia is under a regime of corrupt siloviki allied with cosmopolitan oligarchs
If you decide to ignore the 10s or 100s of 1000s of arrests and imprisonments of siloviki that have occurred in the last few years, deliberately decide to not follow their trials just so that you can scream “human rights abuse” or then schizophrenically conflate fighting corruption now with mid-late 1930’s “Stalinism”….. then of course your BS is “true” you cretin!
In reality corruption is being fought democratically and successfully in Russia with extremely high power MVD, FSB, SKR etc. guys being arrested every week (from everywhere, including ethnic republics) . This is different to Banderastan where the only Ukrainian official imprisoned for corruption was….
Paul Manafort, LOL.
If you can at least dismiss the noticeably much less corruption from traffic police, in hospitals etc occurring because of development of technology with the recording equipment on everyone’s phones ( I would not because I believe it is because of democratic, structural evolution of Russian society initiated by intelligent decisions of authorities)….. then you have no excuse like that to use for the high-powered people arrested in Russia by own law enforcement agencies that they work for.
That is serious work, not the fake, ultimate failure judging from secondary effects, of that imbecile Saakashvili “fighting corruption” in Gruzia, which effectively followed the principle of PR and :
The best way to get rid of antisemitism it to kill all Jews
in his idiotic firing of everybody.
Cosmopolitan, mainly Jewish, oligarchs are a western creation/tool in Russia you dimwit. Putin fought, with huge political risk and longterm repurcussions, 3 of the worst and most internationally powerful oligarchs and won…. as did the revenues for the government budget and savings. Subsequent creation by side effect of alot of smaller local oligarchs, particularly in ethnic republics was normal , they are fighting against now…. and was significantly better for Russians than small number of Jewish cosmopolitan oligarchs controlling and stealing from the country.
BTW fool, how many state companies in Russia can you say are managed badly and become less professional ? Our postal service is approximately 5 million times better than compared to 10 years ago. Most russians will say that Federal government and top regional government work well for them…. further down they are trying to make perform better.
Russians have suffered enough and deserve better
LOL clown, WTF is “suffering” now? Economy is succeeding or failing now based on democratic merit…..not because of “corruption” or “dictatorship”, that is why our social indicators like crime and health and use of services etc are so much better now.
Sorry, can’t do it. I have temporarily declared for myself eternal immunity from moderation, just like in certain states there is immunity from prosecution
Look at the territory of the UNR in the Treat of Brest-Litovsk: notice that it didn’t include most of the parts of Donbas currently not under Kiev (nor did it include Crimea):
Have you ever asked yourself why these “allies” never seriously supplied the White Army with arms, munitions and supplies (despite UK still bothered to use chemical weapons on ethnic Russians far north near Arkhangelsk and Komi) even though when the White Army captured Kazan it had access to most of the Russian Empire’s treasury?
I most certainly know why and have explained in some detail.
On another point, I don’t awkwardly whine. Rather, provide the specifics.
If Power’s hubby was a WASP, it wouldn’t change my opinion of his views.
On your other point, tack on Susan Rice, Evelyn Farkas, Michael Carpenter and Michael McFaul. Antony Blinken is someone who I sense knows better, but has the establishment in mind, relative to what he wants.
All schools agree that ones mind is the Buddha or has potential to be the Buddha, Chittamatras differ from the shravaka schools because they dont hold dharmas as ultimately real but that they are manifestations of ones mindstream, Chittamatras believe that everything is mind, not in solipsistic way, but that all things exist only in relation to mind and mental faculties. For Chittamatras mind is ultimately real.
Madhyamika school which I follow does not make such statements. I dont know how well translated is your citation, especially if its from Chinese to Japanese and then to English, and the guy who spoke those things was an Indian man over a thousand years ago in China. Maybe Bodhidharma didnt spoke against worshipping of Buddhas but against superstitious and mechanic idol worshipping. Where repetition and tradition is more important than genuine understanding of Buddhas teachings and applying those teachings in real life.
So Agnus Dei should be taken literally? I cant take seriously people who worship a lamb god. Or if its not a lamb then but son of man whose blood you drink and flesh you eat, you sick demon worshippers. At least we dont practice cannibalism!
the guy who spoke those things was an Indian man over a thousand years ago in China.
In the first text where he was mentioned, Bodhidharma was described as a “Parasika”, only later has the story of him being “the son of a King from the southern India” been added.
If we look at the historical circumstances in the fifth century AD when he supposedly travelled to China (Hephtalite Mithraist and Persian Zoroastrian persecution of the Central Asian Buddhism), the fact that he was described as a “Tripitaka master” (therefore a translator of Buddhist texts) in one of the earliest Ch’an texts found in Dunhuang and that he supposedly went back home through Tianshan mountains, we might come to the conclusion that he was most probably a Central Asian.
Chittamatras believe that everything is mind, not in solipsistic way, but that all things exist only in relation to mind and mental faculties. For Chittamatras mind is ultimately real.
In the earliest Ch’an Anthology found in Dunhuang and in the Treatise of Bodhidhama translated from the Chinese by Red Pine (which I used for the citation in the comment above), Mind is the Ultimate Reality that a human consciousness mightexperience. This Mind is not personal, it is not limited by anything and it pervades the whole Universe. There is nothing beyond it. But, in the Ch’an Anthology it is also clearly stated that whatever the attempt to the objectification of this Mind, this attempt would only be a failed “vision in a dream”. Therefore, to avoid their disciples falling into the solipsistic contemplation of their own consciousness, later Chinese Ch’an masters used the famous saying: “Mind is not mind, we just call it such”.
Maybe Bodhidharma didnt spoke against worshipping of Buddhas but against superstitious and mechanic idol worshipping.
Yes, he mentioned this in his treatise: ignorant people believe that they will be liberated through painting Stupas in different colors, giving flowers and burning incense in front of the statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This might increase their merit, but this will not bring them to the Awakening and Liberation. Only witnessing the true nature of the Mind will ultimately bring them to the Other Shore.
Oh moving the goalposts, arent we? So now metaphores and allegories are okay?
Buddhists dont worship Kali, its against Buddhism to worship or to take refuge in such beings. Whats next? Should I now accuse Christians of worshipping of Allah? Actually it would be a less far fetched analogy, Allah is after all a cognate of Hebrew El. El means Lord and Arab Christians call God by the name of Allah. Calm down you Allah worshipper.
(I believe that Christian God and Allah are quite different, so these are just rhetorical or polemical arguments, no offence meant towards the Christianity or Islam)
Obviously just a sign of Biden’s senility, but if the Democrats seize power I hope they don’t “take care” of Biden and replace him with Harris too quickly. It would be funny if he did this kind of thing during a constitutional or diplomatic crisis.
She’s mother of the same Sikhs who destroyed your empire and are now pivotal in destroying your race।।
ਤਾਂ ਸੀਸ ਕੇਸ ਰਖ ਸਿਪਾਹੀ ਕਰਨੇ । ਕਟਿ ਸ਼ਾਸ਼ਤ੍ਰ ਬੰਧਵਾਇ ਸਿੰਘ ਨਾਮ ਧਰਨੇ ।
[And the Guru remarked], Adorning [unshorn] hair on your head, you shall be warriors, fastening weapons to your waist, and adopting Singh [Tiger] in your name.
ਮਾਤਾ ਕਾਲੀ ਦਾ ਬਾਣਾ ਨੀਲਾ ਪਹਿਰਾਵਣਾ ।
[You shall] wear the blue dress of Mata Kali [The Dark Goddess]
ਕਰਨਾ ਜੁਧ ਨਾਲਿ ਤੁਰਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਾਰਿ ਹਟਾਵਣਾ ।293।
Conducting war with the Turks you will kill and stop [their tyranny].
Bansāvalināmā, page 151, verse 292-293
Aren’t you a rotting pensioner whose knowledge of such things comes from Indiana Jones? Why not stick to your expertise on assembly lines and mops/toilet cleaners?
We don’t view good evil as separate as they’re part of the same cosmic reality.
Everything is will of creator.
All are part of Hari.
Destroying the oppressive white christian race is righteous।।
Do you really think that dividing up Donbas along ethnic lines would be a good long term solution for the area? If something like this were to transpire, wouldn’t it give adventurists on both sides opportunity to help “our countrymen to unite with our brothers across the border” A solution similar to the one in Ireland, although things have quieted down there for now…..
This is an implicit admission that Serbia’s reliance on Russia is insufficient to safeguard its interests.
The problem here is that Serbia basically has no alternative but to rely on Russia to safeguard its most basic national interests in the face of relentless hostility by the “West” since the fall of the Berlin Wall (and throughout many episodes of past history). Russia is what ultimately blocks “Republic” of Kosovo’s UN and international organization membership, supports Republika Srpska’s continued existence against campaigns to eliminate it (Russia vetoed a UK-US pushed UN resolution for “Srebrenica Genocide” to become international law in 2015) and has basically been the most important contributor to the restoration of Serbia’s military since 2012/2014 after domestic traitors deliberately destroyed Serbia’s army from 2000-2012/2014. Also, Russia is the spiritual, cultural and emotional center around which the national consciousness and hearts and minds of many Serbs (real ones, not liberals, political Croats and crypto-Croats) revolve around (although it’s unfortunately more LARPing than it ideally would be), hence why Putin’s incoming visit to Serbia to consecrate the opening of the Church of St Sava in Belgrade (never would’ve been completed without Russian funds and other support) will be highly noteworthy and trigger the hell out of anti-Serbs and Russophobes.
There’s also China as well, which is even more helpful than Russia when it comes to strengthening Serbia’s economic power, but it also helps nicely in strengthening Serbia’s army and complementing Russia’s political support.
Btw, before going to Brussels to negotiate over Kosovo, Vucic often visits Putin and Xi in Moscow and Beijing for their support and personal advice to him. Before and after this Washington “agreement” he consulted with Putin several times over the phone and according to Putin this was “at Vucic’s own initiative”.
As I’ve maintained for a long time (and got ferocious pushback from various serb bootlickers on this blog).
Really? Korenchkin and Epigon are on somewhat similar thought-waves with me. Maybe you’re referring to other commenters some time ago.
Or maybe by your description of “serb bootlickers” you just dislike the fact that Serbs are fond of Russia with good reason.
It is true though. Russia is too weak to be Serbia’s protector, and changes in the US administration and policies have far greater impact.
The reality is that in the Balkans the most important countries will always be the ones with military occupation and/or raw military force projection capability along with a willingness to do so, whether you like it or not. That’s obviously been the USA for the past 30 years and will be for the immediate future, but it’s inevitable that sooner or later other powers capable of force projection will become very relevant in the future (Turkey and Russia).
Here’s another map from roughly the same timeframe (revolutionary war period, 1917 – 1921) that you’ve presented, that was very similar to the one that I viewed for many years on Saturdays when attending Ukrainian school. It includes not only Kuban, but other areas that clearly would be looked upon as Russian ethnic territories today. I think that back in the day there were a lot of ethnic Ukrainians that also lived in these South Russian lands too (this would explain the very similar genetic structure of both groups in this area too).
Here’s another map from roughly the same timeframe (revolutionary war period, 1917 – 1921) that you’ve presented, that was very similar to the one that I viewed for many years on Saturdays when attending Ukrainian school. It includes not only Kuban, but other areas that clearly would be looked upon today as Russian ethnic territories. I think that back in the day there were a lot of ethnic Ukrainians that also lived in these South Russian lands too (this would explain the very similar genetic structure of both groups in this area too).
I assume you are trolling some of the “exotic nationalities” that post here. If you believed in demons, and were scared by such an infantile (albeit gothic) cartoon, that would be leaning towards mental illness. For a small child, or superstitious peasant grandmother in medieval times, it could be normal to be afraid of blue demons that collect human heads, but for an adult man? – symptoms of schizophrenia.
When I was around 9 years old, I used to draw pictures of things like flying cats or walking trees. The fact I could draw these pictures, does not imply that we have to worry about flying cats and walking trees on the walk to the office. Such cartoons are not evidence of real things, but of the mind’s ability to recombine shapes – “human imagination”.
Bones remind us of death, and what reminds of death brings a feeling of the uncanny and ominous, and revulsion. Ask any children if they want to be all night in a cemetery. Or sleep in a bed of someone who has died? There is a natural feeling of spiritual fear.
Sinister emotion which surrounds everything to do with death (even the image of the coffin is macabre), is in a sense of discord between our internal feeling of immortality, and the powerless and transitory reality of the life of our friends, family and ourselves.
Although to be sometimes reminded of death, – and the human skull is a traditional memento mori – is probably healthy for us, especially now, where much of our culture (especially the high level of organization in society which separates dead and dying people into hospitals) has become like the father of the Buddha, who tried to shield his son from knowledge of sickness and death .
Part of spiritual quality of Gothic cathedrals – the fact they have dead bodies buried into the floor.
And the depictions of “Danse Macabre” was to remind people to remember the transitoriness and superficiality of their life, and think of something more eternal than their trivial worries of the day.
From the little I see about Serbia, it seems somehow attractive to me – i.e. people who lazily defeated Islamic armies; partisans against Nazi Germany; created films with dancing gypsies like Emir Kusturica; and were crazy enough to build New Belgrade (which now looks like ancient shipwrecks from the future).
In terms of 21st century educated people in Russia – there won’t be much knowledge about Serbia as a country. I can’t remember learning about Serbia at school (perhaps through reading Tolstoy). And we had hours of history class about many other countries – I remember even a class about 17th century Netherlands.
But Serbia started to become fashionable with tourists from Russia. I wonder what kind of Russian (or other nationality) tourists are now arriving in Serbia? I’m guessing it will be a kind of hipster destination.
My parents visited Bulgaria for a vacation last year and seemed to like it. Perhaps they will want to visit Serbia as a next vacation into the Balkans.
From the little I see about Serbia, it seems somehow attractive to me – i.e. people who lazily defeated Islamic armies; partisans against Nazi Germany
Well yes, although the reality is that there was much more blood, sweat and tears in this then you could begin to grasp. The outcomes for Serbs and Serbia have been extremely unfavorable though in the past 100+ years, although I guess the reluctant acknowledgement of Republika Srpska’s existence in the 1995 Treaty of Dayton by the USA is a sort of recent victory (limited) against Islamic Armies (although it was Croat and NATO military force on the Islamic side that caused the situation to deteriorate for Serb so much and to sign Dayton).
Serbian society is also strongly divided between fans of Chetniks versus Partisans (there are several permutations of this friction) and nationalists versus liberals (political Croats, crypto-Croats).
created films with dancing gypsies like Emir Kusturica
Lol. I watched a bunch of Emir Kusturica’s films and I’ve never seen one with “dancing Gypsies”.
I believe with “dancing Gypsies” you may be referring to a different, but somewhat well known, movie that was famous during SFR Yugoslavia about Gypsies:
To me it’s clear that it was effectively Communist state “brotherhood and unity” of nations propaganda to make people hate Gypsies less for committing violent and petty crime against ethnic Serbs at ridiculous rates.
At any rate, Kusturica is quite a good filmmaker. He and his ancestors are/were proudly Serbs of the Muslim Faith that had to hide but keep awareness of their Serb identity throughout centuries. Kusturica had to leave the Muslim part of Bosnia because of this and the Islamist SDA party of Alija and his son Bakir Izetbegovic thrashed his home and stole it from him so he now lives in Serbia ever since. He has since then chosen to renounce his Islamic faith and has become a moderately devout Orthodox Christian.
and were crazy enough to build New Belgrade (which now looks like ancient shipwrecks from the future).
I would say more like dumb enough.
In terms of 21st century educated people in Russia – there won’t be much knowledge about Serbia as a country.
That’s because it seems like many non-Balkan people in the world have not fully processed the breakup of Yugoslavia and simply think Serbia = Yugoslavia (which is highly incorrect).
I’m sure if you referred to NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia in 1999, most Russians would immediately know what you’re talking about.
I can’t remember learning about Serbia at school (perhaps through reading Tolstoy). And we had hours of history class about many other countries – I remember even a class about 17th century Netherlands.
Serbia is definitely mentioned in Tolstoy and Serbia-Russia ties in the 19th century and first half of 20th century are quite strong and back then Russia was far more relevant in the Balkans then it is now.
But Serbia started to become fashionable with tourists from Russia. I wonder what kind of Russian (or other nationality) tourists are now arriving in Serbia? I’m guessing it will be a kind of hipster destination.
From this it’s clear that Chinese are the single largest visiting tourist group to Serbia. Tourists from destinations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Germany are mostly Serb diaspora. There are also quite a few Turkish tourists that visit as well because many of them are deeply curious about the Balkans/”Rumelia” and it’s an important part of their neo-Ottoman mindset. Vucic also made an effort to improve and develop economic and other ties with Turkey so that’s partly the result there.
I wouldn’t qualify anything in Serbia besides Belgrade and Novi Sad as “hipster destinations”. Chinese, Turkish and Serb diaspora tourists also don’t really count to me as “hipsters” either lol.
My parents visited Bulgaria for a vacation last year and seemed to like it. Perhaps they will want to visit Serbia as a next vacation into the Balkans.
Well, that’s up to them.
Serbia is unfortunately a land-locked country so there’s no coastline which is something they should keep in mind. Although there are still a bunch of nice things to do in hills, mountains and things to see in Serbian towns and cities.
You Indians are absolute scum, I find it bemusing why so many whites think Sikhs and Hindus are their allies when they’re utter scum like you in reality. It’s fact that you Indian savages frequently murder Christians, yet most whites don’t believe it they’re so brainwashed about your lot.
The British empire was far too soft on you Indian filth, if it had done the job properly you disgusting people and your vile “religions” wouldn’t even exist any more, you would be like South America.
Mr Hack, we are both attached to past glories of our respective Eastern Slav tribes. We value the blood and tears of “our people ” and care about “our lands”. In my case I have ancestors and relatives on both sides of the tribal divide (actually Polish and Ruthenian too).
We both care, but so also did the Wendat and the Mohawk. Where are they now, how are their lands and their people faring?
Both Ukraine and Russia are reaching a dangerous threshold in their devolution: center cannot hold. And antagonizing each other only accelerates their demise.
That is why all these questions about who took what land from each other and how important are linguistic and cultural differences among the Eastern Slav tribes, are non-essential questions. What is essential is the fertility of Eastern Slav women, the capacity of Eastern Slav men to inseminate them and the birth of healthy Eastern Slav children.
Demographics is destiny
If nothing changes, in a couple of generations the part of Eurasia where Rus tribes and their ancestors lived for times immemorial, will become a sparsely populated and resources rich territory to be milked by the global TNC, both Western and Chinese. A fraction of surviving Eastern Slav population might well have a decent level of income, but they will be 3 to 5 times less numerous than they would have been if Tsarist Empire survived. After a hundred years of tribulations, a lot is lost and not much gained.
Was it all worth it?
I don’t think so…
Perhaps it is because many years ago I read this book:
Hah our mr. edgy Atheist(?) casually diagnoses majority of historical humanity suffering from schizophrenia. Ancient Romans believed that there resided the genii or spirits in their statues depicting emperors and gods, many later Christianized Romans or Byzantines believed that those statues contain demons.
For us Buddhists the statues or paintings are just depictions of our mental objects of reverence or ideals, a way to make them to feel nearer or closer to us, anyone who has loved ones knows the feelings which will arise when one sees photos of those which we love.
Such cartoons are not evidence of real things, but of the mind’s ability to recombine shapes – “human imagination”.
What else our imagi-nation is than imagined images? Quite maximalist of you to claim that our imagination has no bearing on reality? Or what did you mean? Because your childhood paintings were meaningless and senseless it somehow means that all paintings are meaningless and senseless and have no power upon reality? That very much depends on particular individual and how one perceives the reality. I myself try to avoid such universalist claims.
Although to be sometimes reminded of death, – and the human skull is a traditional memento mori – is probably healthy for us
Thats mainly the reason for all the bones and skulls. To be reminded of the mans transient nature. They are not a dominant theme of our temples nor our religion. Also traditionally holy men or priestly caste have been the caretakers of cemeteries or charnel grounds throughout the history. In most cultures at least.
Sad that people here think that you are representative of Sikhism, with your “death to the white race,” postings you sound like a BLM activist both in steroids and meth. You probably belong to one of those strange Hindu-Sikh syncretic sects that try to install Hindu statues in the Gurudwaras. The Akaali Sikhs, the true Khalsa drove you out of their temples long time ago, or maybe you are those odd Vaishnavite Sikh hybrids. Maybe, because for you Vishnu seems to be quite important. True Siks are monotheists and never ever they worship Kali. You very well know the battle cry of Sikhs, Ek Onkar, God is one, God is supreme, a true Sikh puts his faith in thr highest god and knows that only he is the true guide and only he is infallible. Some Sikhs believe that Hindu Gods are aspects of the highest, but still in Sikhism one should never worship individual attributes or aspects of most high one separately, but worship God as an united whole.
I think you are funny and that you give some Masala spice to the commenting section, but clearly some people take you too seriously and for them you are tarnishing the reputation of the Sikhis.
Many westerners wrongfully think that Hinduism is an unified tradition, in actuality its just a category for different Indic religions, who share some common religious terminology. Although most Hindu sects do claim that the Vedas are definite and authoritative, in reality later Puranas, different Hindu Sutras and Tantric manuals are much more important for them.
About 20-25% of Hindus are follower of Shaktism, they unironically believe that God is female or that the most highest absolute creative principle of reality is feminine. For those Shakti Hindus Kali is very important, but for many Hindus she is often just a depiction of destructive and chaotic female energy. We must remember that many Hindus believe that Godhead contains all differents apects of reality, the totality of existence, so by that logic its quite understandable to have a goddess like Kali among other strange gods, like gods or goddesses of pestilence, diseases, wars etc… I mean that its understandable from a pantheistic/panentheistic point of view.
A Chinese expert on cold war, post cold war in the 90s.
All the wars in eastern Europe, in North Africa, in the middle East. The ones we thought was for the benefit of Israel and Jews. Was in fact for the benefit of the dollar vs euro. The wars effectively killed off euro expansion for 3 decades now.
Dollar vs Euro formed after both competed fiercely in gobbling up the assets of the collapsed USSR.
That was a fascinating even with my limited Mandarin. I had to ask my local Chinese restaurant guy for help. Lol. He enjoyed it too.
I’ve long maintained that religion in places like Serbia is a superficial identity rather than serious piety. A longing for a national identity to set yourself apart from your neighbours. Deep down, the social mores are quite liberal. Even places like Albania are becoming far more open than they were 20-30 years ago.
Same is true with Turkey, and of course the continued fertility decrease across the Arab world, the increase in women’s representation in their parliaments, higher share of women in universities etc.
That they demonstrated that one Englishman, for the purposes of conquering India, is superior to about 1000 Sikhs? That they effectively conquered the whole place, and Sikhs didn’t have the werewithal to hold it together, even after extensive military tutelage?
Stop crying like a fag over unrequited love, and conquer Pakistan! BTW, if you did that, you’d still need to do a lot to equal the English! Better get started now! Sikh fertility means that time is running out! And I don’t know if your mulatto children will be up to it!!! (Harris seems to be a whore, rather than a fighter.)
I’m glad that people like you so easily fall for Balkanoid PR stunts (although that was extremely bad for Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War).
If you don’t believe me, Vucic just formed a new parliament and government in Serbia hence why this is even news (just go and take a look at who occupies all the truly important and relevant ministries: men).
I’ve long maintained that religion in places like Serbia is a superficial identity rather than serious piety. A longing for a national identity to set yourself apart from your neighbours.
Sure bud.
Tell the Serbs of Republika Srpska that religion and national identity are superficial and see the responses you get. Same for Serbs in Montenegro that are struggling to defend their church and ethnic identity, for Serbs that live in enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija under siege, persecution and terror by Albanians, for Serbs and their descendants that were remorselessly ethnically cleansed from Krajina-Slavonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo and Metohija that now live in Serbia/diaspora and etc. …
To universalize tell the same thing to Palestinians, Russians in Donbass, Armenians in Artsakh, etc …
Deep down, the social mores are quite liberal.
That might have to do with those “social mores” being violently enforced by Communists/Yugoslavians/Red Croats for 45 years (literally things like imprisonment for going to Church and etc) …
Even places like Albania are becoming far more open than they were 20-30 years ago.
At least this is one of the few upsides of the US military and EU dominance over the Balkans in the last 30 years is that Albanians are the single worst demographically performing ethnic group in the whole region. It means they have no future in the long run and a Serb victory in the long run is completely possible if Serbia can survive incoming geopolitical upheavals.
Liberalism’s long march continues unabated.
You sure about that?
Are you seriously an un-ironic believer in things like Francis Fukuyama’s “End of history” triumph of Liberalism?
I guess you’re right: a war on the subcontinent would almost certainly cause many more Indians to flee to the West , rather than return to India to fight for their people and civilization. Will the last Sikh to flee India, please turn the lights out?
Your lamenting for a return to the Russian Empire in the 21st century is unrealistic and at best disquieting. The general flow of world history has strongly evolved against this sort of governance. Putinism is as close a you’re going to get to this sort of thing, are you satisfied? It could be worse, it could have been somebody as vapid as Kim Jong-un.
I wouldn’t worry too much about either Ukraine’s or Russia’s populations being eminently displaced by marauding Asians or by others anytime soon. Both countries (especially Russia) seem to have formidable militaries to protect their borders and interests. Internally, at least as far as Ukraine is concerned, the populations although not increasing satisfactorily are homogenously Slavic as the appeal of migration is not at all uncontrollable.
It’s easy enough for you, a Russian, not to worry much about such mundane topics as “linguistic and cultural matters”, but for Ukrainians it’s a matter of surviving intact as a nation after centuries of intense Russification. If progeny of Ukrainian descent, born on another continent, can still stick up for their own back home, imagine how intense these feelings must be at the street level in Ukraine where it’s a matter of personal pride and survival. I’m quoting AP here, from a comment made above:
I do appreciate my forefathers’ traditions, language, and culture and would not want them to be snuffed out, I support their development. With respect to Ukraine vs. Russia, I would not want the unique culture and traditions of Little Russia/Ukraine to disappear and be snuffed out, like that of Novgorod, and for there to only exist Muscovy/Great Russia
Putinism is as close a you’re going to get to this sort of thing, are you satisfied? It could be worse, it could have been somebody as vapid as Kim Jong-un.
Whatever faults the reigning dynasty have, at least under their rule the Korean race and ethnos will last indefinitely, which is better than can be said for South Korea.
The same goes for DDR vis-à-vis BRD as to the fate of the German ethnos.
What’s the point of an ethnos if you’re trapped in a dirty, poor and backward shithole? Eventually, you will be swallowed up by more successful countries. And not necessarily militarily as much as culturally. It’s not a coincidence that US culture dominates most of the world.
North Korea can only hold out for so long, if you’re even willing to be that generous. After all, they are already highly dependent on Beijing, which sort of proves my point. True independence in this world is a mirage for vast majority of peoples, including the North Koreans. Only a tiny selection of states can afford that luxury and most of them are multicultural anyway (US, India and to a significant degree Russia). China is the sole outlier.
Chile has voted for a new constitution replacing the old Pinochet-imposed one, which made them into feudal labrats. Next year, a new constitutonal assembly will be voted in – a clean slate of people who will write the next one from scratch.
What impressed me was the role of Chilean women, demanding (and successfully getting) a 50% women quota guarantee for next year’s constitutional assembly. By contrast, the old and oppressive constitution was purely written by manoids (typical). Liberalism’s march continues unabated.
“Albanians are the single worst demographically performing ethnic group in the whole region.”
The Albanian demographic edge has been diminishing, but to say they are the worst performing group is to exaggerate. Besides, hypothetically if Serbs and Albanians both had a tfr of 1,6, Albanians would still have a stronger demographic profile than Serbs. Since Albanians have more demographic momentum, from past demographic, ie younger population.
Perhaps in the future, Serbs will perform better demographically than Albanians?
North Korea can only hold out for so long, if you’re even willing to be that generous. After all, they are already highly dependent on Beijing, which sort of proves my point.
I think it proves the opposite. Despite their geopolitical dependence on the PRC the DPRK is capable of retaining strategic autonomy and importantly despite their junior status remains ethno-racially and culturally unchanged.
I know I should avoid your bait but all real life Ukrainians, I have met, have been politically tired and apathetic, like “all politicians and parties are just thieves and scoundrels.” Outside of far right fringe most people on the street level in Ukraine dont share your sentiments, why else the majority in Kiev, Odessa, Harkov and Dnepro continue to speak Russian. I dont claim that those people are not patriotic, not at all, but clearly they do not fear for the survival of the Ukrainian culture. If they would truly fear for it, then they would switch to Ukrainian language.
Yes for majority of Ukrainians most important thing in life is daily economical struggle. Thats also is behind the success ofc Euromaidan, not the supposed inherent fear of the Russia. Most Ukrainians just wanted better quality of life and desired to leave their failed Soviet past behind. Often when there are successful major societal changes, its a sum of many different groups and movements, who can have very different visions and goals.
That is not because of their own efforts. It’s simply dumb luck (for them) that China itself is a de facto ethno-nationalist country, so it has no problem with those policies in its subcolonial tributary states.
In other words, it is not despite but because of their reliance on Beijing that they can get away with it. The illusion of sovereignty is hard to shake for romantics.
At first it was the Wild Lands with not enough surface water to supply draught animals for agriculture. Cossacks and Jews were pushed out onto this less valuable land. Some Cossacks mined coal to make poor quality iron. Then, wind pumps came and large landowners settled Little Russian peasants, not so many in the South East. Also Germans, Greeks, more Jews and other foreigners. When John Hughes arrived, he could not hire enough workers because the landlords refused to let go of those peasants wo were serfs. So he hired workers from St Petersburg and Ekatrinburg. They filled the towns but not the countryside. The independent coal companies mostly hired Russiansm even more than Hughes, so Gorlivka was Russian and White during the Civil War.
They are the last large proleteriat in Europe. They impose solidarity on each other. The pro Ukrainians have left or been silenced.
Plenty of people that I heard in Kyiv, from the center Podil area to outlying ones like Kurenivka, do indeed speak in Ukrainian. Have you ever been in Kyiv and heard what languages the people speak, or are you getting your information second hand? As of 2019:
On the left of the image you can see the general answers to the question “Which language is your native language?” The results are the following:
Central Ukraine:
83.8% – Ukrainian
10.1% – Both Ukrainian and Russian
5.8% – Russian
Every year, especially after the Crimea rip-off and war in Donbas, Ukrainian language usage has increased in Kyiv. It’s only a short matter of time before the Kyivans more resemble the entire Central Ukrainian population. https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/language-situation/
You know Philip, I usually truly value your input at this blog, but in this case, I think that you’re way off (kindly put, a pile of BS).
So, am I to believe that the movement that was hatched during the EuroMaidan has been silenced? Has Ms, Nuland lured them all to the US with a freshly baked batch of cookies and milk? 🙂
The failed faked sh*thole state of Ukraine is going from one farce and disaster to another as the (again placebo) effect from voting in Zelensky and his Potemkin party has collapsed, recession this year going to be twice as bad as Russia’s and Belarus and Armenia …. with the added shame of this toxic waste site of a state now doing an advisory referendum on allowing use of cannibis on the same piece of paper as some other far more essential issues………
but you want to waste time indulging in pseudo-history?
Here is the real history…. Stalin is Ukraine, Lenin is Ukraine, Putin is messiah of Ukraine, Chernobyl is GREAT legacy of Ukraine, collectivisation is beautiful Ukraine, Chikatilo is moral conscience of modern Ukrainian state.
I was in in Kiev last time in 2017. One does indeed hear Ukrainian in the streets but it is clearly a minority language there- I’d guess around 1 in 10 speakers one hears, speak Ukrainian; maybe it’s even 20%, but no more than that. Of course over 90% are capable of speaking proper Ukrainian and will usually happily do so if addressed in that language. Street signs and announcements in the metro are in Ukrainian.
In a lot of surveys patriotic Russian-speaking Ukrainians will say that Ukrainian is their native language, they support pro-Ukrainian language policies, and they can speak Ukrainian, but with their friends they will still more likely speak Russian. Most of Kiev’s people are like this.
“People” also includes political hacks and bureaucrats. Look at how this class of “diplomats” redrew the map of the Middle East during this same general period of time? I’m not saying that the map that I presented is useful today as a blueprint for the future, I only included it to show how different perceptions effects the writing of history and the drawing of maps. The area of Kuban had at least a simple majority of Ukrainians living within, that never made the Brest-Litovsk final draft.
I was there in 2011 and I almost never heard anyone speaking in Ukrainian. Not in restaurants, shopping malls, nightclubs etc. Bad that I didnt visit any local rynok, maybe there some peasants would have spoken in Ukrainian. But LvOv was a totally different story.
That is not because of their own efforts. It’s simply dumb luck (for them) that China itself is a de facto ethno-nationalist country, so it has no problem with those policies in its subcolonial tributary states.
Assuming for the sake of the argument that this is true, if American power is weakening relative to China’s then North Korea’s position with regards to domestic nationalism should be improving and be less willing to cave, considering that they didn’t collapse even during the worst years of the 1990s.
Or is the expectation that China will undergo Peaceful Evolution and thereafter turn against the DPRK?
10% to 20% is quite a spread. Perhaps, it’s 30% or even more?..I agree with the bulk of your observations though. I have a first cousin that lives in Kyiv who I stay with when I’m there. She holds a good position with a Ukrainian artistic cultural organization there, and speaks to her co-workers and neighbors usually in Russian. She tries to avoid this archaic habit when I’m around. 🙂
Kyiv is a very large city, and I’ve only really spent time in the center and in Kurenivka (where Ukrainian is heard a lot more than Russian). I haven’t been back for a few years, but would think that with the large influx of Western Ukrainians, the language preference has to be improving for the native tongue. Have you spent any time in the environs away from the Center in Kyiv?
I stay with a cousin on the edge of the urban part of the city. She came there from a neighboring oblast and speaks Ukrainian; her husband is a native of the city and spoke Russian but switched over after marrying her. Both are patriots and I guess they decided if anyone is going to change it will be the Russian-speaking one.
Most people who move to Kiev do not do so from the West but from neighboring central Ukrainian oblasts. Westerners are probably matched by easterners.
10% to 20% Ukrainian-language usage is more realistic than 30%; no way 1 in 3 of the people one hears in the city speaks Ukrainian naturally.
I haven’t visited nightclubs in Kiev. But walking the streets one does hear Ukrainian occasionally. I had a taxi driver who was speaking Ukrainian on his phone while driving. People bringing food into the city to markets speak Ukrainian. Etc. IUkrainian speech is uncommon, but definitely present in the city.
I consider nationalism, like other modern idolatries, to be an evil. It is not as bad as Communism because it is older and somewhat more rooted in tradition, but it is still bad. In a conflict between nationalists and Communists I will choose the nationalists. But nationalism gave Europe the fratricidal first world war.
I couldn’t agree more, nationalism and classical liberalism are just less virulent and aggressive forms of modern vices. Difference between classical liberalism and progressive one is like a difference between HIV and Aids, or so I like to think. Who knows maybe in the longer run Communism will be a healthier choice than the current far left liberalism?
Romans or Byzantines believed that those statues contain demons.
Of course, many historical societies had believed about demons in the past, and they were used to explain things that were not understood at the time – for example, epilepsy, was believed to be a demonic possession.
But in the last centuries, what we have observed systematically in the world, follows the laws of physics (or should be reducible to them by bridge laws).
Perhaps after we die (or before we are born), our soul will be in a different reality, where the rules of the game will be differently arranged, and yet still connected in some interesting way to the rules of the game we are currently playing. Perhaps there might be extraordinary supernatural creatures in the next reality, including blue demons with ten hands. However, to claim to have knowledge about different realities, than the one we currently share and can talk about, seems rather a hubris.
Buddhists the statues or paintings are just depictions of our mental objects of reverence or ideals
Sure, most would understand these cartoons are symbolic depiction of different emotions, passions and fears – states of consciousness, dreams, art, etc.
your childhood paintings were meaningless and senseless
It doesn’t mean that painting is meaningless and senseless. But the fact we can choose to recombine shapes (e.g. blue demon with ten hands; cat with wings; unicorns, etc) in our mind, doesn’t imply that those shapes exist outside our mind. Creating such creatures, is a mental ability everyone has since childhood.
edgy
Perhaps it was “edgy” in 1740s, when Hume published “Of Miracles”. “1740s kids” can remember this as a controversial view.
I.e. That’s around 280 years in the past – it’s not so edgy today. Our shared reality conforms in lawlike and regular way, without need of interference by demons and fairies.
To notice the regular and lawlike physical reality, is not to say that we have an explanation for it. A party of the mystery has been shifted onto why we have this lawlike, regular, physical reality.
A much more mysterious miracle is not the (never has been observed “miracle” of) supernatural intercession in the regular order of our current reality, but the stable regularity itself
But nationalism gave Europe the fratricidal first world war.
I’m a critic of this idea.
The major belligerents were all multi-ethnic empires. Started with Austria-Hungary – arguably the most multicult empire in Europe. Over 138,000 Indians fought in Belgium and France. France recruited 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans – where those African and Indian soldiers motivated by nationalism?
What allowed it to spread and continue was international alliances. The UK with France and Russia. Are those England’s closest blood brothers? Well, France is arguable on a genetic level, but the fact is that it was a longtime enemy, and not held in high regard by the English people, who had relatively recently been quite congenial to Germans on a cultural level, and quite scornful of the French. And the case against Russia seems even stronger. Germany with the Turks! England with the Japs! These alliances seem to have been elite-driven, rather than the result of organic populism.
One of the motivations for the war was gaining territories. Most of these were not contiguous, but quite foreign in character, filled with completely alien peoples – land in sub-Saharan Africa, or the Middle East.
Can we say that nationalism caused the war? On what basis? What is our control? That Europe isn’t fighting a fratricidal war today? Let’s not be facetious. Empires with ethnic cores are all that existed back then – it was the state of organization back then. International communism had not yet claimed Russia. We have no control. The claim that nationalism caused WWI appears to me to be unscientific and often politically-motivated.
Can we blame it on Serb nationalism? Well, Ireland had many rebellions, but never caused an international war (though foreign troops were sometimes landed in it), so I don’t think that is reasonable. Probably, no power thought that they could take Ireland and integrate it into multicultural empire, without England’s okay (which they would not give.)
How do I explain WWI? Elite dysfunction. Predicated on the political units of the day – the elite of Europe (meaning a broad spectrum of the upper classes) existed in separate, unintegrated spheres. (Even though, they had many internationalist tendencies, such as monarchs being avaricious of having new, nonwhite subjects.) They were effectively proto-globalists. Just as today (we must be parsimonious) – they had a very poor ability to forecast the future and to think about long term consequences (today: immigration). Their thinking was short-term, during a technological period, when industrialization allowed for unprecedented escalation. Indeed, one of the motivations for early Russian mobilization was that it was a less developed country than Germany and would take longer to mobilize.
Again, to put it into today’s context, now the elite are united in a common, integrated sphere – real globalization – but still pursuing a cataclysmically short-sighted policy: mass immigration. The technology of today has made escalation in immigration possible on a scale completely unthinkable in 1945 (the start of de-Nazification), just as the technology of 1914 made escalation in war possible at an unthinkable pace in 1914.
If I could recommend a jazz musician for you to listen to, it would be Chick Corea, A truly cutting edge and creative artist,
Interesting. I know and like his music…….possibly Herbie Hancock is at the same level in “cutting edge” and creativity? Maybe the main creativity for Hancock comes from him on the keyboard but for Corea it is through the interactions of a wider variety of instruments /musicians in whatever size group he is playing with.
Though I have to say much of modern jazz is not for me….of the modern performers I prefer stuff that has much simpler goals – the intelligent and skillful reworking on jazz standards by somebody as Diana Krall is more to my liking.
That’s funny that Chinese tourists are already exploring the Balkans, while it seems that Japanese tourists don’t go there at all. Chinese are something more adventurous in their choices, than other nationalities.
Tourism numbers are low though for Serbia, even in normal years like 2019. There is a very low number – 64000 – of Russian tourists… (e.g. it’s 24 times lower than Russian tourists in Georgia).
Of course, from the point of view of the tourist, this is an attractive thing that the numbers are still not high – with lower numbers of tourists, Serbia must be relatively unspoilt by mass tourism, relatively “authentic” as a destination, not turned into too much “Disney land” yet.
there’s no coastline which is something they should keep in mind. Although there
It has should develop a similar attraction as Georgia, which is now overpopular – cheap food, cheap wine, unique culture, warm summers. And I’d rather go to Serbia than Georgia, not just as Georgia was getting flooded with too many tourists.
Of course, many historical societies had believed about demons in the past, and they were used to explain things that were not understood at the time – for example, epilepsy, was believed to be a demonic possession.
However, to claim to have knowledge about different realities, than the one we currently share and can talk about, seems rather a hubris.
Hubris is the belief that reality is limited to the systematic observations of advanced apes and particularly by laws derived from them by their advanced ape brains and that everything in that reality must be contained within those laws. The scientific method is merely a great tool (the best one we know of now) to enable us to manipulate the physical world. You think too much of it.
One of my favorite passages by Musil, who knew something of science:
Science smiling into its beard, or first full-dress encounter with Evil
A few words must now be said about a smile, a masculine smile at that, with a beard attached to it, whereby the general activity of smiling in one’s sleeve was transposed into the masculine one of smiling into one’s beard. It was the smiling of the men of science and learning who had accepted Diotima’s invitation and were listening to the celebrated men of the arts. Although they smiled, it must on no account whatever be believed that they did so ironically. On the contrary, it was their way of expressing homage and incompetence, a matter that has already been mentioned. But one must not let oneself be deceived by that either. It was true enough where their conscious mind was concerned; yet in their subconscious—to make use of this customary word—or, to put it more exactly, in the sum total of their being, they were people in whom a propensity to Evil crackled like the fire under a cauldron.
Now that, of course, looks like a paradoxical remark, and any professor at a university, if it were made in his presence, would presumably retort that he simply serves the cause of truth and progress and has no other concerns: for that is his professional ideology. But all professional ideologies are high-minded. Hunters, for instance, would not dream of calling themselves the butchers of the woods; they prefer to call themselves the real friends of animals and Nature, just as business men uphold the principle of fair profit, and the god that thieves also take for their own is the business men’s god, that distinguished promotor of international concord, Mercury. So not much importance need be attached to the way an activity is mirrored in the consciousness of those who practise it.
If one asks oneself in an unprejudiced way how science came to have its present-day aspect (which is in itself important, since after all it dominates us, not even an illiterate being safe from it, because he learns to live together with countless things that are born of science) one gets a quite different picture. According to credible traditions it was in the sixteenth century, an age of very intense spiritual emotions, that people gradually ceased trying, as they had been trying all through two thousand years of religious and philosophic speculation, to penetrate into the secrets of Nature, and instead contented themselves, in a way that can only be called superficial, with investigations of its surface. The great Galileo, who is always the first to be mentioned in this connection, did away with the problem, for instance, of the intrinsic reasons why Nature abhors a vacuum, so that it will cause a falling body to enter into and occupy space after space until it finally comes to rest on solid ground, and contented himself with a much more general observation: he simply established the speed at which such a body falls, what course it takes, what time it takes, and what its rate of acceleration is. The Catholic Church made a grave mistake in threatening this man with death and forcing him to recant, instead of exterminating him without more ado. For from his way of looking at things, and that of those whose outlook was similar, there sprang—in almost no time at all, if one applies historical measurements—railway time-tables, factory machines, physiological psychology, and the moral ruin of the present age, against which the Church no longer stands a chance. It probably made this mistake from an excess of shrewdness, for Galileo was, after all, not only the discoverer of the law of gravitation and of the earth’s motion, but also an inventor in whom, as one would put it today, high finance took an interest; and he was, besides, not the only one at that time seized by the new spirit. On the contrary, the historical reports show that the matter-offactness that inspired him spread and raged like an infection. And however disconcerting it may sound today to speak of anyone’s being inspired with matter-of-factness, when we think we have too much of it already, at that time the awakening out of metaphysics to clear-cut scrutiny of things must, to judge by all the evidence, have been an out-and-out intoxication, a very fire of matter-of-factness!
But if one asks oneself why humanity took it into its head to change in this manner, the answer is that all it was doing was what every sensible child does when it has tried to walk too soon: it sat down on the ground, making the contact with a dependable and not really dignified part of the body, in other words, precisely the part on which one does sit. And the remarkable thing is that the earth has shown itself uncommonly susceptible, and since that contact took place has let inventions, conveniences and discoveries be wormed out of it in downright miraculous quantities.
After such a history one might think, and not quite without justification, it was the miracle of the Anti-Christ that we find ourselves in the midst of now. For the ‘contact’ simile that has just been used is to be interpreted with reference not only to the dependability of the part of the body that is involved, but also to its aspect of the unseemly and taboo. The point is, before intellectual man discovered his delight in facts, the only people who had such a delight were warriors, hunters and merchants, that is to say, the people whose nature it was to be cunning and violent. In the struggle for existence there are no philosophical sentimentalities, but only the wish to kill off one’s opponent by the shortest and most practical method. There everyone is a positivist. Nor would it be a virtue, in commerce, to let oneself be taken in instead of putting one’s trust in solid facts, profit being in the last resort a psychological vanquishing of one’s opponent, arising out of the particular circumstances. However, if one investigates what qualities it is that lead to discoveries, what one finds is freedom from traditional scruples and inhibitions, courage, as much initiative as destructive spirit, the exclusion of moral considerations, patient bargaining for the smallest advantage, dogged endurance on the way to the goal, if necessary, and a veneration for measure and number amounting to the most acute mistrust of all uncertainty; in other words, one sees nothing but the old hunter’s, soldier’s and merchant’s vices, simply transposed into intellectual terms and re-interpreted as virtues. And though by this means they are raised above the urge for personal and comparatively vulgar advantage, yet the element of primal Evil, as it might be called, is something they do not lose even in undergoing this trans formation. It is apparently indestructible and eternal, or at least as eternal as everything humanly sublime, since it consists in nothing less, nothing other, than the pleasure of tripping that sublimity up and watching it fall flat on its face. Who does not know the malicious temptation—when contemplating a beautifully glazed vase, all voluptuous curves— that lies in the thought that one could smash it to smithereens with a single blow of one’s stick? Intensified into the heroically bitter realisation that one cannot rely on anything in life except what is clinched and riveted, it is a basic emotion enclosed within the soberness of science, and even if, for reasons of respect, one does not want to call it the Devil, the fact remains that it brings with it a faint whiff of brimstone.
I think Hancock’s playing more interesting in the 1960s, on the acoustic piano in Miles’ second great quintet – before he went unfortunately to the electronic synthesizers.
For example, he would just play only right hand, and making stepwise shapes on different scales – “time no changes”.
Corea it is
Have you tried his album “Solo Piano: Portraits”?
In this album, he presents a talk about how Scriabin is the “father of jazz”, and creates some jazz piano improvisation based on Scriabin, which doesn’t quite sound good for me (he starts sounding like Bill Evans half way through the Scriabin).
Although I thought the more successful improvisations were ones like this based on Stevie Wonder songs
Started with Austria-Hungary – arguably the most multicult empire in Europe.
Austria-Hungary was a Conservative pre-nationalist entity (nationalism is an ugly product of modernity and populism, less ugly than what came later such as Communism, Nazism, or modern hedonism-consumerism only because it is older than those) whom the nationalists sought to destroy. The tragic self-destruction of Europe of the early 20th century began with a vile crime of Serbian nationalists against Austria-Hungary.
Over 138,000 Indians fought in Belgium and France. France recruited 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans – where those African and Indian soldiers motivated by nationalism?
These Africans and Indians are irrelevant because they are not the ones who chose war. The ones who chose war were the newly-literate masses riled up with their nationalism. The monarchs (neither Willie and Nicky wanted world war) were powerless, they were swept along.
The UK with France and Russia. Are those England’s closest blood brothers? Well, France is arguable on a genetic level, but the fact is that it was a longtime enemy, and not held in high regard by the English people, who had relatively recently been quite congenial to Germans on a cultural level, and quite scornful of the French.
Russia went to war out of nationalism using pan-Slavism, France out of nationalist resentment towards Germany for the lost war and territories, Germany out of its own nationalism, etc.
One of the motivations for the war was gaining territories.
Of course nationalists want their nations to grow in size at the expense of other nations. They will die and kill for the sake of their nations. Since I’m pasting beloved passages here is a great one from Celine:
It’s the philosophers . . . another point to look out for while we’re at it … who first started giving the people ideas . . , when all they’d known up until then was the catechism! They began, so they proclaimed, to educate the people . . . Ah! What truths they had to reveal! Beautiful! brilliant! unprecedented truths! And the people were dazzled! That’s it! they said. That’s the stuff! Let’s go and die for it! The people are always dying to die! That’s the way they are! ‘Long live Diderot!’ they yelled. And ‘Long live Voltaire!’ ….And long live everybody! Those guys at least don’t let the beloved people molder in ignorance and fetishism! They show the people the roads of Freedom! Emancipation! Things went fast after that! First teach everybody to read the papers! That’s the way to salvation! Hurry hurry! No more illiterates! We don’t need them anymore! Nothing but citizen-soldiers! Who vote! Who read! And who fight! And who march! And send kisses from the front! In no time the people were good and ripe! The enthusiasm of the liberated has to be good for something, doesn’t it? Danton wasn’t eloquent for the hell of it. With a few phrases, so rousing that we can still hear them today, he had the people mobilized before you could say fiddlesticks! That was when the first battalions of emancipated maniacs marched off! … the first voting, flagmatic suckers that Dumouriez led away to get themselves drilled full of holes in Flanders!… The free-gratis soldier . . . was something really new … So new that when Goethe arrived in Valmy… he was flabbergasted. At the sight of those ragged, impassioned cohorts, who had come of their own free will to get themselves disemboweled by the King of Prussia in defense of a patriotic fiction no one had ever heard of, Goethe realized that he still had much to learn. This day,’ he declaimed grandiloquently as befitted the habits of his genius, ‘marks the beginning of a new era!’ He could say that again! The system proved successful . . . pretty soon they were mass-producing heroes, and in the end, the system was so well perfected that they cost practically nothing. Everyone was delighted. Bismarck, the two Napoleons, Barrès, Elsa the Horsewoman. The religion of the flag promptly replaced the cult of heaven, an old cloud which had already been deflated by the Reformation and reduced to a network of episcopal money boxes. In olden times the fanatical fashion was: ‘Long live Jesus! Burn the heretics!’ . . . But heretics, after all, were few and voluntary . . . Whereas today vast hordes of men are fired with aim and purpose by cries of: ‘Hang the limp turnips! The juiceless lemons! The innocent readers! By the millions, eyes right!’ … Let whole legions of them perish, turn into smidgens, bleed, smolder in acid—and all that to make the Patrie more beloved, more fair, and more joyful! ”
Chick & Herbie both rose together through the ranks and spent good quality time working with Miles Davis. Both were hugely influential in the “fusion” movement. I like them both very much, but because, as you so cogently put it “for Corea it is through the interactions of a wider variety of instruments /musicians in whatever size group he is playing with” that he truly excels and I’d have to give a slight nod to Corea for overall importance and impact. I especially like Corea’s work within the Latin jazz segment of the genre too.
It’s good to see that you seem to have at least part of your head screwed on correctly! 🙂
Of course I thoroughly enjoy Hanchock’s input to the great second Miles Davis quintet. With his first flirtations with electronic music (Mwandishi, Crossings) and later with his two masterpieces “Headhunters” and “Thrust” is where he really laid the foundation for much of what followed (lots and lots of great stuff). Have you listened to the last two albums that I’ve mentioned?
I think Hancock’s playing more interesting in the 1960s, on the acoustic piano in Miles’ second great quintet – before he went unfortunately to the electronic synthesizers.
100% agree. I’m reluctant to make similar (but different context) criticism of the genius Oscar Peterson – because anything he did in the 50s ,60s 70s and probably still in the last decade of his life I would pay big money to see ……..but I would remark that I also think his playing in the 50’s and early 60’s to be his best musically – even though in the further decades his playing may classify to most people as achieving total technical perfection
Have you tried his album “Solo Piano: Portraits”?
In this album, he presents a talk about how Scriabin is the “father of jazz”, and creates some jazz piano improvisation based on Scriabin, which doesn’t quite sound good for me (he starts sounding like Bill Evans half way through the Scriabin).
No I have not, but many thanks for the link. I will listen to it.
Although I thought the more successful improvisations were ones like this based on Stevie Wonder songs
Ironic, because the last composition of Corea’s that I listened to on Youtube was Stevie Wonder’s live version of “Spain”. Brilliant …..and with solos from about 20 different instruments!
I’m unable to find any concrete data regarding Kyiv’s language usage and patterns. Since you’ve been back more recently that I, I’ll defer to your better judgement.
Of course nationalists want their nations to grow in size at the expense of other nations.
Based on the comparative sizes, populations, and locations of the territory that changed hands, it would seemingly be more accurate to say that imperialists want their empires to grow at the expense of other empires.
Anyway, the foreign minister of Austria approached Wilson’s government in 1917, before the US entered, with an offer of status quo ante as the basis for peace negotiations. And the US did not acquire any new territories. Perhaps, territorial acquisition was just a post hoc justification for the war.
The ones who chose war were the newly-literate masses riled up with their nationalism.
The newspapers were censored and full of propaganda. They were elite-driven.
The European continental powers had conscript armies. Trench warfare would have been impossible without them. Strictly speaking, many of the men in these armies did not chose war. Those in France had their terms of service extended, even before the war began. Deserters were executed as an example to others.
In the case of Britain, they had a relatively small volunteer army. By 1916, even with drawing volunteers from overseas territories, and even with the most vile propaganda, and even though they were not bearing the brunt of the fighting, they found the model was unsustainable. In the US, Wilson asked for the Army to increase to a force of one million. But by six weeks after war was declared, only 73,000 men had volunteered for service.
The end of the war was forced by the mutiny of enlisted men in the German navy and army. They chose peace. It was not the elite.
The ones who chose war were the newly-literate masses riled up with their nationalism.
The newspapers were censored and full of propaganda. They were elite-driven.
The owners were businessmen who emerged from the masses. Again, the monarchs were opposed to the war.
The European continental powers had conscript armies. Trench warfare would have been impossible without them.
Are you suggesting that conscription was proof that the war was unpopular in the beginning? You deny that there was a rush to join, parades, vilification of anti?
Deserters were executed as an example to others.
Sure. And murderers are executed in America, But the presence of neither type of execution proves that most people would would murder or desert.
The end of the war was forced by the mutiny of enlisted men in the German navy and army. They chose peace. It was not the elite.
They chose peace after the voluntary slaughter had run its course. Mutinies would have meant something in 1914, when it mattered. But the masses driven mad by nationalism wanted war, and got it.
Theres nothing edgy in Scientific Materialism, but to claim that majority of historical humanity suffered schizophrenia, thats quite edgy. Or do you claim that it wasnt common for people to proscribe magical properties to their idols or fetishes? Many people still do so outside of first world countries.
Perhaps after we die (or before we are born), our soul will be in a different reality, where the rules of the game will be differently arranged, and yet still connected in some interesting way to the rules of the game we are currently playing. Perhaps there might be extraordinary supernatural creatures in the next reality, including blue demons with ten hands. However, to claim to have knowledge about different realities, than the one we currently share and can talk about, seems rather a hubris.
We deny the existence of soul, there is nothing separate, fixed or having its own essence in nature by our reasoning.
As I have stated before, most Buddhists dont believe that mental factors, matter or energy will ever perish, they just change form, as we deny permanence of phenomena so do we deny the possible permanent annihilation of phenomena. All changes, nothing disappears.
You are probably the first one in my life who takes “ten handed” beings literally
Here is the Thousand armed Avalokiteshvara, he also has eyes in his every hand. Now do we take this depiction literally? Hell No! Avalokiteshvaras hands symbolises his immense compassion, that he will strive to help every being by every possible way, eyes in hands symbolises that his actions are always vigilant and conscious, that he sees the suffering of all beings and understands the chains of causality which have led being to a such suffering state of existence. That he always sees the best ways to help beings. Now do we claim that Avalokiteshvara is his own independent being? Of course not! By meditating on him and his good qualities, by giving respect to those immensely good attributes of his we try to awaken our own compassion, our own mirror like nature that reflects everything in universe. In other words depends on a Buddhist, you can take him more literally (especially if you are a poor farmer or a nomad, but even they dont take literally his depictions) or you can take him as a meditational deity, a goal to attain. By doing Avalokiteshvara practices and by meditating on him, we can gradually change ourselves to resemble him. But taking him absolutely or very literally and thinking that somewhere there is a guy with thousand hands and eyes is just silly!
Same with the third eye, no learned Buddhist takes it literally, it just means that our mind also has a way to see and discern things.
The question of different possible realities? This only good argument that you have. Yes I have no first hand knowledge about them. I simply put my trust in Buddha, everything that he has told amd taught oncerning the nature of mundane existence and nature of our mind has been personally true for me, so I have myself seen and experienced his wisdom regarding those before mentioned things, I simply believe him to be a trustworthy person. He taught that there are causes and conditions for our current state of existence, and if there are such causes and conditions they can be discerned and analyzed. Changed and transformed, bychanging them we change ourselves and the reality. Its simple as that. Actually there are very well done instructions how one can themselves perceive those other states or modes of existence, but one needs years of practice for that.
A much more mysterious miracle is not the (never has been observed “miracle” of) supernatural intercession in the regular order of our current reality, but the stable regularity itself
Maybe unstable universes are not very good for sustaining life? Simple as that. I dont understand why you bring miracles to this discussion? There is nothing miraculous in the Buddhas power, he is an object of mind for us, his power does not manifest miraculously, but by our own deeds and thoughts.
If I could recommend a jazz musician for you to listen to, it would be Chick Corea, A truly cutting edge and creative artist, whose been around for a long time now.
I checked some Youtube clips of him, my cursory impression of his piano works is that he seems interesting, thank you.
Perhaps in the future, Serbs will perform better demographically than Albanians?
Definitely.
The potential strongly exists there on the Serb side.
Albanians also fudge their demographic statistics to a ridiculous degree by claiming that 1.8 million people live in Kosovo (LOL). Just one of many examples.
You seem to be some sort of tourism expert. I’m clearly not.
I think a part of the reason why Serbia has low tourism numbers is, apart from the fact that it’s landlocked, it also has a “bad” or “pariah” country reputation because of the wars of the 1990’s and breakup of Yugoslavia.
Although many Serbs are a bunch of cucks that are desperate not to be judged and disliked by foreigners (pretending not to be Serbs, saying they’re something else besides Serbs or complementary or just giving up being Serbs all together etc.) because of garbage like “Srebrenica Genocide”, “Bosnian Genocide”, “Kosovo oppression” etc. I think this is sort of a good thing personally because income from tourism is overrated (especially now with lockdowns and corona).
Austria-Hungary was a Conservative pre-nationalist entity
Half-truth.
It was an empire based on the property rights or “crown lands” of the Habsburg Dynasty on different nations and territories. It was also a Roman Catholic and oligarchic tyranny that only had any legitimacy among its subject peoples’ during most of its existence because it stood in the way of the Ottoman Empire’s penetration into Europe and conquest of lands in East-Central Europe/Balkans. The weaker and less threatening the Ottoman Empire became, the less legitimacy the Habsburg Empire had to exist in the eyes of most of its subjects.
One of the few good things about the outcome of WW1, despite the wasted opportunity and epic fail by Serbs post-WW1, is that it is permanently gone and it will never make the first system of mass concentration camps in Europe, for Serbs, ever again (an untold story of horror, suffering, terror and crimes against Serbs that is mostly unknown in the world, even among many Serbs).
nationalism is an ugly product of modernity and populism
Wrong.
Nations, ethnic groups (ethno-religious as well), and nationalism existed way before the 20th century. You would do well to read a bit to educate yourself about the obvious common sense nature of this.
Although I guess this doesn’t exist in your “Ukrainian” worldview because you would have to cope with the fact that there was no such thing as Ukrainians before the 20th century and that Ukrainians are in fact really just Russians of the Roman Catholic Faith that are in deep denial about it.
The tragic self-destruction of Europe of the early 20th century began with a vile crime of Serbian nationalists against Austria-Hungary.
Before you write bullshit like this again, you should educate yourself about the basic facts of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, who Gavrilo Princip and Young Bosnia really were and what they believed in, the facts of Serbia’s May 1903 coup (it was Serbia’s internal affair of liberals and freemasons taking power, had nothing to do with an anti-Habsburg nature), Serbia’s internal and geopolitical situation from 1903-1914 and etc.
All your bullshit about the Habsburgs is thoroughly debunked in this book. It’s so worthwhile I’d even recommend it to Karlin to understand a few things about Serbia (one among a few other books).
You can’t be serious. The “role” of women in these “movements” funded by American billionaires and the deep state is to be actors.
Chile will go from a poor country to an even poorer country while it is looted by the West under the cloak of progressivism. Reforming any small, weak country under the era of the American empire since any reform will just be engineered by some American oligarch faction for its own benefit. Chileans will eventually find out that their natural resources and industries belong to American oligarchs and a small set of local collaborators.
Of course there will be a whole bunch of propaganda about it is amazing progress for women or People of Color or whatever that a few of them will get filthy rich while selling out their country and given that people are dumb they will initially be impressed with the hope that they’ll all get wealthy. When that fails to happen, people will get angry over the deception and rebel against the people who got rich out of the previous reform – but the Americans will already have invented some other recipe for “reform” and “progress” and they’ll restart the cycle with a new set of opportunists and a new set of gullible masses.
So the left are now rioting across Europe against the lock down, and the right and the “fascists” are being blamed for the situation. As I suspected would eventually be the case at the start of this pandemic/lock down.
Even in Poland the protests/riots seem to be against the lock down, the new anti-abortion laws has just given them an excuse to riot against what they see as the fascist, right wing government.
What allowed it to spread and continue was international alliances. The UK with France and Russia. Are those England’s closest blood brothers? Well, France is arguable on a genetic level, but the fact is that it was a longtime enemy, and not held in high regard by the English people, who had relatively recently been quite congenial to Germans on a cultural level, and quite scornful of the French.
England is a bit of a mystery ethnically, some claim the English are basically completely Anglo-Saxon/Germanic with a bit of Norman admixture, while I’ve seen other studies that claim most of the English are indigenous to Britain and the basic ethnic makeup of England has not changed for 8,000 years, and the Anglo-Saxons just imposed their culture and language on the indigenous British.
There’s similar disagreement on the English language too, some claim it shows no evidence of Celtic influence whatsoever, while others claim it shows clear evidence of being based on a Celtic substratum, especially grammatically.
The “role” of women in these “movements” funded by American billionaires and the deep state is to be actors.
Amusing cope. It’s certainly true that the US deep state has its tentacles all over Latin America, including in NGOs, media houses and so on, but the notion that the current Trump administration would want to boost a bunch of feminists is far-fetched to say the least.
The status quo in Chile suits the US much more, as it composed of a largely pro-American capitalist class exploiting the masses and selling off the family silver (or copper, in this case) to foreign investors. Washington would be nuts to try to disrupt a system that worked very well for them. It just didn’t work well for the people, as the ruling class was forced to acknowledge.
Chileans will eventually find out that their natural resources and industries belong to American oligarchs and a small set of local collaborators.
That’s already the case. As I said, the status quo was in the US interest.
England is a bit of a mystery ethnically, some claim the English are basically completely Anglo-Saxon/Germanic with a bit of Norman admixture, while I’ve seen other studies that claim most of the English are indigenous to Britain and the basic ethnic makeup of England has not changed for 8,000 years, and the Anglo-Saxons just imposed their culture and language on the indigenous British.
The truth is in between. IIRC according to DNA studies, the Anglo-Saxon component of English ancestry varies from 20% to 40% depending on region. So the English are mostly indigenous but also with significant conqueror descent. The ratio is similar to that of Central American mestizos.
It was an empire based on the property rights or “crown lands” of the Habsburg Dynasty on different nations and territories.
So Conservative and pre-nationalist. When Russia was conservative and pre-nationalist it too protected property rights, even of Polish nobles at the expense of Rus serfs.
It was also a Roman Catholic and oligarchic tyranny
Catholic, thus pre-nationalist. “Oligarchic tyranny” is a propaganda phrase.
first system of mass concentration camps in Europe, for Serbs, ever again (an untold story of horror, suffering, terror and crimes against Serbs that is mostly unknown in the world, even among many Serbs).
Serbs certainly paid very very dearly for the evil they brought into the world. I understand they may have been manipulated by the English but evil does have consequences.
The best Serb that ever existed, Tesla, was the product of Austrian schools.
Nations, ethnic groups (ethno-religious as well), and nationalism existed way before the 20th century.
Who said nationalism began in the 20th century? It began perhaps 150 years before that. It is the oldest of the modern -isms.
Feminine has existed forever, communes existed among primitive tribes, nations have always been around (one can call them tribes or whatever) but feminism, communism, and nationalism are modern ideologies, all are in essence post-Christian idolatries.
Although I guess this doesn’t exist in your “Ukrainian” worldview because you would have to cope with the fact that there was no such thing as Ukrainians before the 20th century
You manage to be wrong twice, in one sentence.
Ukrainians and their nationalism were simply renamed Little Russians. This nationalism (which was opposed to Great Russia but initially not towards the Tsar) like other nationalisms was first articulated in the late 18th century.
The rebranding began in the 1860s, not the 20th century. Already by the end of the 19th century there are existed a large political party among eastern Slavs in Galicia with mass following that was called Ukrainian:
Ukrainians are in fact really just Russians of the Roman Catholic Faith that are in deep denial about it.
Ukrainian nationalism began amongst Orthodox Ukrainians of the Left Bank and was brought to Galicia, where the native Catholics were initially Russophiles. Ukraine is about 90% Orthodox. It the mid 20th century western Ukrainian Greek Catholics shamefully larped as Balkanoids and slaughtered Roman Catholics.
Ukrainian language is rather far from Russian, like Dutch from German (it is not like Croatian vs. Serbian).
You flatter yourself by comparing yourself to Russians and therefore imagining that Ukrainians are Croats, given that you are basically an Albanian in deep denial.
All your bullshit about the Habsburgs is thoroughly debunked in this book
Your comical ignorance is certainly no recommendation for that book.
The owners were businessmen who emerged from the masses. Again, the monarchs were opposed to the war.
It would be folly to circumscribe the word “elite” around kings only. I did not mean to encompass them at all. And it is not tantamount to saying that the war drive came from peasants, to say that it did not come from kings. We have an elite today. In large part, they are not aristocrats, but that is hardly a public endorsement of their policies.
Are you suggesting that conscription was proof that the war was unpopular in the beginning? You deny that there was a rush to join, parades, vilification of anti?
Popularity in wartime is a difficult thing to judge. They didn’t allow anti-war marches, or antiwar propaganda did they? In a nation of many millions, with ubiquitous state propaganda, you will have some volunteers. During the Civil War in Spain, the Republicans received volunteers from many nations, but that is not tantamount to saying communism was popular in those countries.
A lot of the vilification came from people who were not expected to fight (ex: girls giving white feathers), and who were prey to this state propaganda.
And murderers are executed in America
In private, to a large degree, not with men in formations ordered to watch.
Anyway, your idea that nationalism is evil is too reductive. At base, even if we attribute WWI to nationalism (I don’t), then there are at least different kinds of nationalism. “Bull-dog nationalism” might be execrable. This is not equivalent to saying all nationalism is evil.
Attributing WWI to nationalism seems to imply that if it triumphs, it will inevitably lead to WW3. That no lessons can be learned, and nationalists are not capable of peace. It also ignores the fact that we have nuclear peace, and other political changes that have taken place, such as having more open markets.
If a thing is labeled “evil” that seems to imply that its opposite is “good.” That it exists in a moral dichotomy. Is anti-nationalism good? Personally, speaking, I don’t think I’ve ever glimpsed anything more evil.
By this point in time, isn’t it clear that constitutions are meaningless?
Or, do you think progressive constitutions offer some unique advantage? A base-level of progressiveness that can be moralistically exceeded, but which will never fall short? That is, that you can guarantee a feminist society, whatever women decide to do legalistically, with their power.
You state this as if it is a “good” thing. It ignores the many downsides of such entities. Also, implying that the Russian Empire was similar in nature to the Habsburg Empire is simply wrong and factually incorrect.
“Oligarchic tyranny” is a propaganda phrase.
No it’s not. It’s a very real thing and still exists to this very day. The USA is the best example of it in the world right now.
Magyar oligarchs/nobles had a very large degree of power over non-Magyars that they infamously abused and also used to coerce the Habsburg Emperor in the 19th century to bow to their demands/agendas. They literally held the Habsburg Empire hostage on many occasions.
evil does have consequences.
Yes, I’m hoping that you’re enjoying Russia’s ownership and intense control plus deeply intimate bonding with Crimea right now. Also, the Russians in Donbass resisting the Ukraine as well.
The best Serb that ever existed, Tesla, was the product of Austrian schools.
Again, Tesla was an ethnic Serb and Serb Orthodox Christian (his father was a Serb Orthodox priest) and would’ve been such regardless of whether he went through some “Austrian schools”. Also, the assumption that he is a “product” of “Austrian schools” is simply wrong because his achievements that made him famous and noteworthy were done in the USA, not the Habsburg Empire, with good reason.
Btw, Tesla never actually finished university (partly because he was obsessively addicted to billiards at this stage of his life) despite strong pressure from his parents and so he never actually completely went through “Austrian schools”, which strongly suggests his achievements/successes are a result of things inherent to Tesla, not “Austrian schools” and the Habsburg Empire. To a large degree, his achievements were actually despite “Austrian schools” and the Habsburg Empire, not because of them.
I believe Epigon also explained that Tesla would’ve flourished with a stipend and subsidies from the Kingdom of Serbia if he went there many threads ago.
Who said nationalism began in the 20th century? It began perhaps 150 years before that.
Why do you seriously believe the whole “nationalism is a product of the French revolution” and a “creation of West European intellectuals in the 18th century” argument?
Feminine has existed forever, communes existed among primitive tribes, nations have always been around (one can call them tribes or whatever)
Even you clearly acknowledge here that nations existed since before 0 AD and they have been a vital organizing principle of human society and many acted in their “national interests” way before the “modern-era”. Since nations existed way before the “modern-era”, obviously acts and thoughts in the interests of nations, nationalism, has existed way before the “modern-era” although Liberal and anti-nationalist authors are loathe to acknowledge it because they are insincere hypocrites.
1. Ukrainians and their nationalism were simply renamed Little Russians.
Do you have any proof of this “renaming” process occurring?
The problem with this assumption is that it assumes Ukrainians existed in an ethnic and national sense before they were renamed to begin with. The term “Ukraine” means borderland in literal translation implying that anything beyond attributing a limited regional identity has no basis.
2. The rebranding began in the 1860s, not the 20th century.
Yes, this was when the Habsburg Empire pursued the deliberate ethno-national-religious engineering of this population in its empire in order to crush dissent and sabotage Russia.
Ukraine is about 90% Orthodox.
Uniates that acknowledge the Pope are not actually Orthodox Christian at all in any meaningful sense. The “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” has also been playing all sorts of dirty tricks with its supposedly “Orthodox” orientation by partaking in religious divisions/schisms between various Orthodox Churches.
You flatter yourself by comparing yourself to Russians and therefore imagining that Ukrainians are Croats
The parallels are quite strong in many respects, aren’t they?
Otherwise you would never have stated this.
given that you are basically an Albanian in deep denial.
LOL.
This is probably one of the funniest things I’ve read in the past few days.
Your comical ignorance is certainly no recommendation for that book.
I don’t actually care whether you read the book or not.
It’s much easier for me to simply and quickly cite it as a debunking of your statements (instead of taking the time to do so comprehensively and in depth) you make along the lines of “vile crime of Serbian nationalists against Austria-Hungary.” which is factually wrong because it makes the false assumption that Gavrilo Princip and the assassins’ who organized this were Serb nationalists (not that you know what this actually is).
It would be folly to circumscribe the word “elite” around kings only. I did not mean to encompass them at all
Kings, bishops, upper nobles..
And it is not tantamount to saying that the war drive came from peasants, to say that it did not come from kings
War drive was manufactured by the newly emerged middle-classes (the newspaper editors etc) and spread among newly-literate peasants. Nationalism was a newly emergent idea. Until it’s emergence Europe had had a long period of relative peace after the cessation of the bloody religious wars that were the fruit of the Reformation.
We have an elite today. In large part, they are not aristocrats, but that is hardly a public endorsement of their policies
Sure. The USSR also had an elite.
Popularity in wartime is a difficult thing to judge. They didn’t allow anti-war marches, or antiwar propaganda did they?
They didn’t allow them in 1918 but looked what happened when the population (in Germany) really turned against the war it had previously supported.
In a nation of many millions, with ubiquitous state propaganda, you will have some volunteers
Are you suggesting that in most cases conscription was coercive in nature?
Anyway, your idea that nationalism is evil is too reductive. At base, even if we attribute WWI to nationalism (I don’t), then there are at least different kinds of nationalism. “Bull-dog nationalism” might be execrable. This is not equivalent to saying all nationalism is evil
Nationalism is a heresy and it’s fruits have been evil. As I stated, later idolatries are even worse. Nationalism is a lesser evil than the later ideas such as Communism, or hedonistic ultra-consumerism of the modern West, or Nazism. But the idea that brought about the mass self-destruction of Europe in the early 20th century is an evil.
If a thing is labeled “evil” that seems to imply that its opposite is “good.” That it exists in a moral dichotomy. Is anti-nationalism good
The opposite of nationalism isn’t something called “anti-nationalism.”
The “platinum plan” is just Trump’s election ploy. It’s remninicent of Nixon’s “black capitalism”. Basically a thinly-veiled attempt to boost the financial sector. Come to think of it, that’s an old GOP tradition. Ol’ Dubya did the same in the early 2000s with his push for minority homeownership and as a cover for allowing banks and financial institutions to lower credit standards, which they wanted, to increase profits. We all know what happened next.
As for global effort to de-crimininalise homosexuality, that was mostly driven by the ex-German ambassador whose name now escapes me. Very public LBGTQ+ activist. Sometimes you get one-man jihads on low-stakes issues and that was one.
Either way, you’re dodging the main argument. Namely, the economic one. Why would the Trump admin want to push for political change, even if you buy Jaako’s wacky reasoning about supporting feminists as a front, when the status quo worked so well for them? Are you seriously going to claim that Trump is a late-convert to social democracy? The whole theory is bogus.
Legal documents should be evolving with the times. I’m not an ‘originalist’, simply because it favors old prejudices. I see no reason to worship a document if it no longer fits its purpose.
Chile’s case shows that even if a constitution does fit its purpose – which was to minimise democratic accountability over the economic system – that could paradoxically in of itself be cause for overturning or abolishing a constitution.
The 78% of Chileans who voted to abolish the old constitution have a strong argument: it was imposed by a dictatorship without any consent. Why would anyone carry any attachment to such an abomination? The small minority who support it are largely the wealthy elite and the upper-middle class. The tyranny of the minority is just as big a problem as the tyranny of the majority, though we hear much more of the latter in neoliberal discourse.
I think the real difficulty in comparing England to France is that France is a bridge nation connecting Northern and Southern Europe. If we specify Normandy or even more broadly, Northern France, then there would be no contest. The English would be closer to the French than to Germans.
Damien Ma often points out that FDI into China is increasingly driven to capture the domestic market rather than just using China as an export base for the world. BASF’s €10 billion investment is a case in point. So is Tesla’s factory, which will have a dual-purpose but mostly be geared towards the domestic market.
And even for exports, the combination that China still offers is incredibly hard to beat. In Guangdong you have a small army of suppliers, meaning you can build almost anything without ever crossing the border (thereby drastically cutting down delays and red tape) with high efficiency and fantastic logistics. You’re not just limited to Guangdong’s labour force either, as the rural migrant workforce number in the hundreds of millions and are willing to move. Vietnam’s doing well but they just don’t have the same labour force size to match, so you inevitably have to source from multiple countries for larger projects, with all the headaches that entails.
India does have the size, but India’s productivity/beaurocracy problems are legendary. And India itself has been moving into a protectionist direction. Atmanirbhar Bharat is the slogan these days in New Delhi.
It the mid 20th century western Ukrainian Greek Catholics shamefully larped as Balkanoids and slaughtered Roman Catholics.
This is actually an interesting statement.
It implies that things like ethnic cleansing (an ambiguous term with many meanings and encompassing many things), atrocities, war crimes and etc are uniquely “Balkanoid” things.
The problem with this assumption is that it assumes those thing are unique to the Balkans which is factually wrong.
By that logic Jews and Palestinians, Armenians and Azeris, Pakistanis and Indians (Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus), Tutsis and Hutus, etc are all Balkanoid or LARPing as such.
I state this not because I’m an absolute fan of “Balkanoidism” (the term ethnic cleansing is a Croat invention) but because it’s obviously non-sensical for many in the world to pretend that they are truly uniquely superior compared to people in the Balkans (sure Albanians, but the others?).
Are you suggesting that in most cases conscription was coercive in nature?
I know many men who were drafted in the ’60s – it was not a formality. Many did not want to go, even if they were stationed in peaceful areas, like West Germany, and didn’t have to do any killing or face death. What young man likes to have his agency and time stolen from him?
Nationalism is a heresy.
Not according to Catholic theology. One’s greatest duty is to those who one knows most deeply. One has a greater duty to one’s family than to strangers. To one’s neighbors and community than to strangers living on the other side of the globe. The Church traditionally (not the Pope now) does not support leap-frogging loyalties.
it’s fruits have been evil
The end of slavery, serfdom, and internecine feudal warfare were evil? What are the fruits of anti-nationalism?
The opposite of nationalism isn’t something called “anti-nationalism.”
You’ve completely lost me here. Surely, “anti” means “opposite.” How can something be “opposite” without being “opposed.” You might answer that people don’t call themselves “anti-nationalists.” Well, seems like a meaningless distinction. Clearly, some people subscribe to an ideology which is “anti-nationalist”, whether or not they call themselves by that name.
If you are trying to say that people can lack nationalism (and that is the opposite of nationalism?) without being “anti-nationalist”, seems quite fallacious, as you yourself have been constructing arguments against nationalism, and by definition seem to be “anti-nationalist.”
Well, supposing they can (excepting your case). Supposing they swear a holy vow never to oppose nationalism – to never denounce it – while also opposing the ideology which includes anti-nationalism. How are we to judge them morally? Without nationalism, they are incapable of opposing anti-nationalism. If they are to oppose any ideology which includes antinationalism, then they must do so without the powerful tool of nationalism, and their opposition must necessarily be weaker. More fruit must grow from the tree which includes anti-nationalism. Is that a moral good?
You are correct, my comment was more properly directed against Hindus. The Tibetan artworks in the exhibition were not nearly as unpleasant as the Hindu ones.
Either way, you’re dodging the main argument. Namely, the economic one. Why would the Trump admin want to push for political change, even if you buy Jaako’s wacky reasoning about supporting feminists as a front, when the status quo worked so well for them? Are you seriously going to claim that Trump is a late-convert to social democracy? The whole theory is bogus.
This assumes Trump is bothering to direct policy on/pay attention to this issue rather than leaving it to autonomous American civil servants and appointees.
And the US has a precedent of throwing their allies/neutrals under the bus when things look bad (for a recent example, see Bulgaria) only to realise their mistake and fix the problem with a new coup/colour revolution a few years later.
You state this as if it is a “good” thing. It ignores the many downsides of such entities.
There are downsides to all political systems. Overall A-H was a positive force whose former territories are superior to neighbouring ones.
“Oligarchic tyranny” is a propaganda phrase.”
No it’s not. It’s a very real thing and still exists to this very day. The USA is the best example of it in the world right now.
USA has real and significant flaws but referring it to an oligarchic tyranny is indeed silly propaganda.
“evil does have consequences.”
Yes, I’m hoping that you’re enjoying Russia’s ownership and intense control plus deeply intimate bonding with Crimea right now. Also, the Russians in Donbass resisting the Ukraine as well.
Loss of these territories has been good for Ukraine and consequences have been fairly mild. OTOH the death of one third of Serbia’s male population during World War I was a very real, very horrible consequence of evil Serb deeds.
Even you clearly acknowledge here that nations existed since before 0 AD
Females existed even longer than that – yet feminism is a modern ideology.
Perhaps you are not aware of that either?
Since nations existed way before the “modern-era”, obviously acts and thoughts in the interests of nations, nationalism, has existed way before the “modern-era” although Liberal and anti-nationalist authors are loathe to acknowledge it because they are insincere hypocrites
.
The same silly argument used by feminists to claim Cleopatra, or Hypatia, or Boadicea were “feminists.”
1. Ukrainians and their nationalism were simply renamed Little Russians.
Do you have any proof of this “renaming” process occurring?
So the first literary work in the modern Ukrainian language, Kotlyarevsky’s Eneida (1798) was described as having been in the Little Russian language:
The “History of Rus or Little Russia” was written at about the same time and consisted of typical Ukrainian nationalist ideas (Little Russians are true Rus, Muscovites are despotic Mongols, etc.)
Often the same people who called themselves Little Russians in the 1840s called themselves Ukrainians in the 1860s.
You are displaying ignorance of basic and non-controversial facts.
2. The rebranding began in the 1860s, not the 20th century.
Yes, this was when the Habsburg Empire pursued the deliberate ethno-national-religious engineering of this population
Rebranding occurred first in the Russian Empire, ignoramus.
Later on these Ukrainian nationalists came from Russia to Galicia where they rebranded the local Rusyns into Ukrainians.
Ukraine is about 90% Orthodox.
Uniates that acknowledge the Pope are not actually Orthodox Christian at all in any meaningful sense
1.Ukraine is 90% Orthodox and 10% Uniate. In terms of sheer numbers most Ukrainian nationalists are Orthodox by faith.
Uniates recognise the Pope but theology, Liturgy etc. are otherwise the same as Orthodox. Nicene Creed is same as Orthodox, different from Roman Catholic. So it is a mixture of the two. When I once lived in a town with no Greek Catholic Church the local Orthodox one accepted me and the priest, knowing my background, still provided communion.
You flatter yourself by comparing yourself to Russians and therefore imagining that Ukrainians are Croats
The parallels are quite strong in many respects, aren’t they?
Not really.
given that you are basically an Albanian in deep denial.
LOL.
Laughter is a great expression of denial. We have already gone over this; Serbs are basically Slavicized Balkanoids. Some Serb-speaking areas are more Slavic than others but on average Serbs are about as Slav in descent as African-Americans are European in descent (20-25%). Croats are more Slavic than Serbs. Genetic research shatters your cherished myths.
The Trump admin is more than just Trump himself. The notion that the US would promote social democratic economic policies in Latin America is laughable and completely odds with the long history of US imperialist meddling in the continent, regardless which party held the WH.
Weren’t the originators of the US Constitution the progressives of their time? (I think so)
If you ask me, the most interesting and powerful political change which has happened over the past 250 years or so, is the way that progressives have changed their own thinking. How their impulses to universality have had an arc towards increasing universality, encompassing more and more people. IMO, the motive force is not so much them convincing others – though surely the values of the general public have changed. The seed is in the way that they themselves have changed.
James Burnham put this down to the way that the institutions have changed. Essentially, that progressives (a word used some time ago in France) were to a certain extent wary of the state because the Church and aristocrats traditionally had a lot of power in it. As aristocrats and the Church lost their power, progressives (or “liberals”) became more enamored with the state. And, of course, there were manifold other changes, such as the end of slavery, and the Great Migration.
A while back, I listened to an interesting podcast (Event Horizon) with Timothy Ferris (the guy at least partly responsible for the plaque on Voyager.) He is 76 and, of course, having helped design the plaque (which was multicult), a liberal. He mentioned that one of the projects that he is working on now is to write a book about “what liberalism is” (and implicitly what it isn’t). I had a laugh at that – he is 76 – he doesn’t know what it is anymore. It is not the same thing it was in his youth.
I’m incredibly thin in my library of jazz CD’s with respect to Oscar Peterson. No good reason, as I loved listening to him as a kid. You’d have to be a millionaire to buy up his whole backlog of albums, as he was so very prodigious in his output. I’m listening to this right now through Spotify, a compilation that many consider to be among his very, very best. You got any favorites that you might recommend?
The Trump admin is more than just Trump himself. The notion that the US would promote social democratic economic policies in Latin America is laughable and completely odds with the long history of US imperialist meddling in the continent, regardless which party held the WH.
They generally wouldn’t, but this is not the same idea as Raipala’s accusation that this is a preemptive measure that will promote feminism, Amerindian “plurinationalism” and other socially liberal initiatives to deflect anger over the economy.
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Patriarch Shevchuk, makes it clear that he considers his church an Orthodox one, in every respect, in communion with the Church of Rome:
I refer to him as “Patriarch” as that is how he was referred to at least half a dozen times when he performed Liturgy in front of a crowd of hundreds, including Orthodox and Roman Catholic clergy in Phoenix, AZ a few years back.
Fantastic aggregation. I knew most of these already, but the German auto production statistic still surprised me.
As an aside, I never understood why China has leapt so far ahead of the US in ecommerce penetration. As a share of GDP and/or retail sales it is far higher. Isn’t the US supposed to be a high-tech economy? Of course, the flip side of that would also indicate that Amazon’s crazy bullrun is still far from over…
The promotion of the gender quota was in relation to the draft of a new constitution. Not a stand-alone policy. So you can’t promote one without the other following. And as I’ve made clear, the notion that the US would promote anything but the neoliberal status quo is far-fetched and ahistorical.
By the way, I don’t know why you spent a bizarre amount of time and energy defending an absurd position, one that isn’t your own and that you yourself don’t even seem that convinced of. Let Jaako’s wacko theories be next time. Your comments are typically of much higher quality (I was particularly impressed by your recent one on Turkish demographic trends).
Weren’t the originators of the US Constitution the progressives of their time? (I think so)
Indeed, but being progressive in the late 1700s mean very different things than it does today. This is also something which US statesmen and women realised early on. It’s not like they have been shy with fixing an imperfect document. So neither should we.
The most interesting and powerful political change which has happened over the past 250 years or so, is the way that progressives have changed their own thinking. How their impulses to universality have had an arc towards increasing universality, encompassing more and more people.
I am not sure I’d put it down to progressivism. If you look at the evolution of nationalism, even far-right nationalism, it has followed the same basic arc. Localism and regionalism had given way to larger meta-organisational systems. This is how I understand the unification of Germany, Italy and even to some extent the creation of the EU.
Not that the EU is nationalist per se, it’s just on the same arc as the others. The world is getting less and less local as time goes on. Nationalism is simply an intermediate step on that path.
Is that due to a political ideology or simply an undercurrent affecting everyone? I’m leaning towards the latter.
James Burnham put this down to the way that the institutions have changed. Essentially, that progressives (a word used some time ago in France) were to a certain extent wary of the state because the Church and aristocrats traditionally had a lot of power in it. As aristocrats and the Church lost their power, progressives (or “liberals”) became more enamored with the state. And, of course, there were manifold other changes, such as the end of slavery, and the Great Migration.
We have to distinguish broad social liberalism from the specific US-centric understanding of “liberals”, which is typically social democracy in Europe. I have deep reservations about progressive having any different views because of the state on issues such as women’s right for instance. On more pragmatic political matters such as how to obtain power, that theory makes a lot more sense.
He mentioned that one of the projects that he is working on now is to write a book about “what liberalism is” (and implicitly what it isn’t). I had a laugh at that – he is 76 – he doesn’t know what it is anymore. It is not the same thing it was in his youth.
I wouldn’t mock him. Liberalism can mean different things to different people. This is also true across cultures. The French obsession with secularism is not shared in other Western countries, nor are their strict republicanism. Contrast this with the monarchies still present in Europe. I don’t know many Swedes who seriously want to abolish our royal family’s prestige and institution.
More generally, when you’re enmeshed in a dominant ideology for so long, it is easy to become ‘home-blind’. Forcing yourself to think about first principles can help your own intellectual development. Jefferson was right when he noted that learning is a life-long pursuit. Mocking someone for being intellectually curious and willing to learn more, changing his or her position, even at such an advanced age is bizarre to me. He should be lauded. Most at that age at calcified in their old thinking.
By the way, I don’t know why you spent a bizarre amount of time and energy defending an absurd position, one that isn’t your own and that you yourself don’t even seem that convinced of. Let Jaako’s wacko theories be next time. Your comments are typically of much higher quality (I was particularly impressed by your recent one on Turkish demographic trends).
You’re right, I don’t particularly care about Latin American affairs so I shouldn’t bother.
I’m not an expert in Church doctrines but communion with Rome involves recognition of dogma such as papal infallibility that Orthodox do not follow. However I agree that on matters not related to the Papacy, Greek Catholics are identical to Orthodox. Claim that there are no substantial differences between Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics is absurd.
Nicene creed is the same as Orthodox (no Filioque as in the Roman Catholics, which has implications regarding the role of the Holy Spirit):
Another bull, Decet Romanum pontificem, dated 23 February 1596, defined the rights of the Ruthenian episcopate and their relations in subjection to the Holy See.[4]
It was agreed that the filioque should not be inserted in the Nicene Creed, and that the Ruthenians
“should remain with that which was handed down to us in the Holy Scriptures, in the Gospel, and in the writings of the holy Greek Doctors, that is, that the Holy Spirit proceeds, not from two sources and not by a double procession, but from one origin, from the Father through the Son.”
That the divine worship and all prayers and services of Orthros, Vespers, and the night services shall remain intact (without any change at all) for us according to the ancient custom of the Eastern Church, namely: the Holy Liturgies of which there are three, that of Saint Basil, that of Saint Chrysostom, and that of Epiphanius which is served during the Great Lent with Presanctified Gifts, and all other ceremonies and services of our Church, as we have had them until now, for in Rome these same services are kept within the obedience of the Supreme Pontiff, and that these services should be in our own language.
That the Mysteries of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ should be retained entirely as we have been accustomed until now, under the species of bread and wine; that this should remain among us eternally the same and unchangeable.
That the Mystery of Holy Baptism and its form should remain among us unchanged as we have served it until now, without any addition.
We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.
We will accept the new calendar, if the old one cannot be, but without any violation of the Paschalia [the Easter cycle] and our other feasts as they were in the time of unity, because we have some special feasts which the Romans do not have; on the sixth of January we celebrate the memory of the Baptism of the Lord Christ and the first revelation of the One God in Trinity. We call this feast Theophany, and on this day we have a special service of the Blessing of Waters.
That we should not be compelled to take part in processions on the day of Corpus Christi – that we should not have to make such processions with our Mysteries inasmuch as our use of the Mysteries is different.
Likewise that we should not be compelled to have the blessing of fire, the use of wooden clappers, and similar ceremonies before Easter, for we have not had such ceremonies in our Church until now, but that we should maintain our ceremonies according to the rubrics and the Typicon of our Church.
That the marriages of priests remain intact, except for bigamists.
I never understood why China has leapt so far ahead of the US in ecommerce penetration.
Within China, development of the internet and smartphones outpaced retail construction. Some places had no malls – no people in the habit of going to malls. They did have smart phones. Older people learned to use them, and Alibaba became like the Sears catalogue. Also, as an export economy, there was a lot of commercial activity, not directly related to the end-consumer.
Liberalism can mean different things to different people. This is also true across cultures.
Perhaps. But it has a global zeitgeist, a mass – it is an object with a momentum. It is like a snowball rolling down a hill – one old man cannot get out in front of it, and roll it back up, unwinding the snow from it. And that is the sense that I get from the context of the interview and of the cultural context of the Anglosphere, where it is commonly said that liberalism was about tolerance and small government and that some people stole it, and are misusing the word for their own ideas. Really, that is just a sort of nostalgia – that is its evolutionary throwback, before a great many social changes, like the invention of social media and mass migration. I don’t see how it is possible to go back.
I don’t know whether it is really true, (I have never been to Russia – still waiting for them to open a nuclear sub museum) but, from the internet, I get the sense that Russia has a stronger musical tradition – for example, people singing traditional songs in the street in their own language – than any country with a bigger nominal GDP, or perhaps, even a higher per capita.
“Are you suggesting that in most cases conscription was coercive in nature?”
I know many men who were drafted in the ’60s – it was not a formality. Many did not want to go, even if they were stationed in peaceful areas, like West Germany, and didn’t have to do any killing or face death.
I was discussing the conscription in 1914. Of course the Vietnam war was genuinely unpopular. World War I in contrast enjoyed massive support by feverish European nationalists eager to sacrifice other Europeans and themselves for national glory, national revenge, etc.
“Nationalism is a heresy.”
Not according to Catholic theology. One’s greatest duty is to those who one knows most deeply. One has a greater duty to one’s family than to strangers. To one’s neighbors and community than to strangers living on the other side of the globe. The Church traditionally (not the Pope now) does not support leap-frogging loyalties.
Sure. But “community” is not “nation.” None of the traditional Catholic states led by devout Catholic monarchs (i.e., Austria-Hungary, Spain under Hapsburgs, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, pre-Revolutionary France) were monocultural nation-states.
Worshipping a man-made idea of nation (a group of people with a standardized language, territory, history) to the point of killing or dying for its expansion, glory, and honor is idolatry. Idolatry is a sin.
“it’s fruits have been evil”
The end of slavery, serfdom, and internecine feudal warfare were evil
Interesting point about slavery and serfdom. These were not completely snuffed out by nationalism but nationalism did result in the mass slaughter of World War I and concomitant destruction of former Christendom/Europe. The scale of deaths in World War I (total war) exceeded those medieval warfare.
What are the fruits of anti-nationalism?
Pre-nationalist Europe, the century before the Great War, was a peaceful idyll and a golden age.
The opposite of nationalism isn’t something called “anti-nationalism.”
You’ve completely lost me here. Surely, “anti” means “opposite.” How can something be “opposite” without being “opposed.”
Indifference due to focus on healthier and more moral topics (faith, family, productive work) would be opposite.
LOLOLOLOL!!!! What a sick ( and of course , extremely dumb) freak you truly are
It seems disrespectful to place your post higher in lying , fantasist cretinism more than the other massive load of nonsense you have posted just on this Open Thread alone….but this is truly ridiculous.
A debutante ball clearly plagiarising Soviet débutante balls, Soviet diaspora debutante balls ( they are Russian but of course Baltics , Armenians, Moldovans and all Soviet diaspora types participate in them every year in Berlin, London, New York and wherever around the world), probably only startedto directly copy them out of jealousy ( makes sense for these closed, failure, CIA-smuggled, sadist society), is now referred to as:
Galician-Ukrainian diaspora culture
WTF?LOL
I would add that the Russian/Sovietness of this western creation derives from the fact that in the west they don’t tend to fully embrace this type of event anymore in the type of groups that enjoy this type of thing – different to Russian world/Soviet diaspora , sort of like how I regard Ballet as Russian
You would like Galician-Ukrainian diaspora culture
So Johann Strauss Blue Danube Waltzes,those clothes, decorations, everything with absolutely zero connection of any atom in that room in the video to this decrepit , nonexistant “Galician-Ukrainian diaspora culture”
A reminder that your insecure, timewasting idiotic comment was in response to Swedish guy posting a video of something unmistakably, uniquely Russian
This is even more retarded than the digging up the Black Sea fantasies!
Hugely indicative that a tramp as yourself uses the equally self-discrediting phrase
Overall A-H was a positive force whose former territories are superior to neighbouring ones.
Sure bud.
Is this why the parts of Italy, Switzerland and Germany that were never ruled by Habsburgs are all clearly doing better than former territories of the Habsburgs?
At any rate, this is becoming more of a moot point as there is more and more mass immigration of non-Europeans into many parts of Europe, both former Habsburg territories and other places.
USA has real and significant flaws but referring it to an oligarchic tyranny is indeed silly propaganda.
Really?
It’s harder to imagine a more oligarchic entity to have ever existed in all of recorded world history.
Just take a look at the ridiculous bailouts given to corporations and billionaires in 2008 and now with Corona bailouts. Also the blatant role of oligarchs like Bill Gates (pushes his own vaccine), Jeff Bezos (The Washington Post is literally his mouthpiece), Sheldon Adelson (pushes pro-Israel policies with his wealth) and other types in US politics.
Technically Trump himself is an oligarch whose business exploits are very famous/infamous (although a degree of his popularity comes from him defying and confronting other oligarchs to some extent).
Loss of these territories has been good for Ukraine and consequences have been fairly mild.
Is this why Mr Hack and so many other Ukrainians whine about this non-stop and every so often on the internet? Also why you have to rationalize and explain this attitude of yours on the subject matter more often than should be necessary if you truly don’t mind this?
OTOH the death of one third of Serbia’s male population during World War I was a very real, very horrible consequence of evil Serb deeds.
If you wish evil upon others, gloat and take pleasure in any past or present evils they have suffered, you should not be surprised when others do the same to you.
At any rate, it’s still very good that the Habsburg Empire is permanently gone and that it’s not coming back ever again. Even if this came at a very high price and Serbs squandered a once in a few centuries chance to come out as true winners from its destruction. There is a strong argument to be made that the Habsburg Empire was ultimately worse for Serbs than the Ottoman Empire in hindsight (both empires were bad, but the only question is which one was worse, definitely Habsburgs after 1878 imo).
Females existed even longer than that – yet feminism is a modern ideology.
I think you forgot about things like the female dominated tribes of the Amazon. Technically past Kingdoms and Empires being ruled by Queens is a form of feminism that existed before the ideology was formally invented. You know, Matriarchy and what not.
So there would have been at least some forms of proto-feminism at least way before feminism was invented as a modern ideology, whether one likes it or not (and I’m really not a fan of feminism).
Not really.
The parallels between Serbs and Croats with Russians and Ukrainians are very strong, whether you want to admit it or not.
Karlin knows it which is why he frequently mentions Operation Storm as a scenario he would like the Russians in Donbass to be able to avoid experiencing.
Laughter is a great expression of denial.
Maybe people just take comic pleasure from blatantly dumb and ridiculous statements like claims that I’m an Albanian in denial?
We have already gone over this; Serbs are basically Slavicized Balkanoids. Some Serb-speaking areas are more Slavic than others but on average Serbs are about as Slav in descent as African-Americans are European in descent (20-25%).
This implies that there is such a thing as “Balkanoid” or “Balkanoid” DNA to begin with (The nations and populations of the Balkans differ far more strongly from each other than many would like to admit). You may perhaps be talking about Illyrian and pre-Slavic DNA in the Balkans which does not really belong to any single group in the Balkans (no matter how hard Albanians falsely try and claim that).
Genetic research shatters your cherished myths.
No, it shatters your cherished myths that I’m an Albanian in denial. The genetic code of most Albanians is strongly and markedly extremely different from all their neighbors and literally has more in common with Africa than the rest of the region.
Sometimes I forgot what an eccentric, “psychiatric hospital” atmosphere we have in this forum (not intending this in a rude or judgemental way) – i.e. to encounter adult men writing about their belief in demons.
Of course, this is part of the reason it is interesting to talk to you people – I have never met anyone with who believes in demons in real life, and would not likely ever meet them in my daily life. What are your views about Atlantis?
I’ve heard some of this, but I’m not such a fan of it. I’ve enjoyed (when in certain mood) his improvisations in Miles Davis “Second Great Quintet”. His rapport with Tony Williams, large amount of space, and the very formal timekeeping combined with increasing “freedom” of harmonies.
I liked his playing in “My Funny Valentine” live album from 1964, when he’s walking a line between traditionalism.
His solo is from 10:00 – he’s playing like a more harmonically experimental version of Wynton Kelly. At the end he goes back to playing “locked hands” of the 1950s.
The Verve CD of “Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson” sounds really nice, to my ears, on good speakers (well, if you like Ben Webster – of course, it’s just “easy listening” or “summer music”, without too much experimentation).
Overall A-H was a positive force whose former territories are superior to neighbouring ones.
Sure bud.
Is this why the parts of Italy, Switzerland and Germany that were never ruled by Habsburgs are all clearly doing better than former territories of the Habsburgs?
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany. Also former Hapsburg parts of Romania are the best part of that country, and Slovenia and Croatia are better than Serbia.
Are you that ignorant?
USA has real and significant flaws but referring it to an oligarchic tyranny is indeed silly propaganda.
Really?
It’s harder to imagine a more oligarchic entity to have ever existed in all of recorded world history
.
When you know little about the world (see previous point) imagination must be limited. Review global Goni coefficients and report back with what you find. And learn about this concept “tyranny.”
Loss of these territories has been good for Ukraine and consequences have been fairly mild.
Is this why Mr Hack and so many other Ukrainians whine about this non-stop and every so often on the internet?
You are the one who brought it up, and I answered. I wish gangrenous Donbas had been amputated earlier. Disastrous Yanukovich would never have become president.
“OTOH the death of one third of Serbia’s male population during World War I was a very real, very horrible consequence of evil Serb deeds.”
If you wish evil upon others, gloat and take pleasure in any past or present evils they have suffered
Projection. Gloating about mass deaths is a Serb thing? My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists. Perhaps you are better at killing than you are at reading?
At any rate, it’s still very good that the Habsburg Empire is permanently gone and that it’s not coming back ever again
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
How did that work out for your people?
It is very sad, how much suffering your people’s murderous wishes and actions have wrought.
But you think it was worth it. It is very sad that Serbs like you think so little of the lives of their own people.
“Genetic research shatters your cherished myths.”
No, it shatters your cherished myths that I’m an Albanian in denial. The genetic code of most Albanians is strongly and markedly extremely different from all their neighbors and literally has more in common with Africa than the rest of the region.
Outside the Balkans, people don’t differentiate much between Balkanoids; it’s a bit like the diversity in the Caucuses. Slavic-speaking Balkanoids (Serbs), non-Slavic speaking ones (Albanians), not much different.
I really like the “old school” Miles Davis ouvre and consider it fundamental in understanding and appreciating modern jazz. One of my favorite albums of all time, as for so many jazz aficionados, would be “Kind of Blue”. I recomended it to AP a few months back to listen to, I don’t know if he ever took the time to do so?
Now, ‘Headhunters” is almost as important, IMHO. Hancock has been leading up to this point for several albums now, but here he puts it all together and offers up a synthesis of all that’s gone on before and crystalizes it here. Very cool music, very electronic, very funky, rhythmic all parts working together as one. Notice the real funky change at 7:38 (Chameleon”) starting with the funky bass patterns and then the real cool piano playing that is reminiscent of his past style of playing, but it’s so cool that you can close your eyes and see James Bond emerging on the French Riviera stepping out of his Austin Martin car. Give the whole album a serious listen (or even 2-3 times) until it’s true beauty starts to grow on you. You’ll see why it’s considered a seminal musical journey that set the tone for much of what was to come. Layers upon layers of beautiful funk absorbed in rhythmic and lush synthesized heavenly music. Let the “primitive and positive” within you come out and thrive……above all, just have some fun listening to it!
Sometimes I forgot what an eccentric, “psychiatric hospital” atmosphere we have in this forum (not intending this in a rude or judgemental way) – i.e. to encounter adult men writing about their belief in demons
Psychiatric patients tend to be more concerned about life on/from other planets, government surveillance, and germs than they are about demons.
Do you believe in those things?
I have never met anyone with who believes in demons in real life, and would not likely ever meet them in my daily life
How parochial. I suspect a majority of the world’s population is not as blind as your small strange circle of positivists.
“More than half (57%) said that people can be possessed by spirits”
“ Last week, Catholics from 33 countries gathered in Vatican City for a conference on exorcism. The Post estimated the number of “official exorcists” to be between 500 and 600, “the vast majority operating in Latin America and Eastern Europe.”
I have heard a harrowing account of an exorcism in western Ukraine.
And being Russian is no excuse for your ignorance on this particular topic:
When you know little about the world (see previous point) imagination must be limited.
Projection. Gloating about mass deaths is a Serb thing?
Perhaps you are better at killing than you are at reading?
It is very sad, how much suffering your people’s murderous wishes and actions have wrought.
It is very sad that Serbs like you think so little of the lives of their own people.
Outside the Balkans, people don’t differentiate much between Balkanoids; it’s a bit like the diversity in the Caucuses.
Wow LOL.
So much butthurt.
I guess that is what it must be like to live your whole life as part of a fake trash and worthless scum nation called Ukrainians huh?
Anyway, nice try though, there’s clearly nothing by now seriously worth responding to for me, as you’ve ran out of arguments and are trying to provoke me to go full Gerard on you.
Hopefully you’ll get whacked by some BLM, Muslims, people of color or Antifa in the liberal multicultural shithole that you live in reality. You’re not worth much more anyway.
God made many of the nations. Many are not abstract, man-made constructions. Several are mentioned in the Bible. Jews are given favor in the Old Testament. Jesus never preaches to destroy nations, but says to preach to the nations.
Mark 11:17
And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.”
Psalm 67:4
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
Pre-nationalist Europe, the century before the Great War, was a peaceful idyll and a golden age.
The Victorian-era peace was historically unusual, and it is quite a misconception to call it “pre-nationalist.” It is excessively deconstructionist, to pretend there were no nations or nationalists at that time.
concomitant destruction of former Christendom/Europe. The scale of deaths in World War I (total war) exceeded those medieval warfare.
Wealth and modernization (and, yes, even anti-nationalism) damaged Christianity, not WWI, as can be demonstrated by the fact that Sweden was neutral. Populations were much higher after the Columbian exchange and industrialization – the percentage of people who died in WWI was actually much less than conflicts like the 30 Years War. Quite easy to explain – war used to cause mass famine, as there would be widespread scorched earth policies, and not much in the way of front lines.
Indifference due to focus on healthier and more moral topics (faith, family, productive work) would be opposite.
You do not need to neglect those things to be a nationalist. It is not necessarily a time-intensive hobby, like gaming. Nationalism helps the family. It is better to raise one’s children in an environment will they will not be subjected to economic and social punishments for being who they are. And globalism is avowedly anti-Christian.
As to monarchy, the old kings were all forced out. And let’s not paint too ideal a picture, Charles II, a Hapsburg King of Spain was deformed and more inbred than if his parents had been brother and sister. Such monarchs that survive (without power) are generally a complete disgrace.
Worshipping a man-made idea of nation (a group of people with a standardized language, territory, history) to the point of killing or dying for its expansion, glory, and honor is idolatry. Idolatry is a sin.
As I see it, mobilization was largely defensive in nature. When armies seized territory, the generals wanted to keep it, to justify the expense in men. This is not the same as supposing men went to war specifically to gain new territory, and if so, that would not be a new thing, or something specific to nationalism. The Soviet state was expansionary, but not nationalistic.
You stopped presenting facts and even seriously trying to make any arguments a long time ago.
When you write with insults and provocations wrapped in the most cunning and underhanded way possible, there are no points worth discussing.
You’re the one that couldn’t address any of the points I made so you resorted to insults and provocations as I clearly outlined in comment #350. Why shouldn’t I respond appropriately to that?
Just when my heart started to warm for the Ukrainian nation theres a full artillery barrage of svidomy lies. Uniates are not Orthodox, the Greek old calendarist have a better case for Orthodoxy than Uniates, under Eastern Catholic churches canon law they acknowledge the papal supremacy and infallibility. You can ask patriarch of Cpole himself and he will answer that they are not Orthodox. Their archbishop is not a patriarch, the pope or Roman curia nor the Orthodox bishops recognise him to have such office in the church. Ugh how banal this is, no amount of wishing and self deception will change the matter. I and all my friends can call me pope, if such thing happens do I really become a pope of the Catholic Church? AP you slyly omitted which Orthodox or “orthodox” church you visited? The so called church of the former patriarchate of Kiev, or the Autocephalous church of Ukraine? Latter would be would be quite funny, a church that had as its motto “one language, one people, one church,” very Christian motto indeed…
Austria-Hungary was two separate states in a real union, they only had a common foreign policy and both a common army of Austria and Hungary and their own armies. Hungarian part was a very modern invention, born in the year 1867, when Austrians made a deal with Hungarians and Hungarians got their own country. The kingdom of Hungary was very nationalistic and had an official policy of Magyarization of ethnic minorities, the lands of Austria or so called Cisleithania was a patchwork of different Habsburg crownlands, with very different local legislatures and administrations, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria contained the lands that were gained from the partitions of Poland in the end of the 18th Century, so not a very long time ago. Most of Kingdom of Hungary was gained in the last years of 17th century from the Ottomans, before that the Habsburg controlled only a small western strip of Hungary and Croatia. Upper Hungary and Transylvania were only periodically and loosely affiliated with the Habsburgs before the Great Turkish war. Austria-Hungary wasnt a product of Middle Ages, but a quitr recent political construction, which had gone large secular and anticlerical reforms under the emperor Joseph II.
Very hypocritical of you AP to defend the AH empire with such devotion. The Czechs had ten times stronger nationalist movement before the ww1 than the Ukrainians had, although they were not revolutionary before the war, they truly despised the power of German elites and had struggled very openly for one hundred years for the rights of the Czech culture and language.
Austrians committed great crimes during ww1 and their empire was utterly rotten and in no way carrier of Medieval traditions, the elites in Vienna were already quite modernist and decadent. The Jews were completely integrated to the power structures of the empire, much more than in neighbouring countries.
Songbird of course Austrians tried to have peace status quo ante bellum in 1917, for after the Brusilov offensive they had lost the capability to wage war independently and were in process of becoming a satellite of Germany.
Only Russian empire was the last carrier of the tradition on the European continent, French Republic was born in 1871, as was the German Empire, UK was already a constitutional and liberal monarchy.
And AP first modernist political philosophy was the Classica Liberalism, nationalism came afterwards and had a quite long romance with the liberals of the 19th century.
You stopped presenting facts and even seriously trying to make any arguments a long time ago.
False. I’ll repost what I wrote so you can try again. I will bold facts or arguments if you have trouble seeing them:
Overall A-H was a positive force whose former territories are superior to neighbouring ones.
Sure bud.
Is this why the parts of Italy, Switzerland and Germany that were never ruled by Habsburgs are all clearly doing better than former territories of the Habsburgs?
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany. Also former Hapsburg parts of Romania are the best part of that country, and Slovenia and Croatia are better than Serbia.
Are you that ignorant?
USA has real and significant flaws but referring it to an oligarchic tyranny is indeed silly propaganda.
Really?
It’s harder to imagine a more oligarchic entity to have ever existed in all of recorded world history
When you know little about the world (see previous point) imagination must be limited. Review global Gini coefficients and report back with what you find. And learn about this concept “tyranny.”
“OTOH the death of one third of Serbia’s male population during World War I was a very real, very horrible consequence of evil Serb deeds.”
If you wish evil upon others, gloat and take pleasure in any past or present evils they have suffered
Projection. Gloating about mass deaths is a Serb thing? My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists. Perhaps you are better at killing than you are at reading?
At any rate, it’s still very good that the Habsburg Empire is permanently gone and that it’s not coming back ever again
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
How did that work out for your people?
It is very sad, how much suffering your people’s murderous wishes and actions have wrought.
But you think it was worth it. It is very sad that Serbs like you think so little of the lives of their own people.
False. I’ll repost what I wrote so you can try again. I will bold facts or arguments if you have trouble seeing them:
LOL.
Nice try at provoking me again.
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany.
Wrong.
Northwest Italy (Milan and west) was never part of Habsburg Empire and it’s doing just fine.
Berlin and North Germany are doing better than the south.
You’re also ignoring Switzerland because it’s a clear and obvious debunking of your claim.
Although now all the mass migration of non-Europeans is making comparisons of former Habsburg territories to others increasingly moot and irrelevant for the future. No amount of former Habsburg rule can compensate for the fact that a territory is now inhabited by Turkish, Muslim, African and other migrants which reduces nearly every single standard, quality and HDI metric of that place regardless of whether the Habsburgs ruled it before or not.
Review global Gini coefficients and report back with what you find.
Maybe Gini coefficients are a bit overrated and not as reliable as they’re made out to be?
After all, remember all the claims and graphics that the USA would handle Coronavirus best because it was a Liberal Democracy LOL?
My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists.
Why yes, I’m quite sure that you are very sincere in this belief … NOT!
Btw, this is literally the same talking point that Liberal NGO’s, NATO, the EU and criminals like Biden push about Serbs and publicly try to cram down their throats as a result of the 1990’s wars.
You’re not fooling anyone with this.
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
Austria-Hungary was actually the predecessor from which the Nazis and Ustashe spawned.
Literally.
Many Austrian Nazis and Croat Ustashe (literally the same people and generation) that faithfully served Austria-Hungary in WW1 went on to become prominent Nazis and Ustashe in WW2.
Milan or Mailand and Lombardy had a very long history with the Habsburgs, but Northern Italy was already the richest region of Europe long before the Habsburgs. Southern Germany is richer than both Northern Germany and Austria by the way.
Uniates are not Orthodox…under Eastern Catholic churches canon law they acknowledge the papal supremacy and infallibility
Of course. That is what I wrote. However I also wrote that it was wrong to state that they are identical to Roman Catholics, because like Orthodox and unlike Roman Catholics they do not include the Filioque in the Nicene Creed and retain Orthodox liturgy, and retained Orthodox baptism and communion.
AP you slyly omitted which Orthodox or “orthodox” church you visited?
Why “slyly?” You should work on not assuming the worst in others.
It was an Antiochian Orthodox Church; the priest was Lebanese-American. I went there because it happened to be the only nearby Eastern Christian Church.
Austria-Hungary wasnt a product of Middle Ages, but a quitr recent political construction, which had gone large secular and anticlerical reforms under the emperor Joseph II.
It underwent reforms but not Revolution. As did Russia, particularly under Peter and Catherine. But both Russia and Austria were far more traditional than the USA, Republican France, Britain, and probably nationalistic imperial Germany.
Very hypocritical of you AP to defend the AH empire with such devotion. The Czechs had ten times stronger nationalist movement before the ww1 than the Ukrainians had
Which speaks to the relative mildness of the Hapsburgs. An anti-war Slavophil, married to a Czech (Sofia Chotková), was supposed to ascend the throne before a Serb animal murdered him and his wife.
Austrians committed great crimes during ww1
They were about the same as the others.
the elites in Vienna were already quite modernist and decadent
One could say the same about the elites in St. Petersburg, but the overall system and society were not so, to the extent of the West (and of what came later).
Only Russian empire was the last carrier of the tradition on the European continent, French Republic was born in 1871, as was the German Empire, UK was already a constitutional and liberal monarchy
Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. The conflict between them was a historical tragedy.
And AP first modernist political philosophy was the Classica Liberalism, nationalism came afterwards and had a quite long romance with the liberals of the 19th century
Yes you are correct here, classical liberalism did precede nationalism by a few decades. And because it is older it, like nationalism, is not as bad as later -isms.
In my opinion it’s a moot point really because of non-European mass immigration by EU dictate anyway. Not to mention that a whole bunch of former Habsburg territories have been under different rule and different things have happened to them since 1918 anyway.
Two false assumptions you make here and are simply treated as mainstream English language WW1 history are worth debunking.
An anti-war Slavophil, married to a Czech (Sofia Chotková), was supposed to ascend the throne
Wrong.
Franz Ferdinand was not anti war at all. He took part in war plans to attack and make a punitive expedition against Serbia for more than a decade in advance. Yes, Austria-Hungary actually pre-meditated war against Serbia for at least more than a decade before 1914. This was clear when it sent an ultimatum to Serbia in 1913 to withdraw from Albania during the 1st Balkan War. Sending an ultimatum is an act of war (even more so than an assassination done by non-state actors).
He was also not a “Slavophile” at all. Stop lying.
He considered Serbs to be “pig farmers”, “scoundrels”, “rogues” etc.
His statements of racial hatred are recorded and existed (they’re especially infamous against Magyars and others).
The myth and lie of his slavophilia simply come from the fact that he contemplated Slavic Trialism of Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims as a strategy against Magyars, but never actually accepted it or seriously pushed for its implementation because he equally despised and hated Magyars and Slavs.
Serb animal murdered him and his wife.
The thing is that Gavrilo Princip did not even conceive of himself as an ethnic Serb and actually considered himself to be Yugoslavian (same for his group of Young Bosnia partners). He explicitly opposed Serb nationalism in his memoirs and statements of his that are recorded (partly from the Habsburg trial of him) instead support Yugoslavia.
If you bothered to take a look at the lengthy free preview of the book I previously recommended earlier you would have never stated such blatant bullshit.
You’re also ignoring Switzerland because it’s a clear and obvious debunking of your claim
Are the parts of Switzerland once ruled by Hapsburgs poorer or worse than other parts of Switzerland?
However in addition you your false claims about Milan and Germany, you ignore that ex-Hapsburg Croatia and Slovenia are better than Serbia, and ex-Hapsburg Romania better than the rest of Romania. Also Galicia under Hapsburgs was richer and more educated than other Eastern Slavic lands, Krakow and ex-Hapsburg Poland best part of Poland.
Review global Gini coefficients and report back with what you find.
Maybe Gini coefficients are a bit overrated and not as reliable as they’re made out to be?
After all, remember all the claims and graphics that the USA would handle Coronavirus best
So in your mind Gini coefficients are wrong because of Covid graphs?
My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists.
Why yes, I’m quite sure that you are very sincere in this belief … NOT!
More projection. Unlike you I don’t hold murderous wishes on people, much less masses of people. But you, in true Balkanoid fashion, already wished death on me because of our discussion.
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
Austria-Hungary was actually the predecessor from which the Nazis and Ustashe spawned.
Literally.
By that logic Romanovs were somehow to blame for Stalin. Nazis sent Hapsburgs into concentration camps, you know.
To review: Serb nationalists committed a vile cold-blooded murder, provoking a war that killed 1/3 of their male population (as well as millions of other Europeans). You, a Serb, say it was all worth it because the Hapsburg monarchy was toppled even though the result of that was a power vacuum eventually filled by Ustashi who again killed lots of Serbs, in gruesome ways. This was followed by Yugoslavia. In your logic was this was all worth it? Better than if the Hapsburgs had simply taken care of you in their benevolence? In that case, maybe instead of millions of dead Serbs there would have been another Tesla?
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany. Also former Hapsburg parts of Romania are the best part of that country, and Slovenia and Croatia are better than Serbia.
Are you that ignorant?
While I do think the Habsburgs promoted economic development compared to the parts of the Balkans ruled by Ottomans, I think your comments on Germany and Italy are not as convincing.
For one thing, the Habsburgs never held Bavaria and only held a small part of the Rhineland. In general they held minimal long-term territories with the present BRD borders, so TheTotallyAnonymous’s original inclusion of Germany was also quite erroneous.
For Switzerland, given that they gained independence over half a millenium ago I doubt Habsburg rule led to any specific development demarcation on present borders.
But even if we assume that the evidence is inconclusive with poorer and richer areas together. Any immense disparity between Swiss cantons is more likely to be the effect of Luxembourg-style taxation laws.
So while Habsburg rule was not a curse for Western-Central Europe, neither was it any special blessing. Nor, as the Prussian development of what would become the Polish Corridor showed, was the development of the eastern and southeastern territories something that could not have been replicated by another non-Catholic Western-Central European power in a similar territorial position.
More projection. Unlike you I don’t hold murderous wishes on people, much less masses of people.
Sure. Your word is totally trustworthy …
By that logic Romanovs were somehow to blame for Stalin.
Most former Austro-Hungarian officers chose to loyally serve the Nazis with absolutely 0 or minimal resistance.
The difference is that the loyalists and followers of the Romanovs fought a bloody civil war against Communists for years and lost. Most of the Tsarist and Royalist officers were executed and killed by Communists and Bolsheviks, both during and after the civil war.
Serb nationalists committed
Again, wrong.
Stop claiming that Gavrilo Princip was a Serb nationalist when he wasn’t.
Better than if the Hapsburgs had simply taken care of you in their benevolence?
1: The Habsburg plans for Serbs where not very different from the Ustashe ones. For that matter, neither from the current US Liberal-Zionist imperial plans for Serbs (Dismemberment and division of their lands to the maximum extent possible, crushing with overwhelming military force, elimination and relentlessly vicious propaganda and lies etc …).
2: Here’s how the Habsburgs tried to take care of Serbs in their benevolence:
For one thing, the Habsburgs never held Bavaria and only held a small part of the Rhineland. In general they held minimal long-term territories with the present BRD borders, so TheTotallyAnonymous’s original inclusion of Germany was also quite erroneous.
Although it is a moot point due to what I pointed out above, due to the distortive effect of the split between the DDR and the BRD it might be better to look at at pre-1939 German regional economic data rather than present day Germany to determine South-North German historical development.
But even if we assume that the evidence is inconclusive with poorer and richer areas together. Any immense disparity between Swiss cantons is more likely to be the effect of Luxembourg-style taxation laws.
Nor, as the Prussian development of what would become the Polish Corridor showed, was the development of the eastern and southeastern territories something that could not have been replicated by another non-Catholic Western-Central European power in a similar territorial position.
Oligarch Vladimir Lisin will have to be patient a little in the matter of changing one yacht to another: NLMK’s revenue fell by 16%, and net profit – by 40% in January-September 2020.
The reasons are simple – a 30% decrease in sales on average in the EU and the USA. Perhaps Lisin and his friends will not be able to buy the island in the Bermuda archipelago, on which they have their eyes, but what to do, now it’s hard for everyone.
In general, NLMK is a money printing machine. The industrial plant was built in Soviet times and with Soviet money, is fully provided with a raw material base and drives products through the ports of the Black Sea anywhere in the world.
More than 80% of NLMK shares, as usual, are owned by a foreign company Fletcher Group Holdings Limited (Cyprus). In general, like all Russian metallurgy, which is also owned through Cypriot, Dutch, British, Luxembourgish, etc. firms.
This is to be told to the feeble-minded potreotics who still squeal that “do you really want the West to seize Rossiyushka?” What for if all standing assets in the Russian Federation have had FOREIGN owners assigned a long ago? 🙂
For example, the pride of the Soviet People, the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, is owned by 2 Cypriot garbage dumps: Mintha Holding Limited and Fulnek Enterprises Ltd (their formal beneficiary was the alcoholic and degenerate Rashnikov).
Severstal: more than 80% of the company’s shares are owned by 4 dumpsters from Cyprus (Pearlgreen Limited, RAYGLOW LIMITED, ASTROSHINE LIMITED, LORANEL LIMITED). The largest company in the field of ferrous metallurgy in the Russian Federation – Evraz – belongs to the companies GREENLEAS INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LTD, ABIGLAZE LTD and CROSLAND GLOBAL LIMITED, whose beneficiaries are considered Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov and Mikhail Frolov (and nobody knows who really stands behind their backs). It makes no sense to write about Rusal, Norilsk Nickel and so on. All these companies are owned by foreigners a long time ago.
Croatia better than the rest of the non-Turkish Balkans. Bosnia (ruled by Hapsburgs for only about 12 years in 1890) better than Serbia. Galicia much better than Russia, though about the same as Poland (which had a larger city and more industry than Galicia).
For one thing, the Habsburgs never held Bavaria and only held a small part of the Rhineland
Correct, but former Austrian Netherlands was the second richest place in Europe in 1890.
Similarly for Northern Italy, the parts that were once ruled by Habsburgs and those that never were have the same general economic development.
The pocket of greater wealth in Italy’s northeast corresponds to Austria’s “Southern Tyrol” which joined Italy in 1918.
..we looked at people in Poland, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Ukraine. All these five countries historically had some areas that were under Habsburg rule and other areas that were under Prussian, Russian and/or Ottoman rule.
Our main finding is that, on the Habsburg side, still to this day, people have more trust in the courts and the police and that bribing is less common on the Habsburg side.
as the Prussian development of what would become the Polish Corridor showed, was the development of the eastern and southeastern territories something that could not have been replicated by another non-Catholic Western-Central European power in a similar territorial position.
By that logic Romanovs were somehow to blame for Stalin.
Most former Austro-Hungarian officers chose to loyally serve the Nazis with absolutely 0 or minimal resistance.
If that is your argument:
Tukhachevsky – former Russian officer
Budyonny in Russian army- “During World War I, Budyonny was the 5th Squadron’s non-commissioned troop officer in the Christian IX of Denmark 18th Seversky Dragoon Regiment, Caucasian Cavalry Division on the Western Front. He became famous for his attack on a German supply column near Brzezina, and was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th Class. ”
Kamenev – Russian Army captain
The difference is that the loyalists and followers of the Romanovs fought a bloody civil war against Communists for years and lost
You probably aren’t aware that Nazis did not overthrow Hapsburgs but a post-Hapsburg government. Nazis did send Hapsburgs into concentration camps, though. Franz Ferdinand’s two sons were the first two Austrians sent to Dachau.
Stop claiming that Gavrilo Princip was a Serb nationalist when he wasn’t.
Are Serb revisionists now claiming that Princip and the Black Hand were not Serbian nationalists?
Here’s how the Habsburgs tried to take care of Serbs in their benevolence
Wartime examples, the result caused by Serb nationalists’ disgusting terrorism.
As I said, the greatest Serb ever was who he was due to having been raised under Hapsburgs. Rather than herding goats and slitting throats:
In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac[26] to attend high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium where the classes were held in German, as it was usual throughout schools within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier….Tesla later wrote that he became interested in demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor.[28] Tesla noted that these demonstrations of this “mysterious phenomena” made him want “to know more of this wonderful force”.
In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz on a Military Frontier scholarship. During his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams[25][26] (nearly twice as many as required..
All of Tesla’s formal education occurred under Hapsburgs. Coincidence?
Imagine if, rather than killing people and getting yourselves mass slaughtered out of rage and nationalism, your people had decided to live peaceful, educated lives under benevolent Hapsburg supervision and guidance.
You are making a habit of demonstrating your epic level of ignorance.
He opposed war with Serbia, because he predicted it would lead to war with Russia that would result in both monarchies falling. He was thus not only humane but also correct.
Serb nationalists wanted war, of course. He was the most convenient man for them to kill. In Balkanoid fashion, FF’s murderer also killed his wife.
“In February 1913 he gave an unusual toast at a public event: “To peace! What would we get out of war with Serbia? We’d lose the lives of young men and we’d spend money better used elsewhere. And what would we gain, for heaven’s sake? Some plum trees and goat pastures full of droppings, and a bunch of rebellious killers. Long live restraint!”
He worked to successfully sideline the pro-war party; this was of course undone after his death – no one could stop them.
He was also not a “Slavophile” at all.
Of course he was. Stop lying. He married a Slav, after all, against the wishes of his family and at great personal cost. His Slavophilia was why he disliked the Hungarians.
The thing is that Gavrilo Princip did not even conceive of himself as an ethnic Serb and actually considered himself to be Yugoslavian
An ethnic Serb “Yugoslavian” nationalist who wanted rule from Serb Belgrade, working for the Black Hand. Interesting to twist this to mean he wasn’t a Serbian nationalist.
Black Hand, byname of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croation: Union or Death), secret Serbian society of the early 20th century that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914), precipitating the outbreak of World War I.
I know but even today there are Little Russian speaking villages in western Saratov. I have been to two. The 1891 census map shows the whole of the western part of Saratov as Little Russian and the centre as a mix of Little Russian and German. Really, there were Ukrainians across the whole Black Earth. Muscovites belong to the forest! 🙂
Lol AP you are writing in an aggressive way today.
You can admit that adult men saying they believe in demons, is “eccentric” – just is That’s not saying you must be wrong and that demons don’t exist, but certainly it is an “eccentric” position. I know a lot of people and I never met anyone in all my life, talking to me about demons.
None of my friends or family, has said I should add “demons” to the list of things I need to worry about in my life. Neither any of people I’ve known. I never saw anyone over beer after work complaining about demons in the pub.
If we should worry about demons, why not include elves, witches and ghosts as well?
(It’s not to relate this word to its origin Ancient Greece – where it referred to your deeper self, or something like Hindu concept of “Atman”).
most Buddhists dont believe that mental factors, matter or energy will ever perish, they just change form, as we deny permanence of phenomena so do we deny the possible permanent annihilation of phenomena.
Do Buddhists deny the eventual thermal death of this Universe?
I understand why people still cling to religious beliefs and, in fact, I have more respect for some oriental religions than for the Abrahamic ones, they are more sophisticated and not so obviously concocted as a means to soothe the human existential fears. But in the end, it looks like there is no escape from the dichotomy between the rational and the mythical approach to explaining things that classical Greeks were already familiar with.
I actually agree with a certain poster above that it is very unlikely that our great ape brains are capable of a full understanding of Nature and the Universe. But we are much better at it when we use the rational approach than when we go back to the mythical one. That is what makes us dominate the rest of the species and control the environment to our advantage much better than them.
Chimpanzees, cats and trees also live in a world where 2+2 always equals 4 and the square root of 9 is always 3. But it is only us that were able to discern these basic facts of reality thanks to our reasoning abilities, as opposed to our mythical/religious beliefs, that previous hominid species also had but didn’t bring them much progress.
From skimming your post, I assume you are giving me a “newage spiritual” (or perhaps, “psychological”) interpretation on “demons”.
This is how we use the word in ordinary speech – to refer to psychological “demons”. “Beethoven had his demons, which led him to drink”.
The word is used metaphorically in the modern speech (even since the 19th century), not literally. The fact the word has automatically a psychological/metaphorical interpretation, is indicative.
Nobody will read this sentence, to mean that Beethoven had some kind of pet demon.
But in the discussion above, people are proposing demons literally, like in the Ancient Semitic religions, in which they are a supernatural entity that can interrupt themselves in the causal processes of the world. Claims about the existence of such demons, is rather different – I would as easily believe in Centaurs and Minotaurs.
Of course, word demon was originally used in the sense of “deep soul” or “genius”, “divine”. For Socrates, it had the meaning of “Atman” in Hinduism.
The Greek word “Daimon” is – “divine”. If you look at Plato’s dialogues – it’s a question of translator’s subjective choice, whether they choose the word “divine” or “demon”.
The classically educated people still used demon in this way into the 20th century. For example, Yeats – “That crafty demon and that loud beast/ That plague me day and night”.
He is writing about the conflict between his soul and his body.
such a primitive and boring positivist
“Boring” in this context, is a compliment. The more boring the claims in epistemology, can be a positive thing – an indication are you are “travelling lighter”. If your beliefs seem “boring”, this could mean you have less “ontological commitments”. If I had to commit to existence of less things you do – it’s flying lighter.
I had “Headhunters” CD for many years, – but I only played it a few times.
I understand that Harvey Mason is playing very well. But I find these compositions – for example the whole of Chameleon’s two chord I/IV vamp – it’s not the kind of complexity I usually go for in jazz.
7:38 (Chameleon”) starting with the funky bass patterns and then the real cool piano playing that is reminiscent of his past style of playing,
Yes the fender solo after 7:38 like his 1960s blues solos for Blue Note.(He likes playing on the Db7)
Hancock’s old solos on the Blue Note albums – very simple, but rhythmically confident.
It’s interesting how differently and more experimentally he played on Miles’ Second Great Quintet, compared to his sound for Blue Note. He played two different styles in the 1960s.
Lol AP you are writing in an aggressive way today.
Sorry.
You can admit that adult men saying they believe in demons, is “eccentric”
Eccentric implies non-normative. As I have shown, it is a common belief in general society.
I know a lot of people and I never met anyone in all my life, talking to me about demons.
I demonstrates the strange and limited nature of circle.
None of my friends or family, has said I should add “demons” to the list of things I need to worry about in my life. Neither any of people I’ve known. I never saw anyone over beer after work complaining about demons in the pub.
LOL.
Things can exist and also be very rarely or never personally experienced. I don’t think I’ve ever discussed echidnas with any of my friends. This does not mean I doubt their existence.
If we should worry about demons, why not include elves, witches and ghosts as well?
Witches make good money in Russia. You don’t know anyone who has ever experienced a ghost?
Chile has voted for a new constitution
…/…
Liberalism’s march continues unabated.
Please stop making big geopolitical inferences from whatever Chileans vote.
I lived almost a dozen years in Chile through 3 different periods of my life and all the Chilean case demonstrates is that democracy doesn’t really work very well when important decisions are made by a lower 90s-upper 80s-IQ population.
In the past 20+ years Chileans have been alternating their presidential preferences in a manic-depressive way between only two candidates: Bachelet and Piñera. At the end of each’s mandate they ended up fed up with the incumbent and elected the other one. They don’t seem to know what they really want.
Essentially, they are more or less trying to become a 1st World country but are deeply sunk in the middle-income trap and unable to accept that economic growth does not translate into a Scandinavian type of social equality. However, equality has never existed in Chile and they will never achieve it, short of another Communist experiment.
For some curious reason, the descendants of impoverished European immigrants that arrived in Chile during the middle of the 20th Century with literally nothing after the wars now belong to the economic and academic elite of the country, much to the resentment of the Mestizo majority.
Still, many poor but down-to-earth people continue supporting dictator Pinochet’s legacy to this day. They just believe what they saw with their own eyes. Conversely, and not unlike what happens in the West, many of those fighting for “equality” are elite Euro-Chileans.
There are very few albums of Herbie Hancock’s that I find to be sub par. On the “Headhunter’s” album, that I listened to again today, it rekindled my fondness for the way he orchestrated vast, lush landscape background borders using his new found abilities using electronic sounds including mellotrons and synthesizers. But the main man on the agenda today was Oscar Peterson. I listened to the “Ben Webster” album that you recommended, and liked it so much it inspired me to listen to another album of his including the great saxman Lester Young. The tempo is up a notch here, and the bebopping interchange between the two of them is incredible. Also listened to the classic albums “Night Train” and his tribute to Duke Ellington too. I’m glad to say that it was an Oscar Peterson sort of day. 🙂
Correction: after double checking, it was a clavinet and not a mellotron that provided the lush and expansive background palette against which the funky rhythms and cool piano playing were framed.
Also, it looks like the “Headhunters” album was a favorite for fans and critics alike:
Head Hunters became the first jazz album to sell over a million copies.[11] In 2005, the album was ranked number 498 in the book version of Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Head Hunters was a key release in Hancock’s career and a defining moment in the genre of jazz, and has been an inspiration not only for jazz musicians, but also to funk, soul music, jazz funk and hip hop artists.[2] The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which collects “culturally, historically or aesthetically important” sound recordings from the 20th century.
Chilean ‘exceptionalism’ was essentially built on a gigantic commodity boom. When that boom died (circa 2014), their growth also collapsed. Their so-called free-market system failed to bail them out. Just as Macri in Argentina failed with his neoliberalism and bankrupted the country.
Trying to link the new constitution to higher growth completely misunderstands its purpose and shows your own limited understanding. The goal is to redistribute resources in what is a de facto rich country (by global standards, not Western ones). Nobody is claiming this is going to lead to higher growth. 78% of the people voting for a new constitution tells its own story: your pedestrian anecdotes about low-info plebs pining for Pinochet are irrelevant.
Chile’s human capital is modest, so its growth prospects will naturally be constrained by this fact, but to use that as an excuse for rampant inequality is nonsensical.
West Ukranian: My grandfather watched my grandmother get fucked by a Hapsburg
Pole: Yea, well mine took BIG BALTIC CAWK!
Mongol-Buryat-Polish Mutt: Yea, well my Grandfather was GHEY!
It was an Antiochian Orthodox Church; the priest was Lebanese-American. I went there because it happened to be the only nearby Eastern Christian Church.
Oh sorry, always expecting worst of others is a sin. I am often too cynical regarding the human nature.
But you are too accusatory towards the Serbian nation and their culpability for starting the ww1. I believe that you know the July ultimatum given to Serbia by AH. That the Austro Hungarian demands were purposefully impossible to fulfill by any independent nation, still Serbs accepted all terms except the one, that concerned of Austrias polices free jurisdiction in Serbia, or something like that, I dont remember the particulars, anyway the ultimatum was made by design to be an impossible and Serbia would had become a vassal state of AH. Therefore Austria was the main culprit for unleashing the world war on European continent.
Is this the book that taught you that Hapsburgs never ruled Milan, Gavril Princip and Black Hand weren’t Serb nationalists, Franz Ferdinand was desperate for war, and other nonsense?
Promoting this book, written by a Serb nationalist/Mladic’s lackey, merely spotlights your ignorance and lack of objectivity:
Once described by the Belgrade daily Danas as a “man with three faces”, he was born in 1957 in Banjaluka to a Muslim father (who named him Omer); as a teenager he moved with his mother to England, finally studying at Cambridge and then teaching history at Marlborough College. But in the Bosnian Wars he suddenly surfaced as Radovan Karadžić’s spin doctor, going before the cameras in 1995 to explain that “we [Bosnian Serbs] wish to have our own state”. Twenty years later, when he served as a witness for Karadžićat his trial for genocide and war crimes at The Hagu e, he stressed that it had been a defensive and just Serb war. While Zametica makes use of his advocacy skills in Folly and Malice, his own identity crisis may underlie a belief in clear-cut racial divisions for explaining the past. His throw-away line about one historian speaks volumes: “People can get perversely obsessed with the question of how to persuade others to accept a scenario in which they themselves genuinely believe”
Like a bible wards off Satanists and garlic wards off vampires, this book wards off obnoxious Galician Ukrop Uniate trash that worships Austria-Hungary like you.
I might just keep spamming it in the future since it triggers and burns you so much.
Btw, the fact that the author’s background is that of a family of genuine Serbs of the Muslim faith, it gives the book more objectivity and value because it gives a partly Muslim perspective on the subject matter. Also, Mladic was a military general, not a political figure, and he always got outplayed by Karadzic and Milosevic in politics, so the notion that Mladic had any PR lackey’s is nonsense.
Do Buddhists deny the eventual thermal death of this Universe?
You use that concept, but I think that you dont understand what it even means?
Remember what I once wrote to you and you never replied for some reason.
Yes we think that mental aggregates never disappear, in a similar way there is law or two laws of physics that all matter and energy is conserved(in a closed system) . They just change position, configuration or form.
By the laws of the physics there is no annihilation of energy or matter in thermal death, so whats your point?
The thermal death of the universe does not mean that there will never be any interaction or change in the universe, things just happen very, very slowly.
If you would have read even such elementary and simple books about physics like A brief history of time by Hawking you would know that if there is an infinite amount of time, there can arise a counter reaction and entropy can be reversed, Hawking even made calculations how long that will take.
The termal death or heat death of universe is only possible if our universe is a closed or an isolated system, congratulations Mikel that you definitely know the answer of that.
There are many scientists who believe that one day universe will collapse, so called “Big crunch, ” and then the inflatuon or expansion of our cosmos will begin again.
There are also many physicists who believe in Quantum fluctuations and that our universe can birth new universes
There are many competing theories regarding the fate of our universe, but I have never heard any scientist claiming that the termal death is permanent or that matter or energy will be annihilated.
You are just a simpleton who is self assured of ones nihilistic view of reality.
Now because you are simpleton you think:”why he thinks I am a nihilist, I have not claimed to be a one, nor said anything about such matters.”
The logical conclusion of your worldview is that because there is a heat death of universe all our deeds and thoughts ultimately lack meaning and purpose. That is the very crux of your line of thought.
I understand why people still cling to religious beliefs and, in fact, I have more respect for some oriental religions than for the Abrahamic ones, they are more sophisticated and not so obviously concocted as a means to soothe the human existential fears. But in the end, it looks like there is no escape from the dichotomy between the rational and the mythical approach to explaining things that classical Greeks were already familiar with.
What rationalism means for you? I dont know about you, but for many it means how to eliminate the sources of suffering and ensure oneselfs or communitys wellbeing and happiness, right? That is the basis of Buddhism. Im not Christian so I cant definitely speak for them but I believe that Christ wanted happiness and well being for all beings.
In Buddhism we believe that negative afflictions are demons, we dont use the word demon but Mara, so we believe them to be Maras and like memes or trends can grow, multiply, spread from one person to another, so too we believe that these afflictions or negative thoughts can infect and stain, affect and warp individuls mind and be spread by that afflicted individual and others can then too be infected. These deluded views are ultimately the demons.
Even the actual demonic entities of our religion are under these demonic afflictions, and cant think straightly. Nihilistic view of reality is clearly a demonic affliction among others by the way. A very strong one indeed…
Whats your opinion regarding elk meat? Last days I have eaten many times elk or what Americans call as moose. You can get surprisingly good bouillon from the elk bones.
But you are too accusatory towards the Serbian nation and their culpability for starting the ww1
I have some pity for them because the culpable parties while within the Serbian government were not its leaders.
I believe that you know the July ultimatum given to Serbia by AH. That the Austro Hungarian demands were purposefully impossible to fulfill by any independent nation
Elements of the Serbian government were involved in a murderous terror act on Austrian soil, the assassination of the future head of state. The trail led to Serbia. The contentious point of the ultimatum was for Austrian investigators to go into Serbia, rather than for the (compromised) Serbian government to itself conduct this investigation on its soil.
Imagine if Putin, while visiting Crimea (whose international legal status is less settled than that of Bosnia in 1914), was killed by a gang of Ukrainian nationalists (perhaps Azovites, who are sponsored by interior minister Avakov). The trail led to Ukraine. Would Russia not be justified in demanding that its own investigators rather than Ukrainian government ones follow that trail into Ukraine? This was essentially Austria’s position vis a vis Serbia. So Austria was justified in its ultimatum and morally justified in its declaration of war though of course this was a grave mistake given what occurred in the next years. Russia was not justified in supporting the Serbian regime which had blood on its hands.
Fate was cruel to the guilty parties in a collective way. One third of Serbia’s male population was killed in the war that followed. Serbs were furthermore punished in the next world war, by the Croats. The consequences for Russia as a result of it coming the the defense of the Serbs were catastrophic. Nicholas (who wisely personally opposed war but didn’t stop it) whose state came to the defense of the murderous regicidal Serbs himself was murdered. The Russian and Ukrainian people who let the tsar fall, lost millions.*
Franz Ferdinand had wanted to avoid war with Serbia at all costs, predicting it would bring in Russia and that as a result both Hapsburgs and Romanovs would lose their thrones. He was sadly correct. The primary beneficiaries were the Americans. So we can blame Serbs for the problems of the modern Americanized world.
Ironic how America punished Serbia a little more in the 1990s.
Interesting how Galicians who were loyal to Hapsburgs and who later were relatively friendly towards Denikin were spared much of the worst of the 20th century horrors.
I should have been more precise. When I claimed that we believe that continuum of phenomena is eternal you brought up the thermal death of universe as a counter argument, right? Because you thought that the “death” in the thermal death means same as annihilation or final end of phenomena.
Chilean ‘exceptionalism’ was essentially built on a gigantic commodity boom.
A gigantic commodity boom that lasted from the mid 80s to 2014? 🙂
(circa 2014), their growth also collapsed.
Their growth collapsed in the mid 90s and never recovered to anything close to the previous levels. A couple of years earlier Chile was growing faster than China (10%+), economic publications referred to it as the Latin American “jaguar”, lumping it together in international comparisons with the Asian “tigers” (Hong-Kong, Singapore, SK and Taiwan), and their minister of finance Aninat made predictions on TV of how soon Chile would surpass Spain in per capita GDP. I remember all of this well, I was there.
Trying to link the new constitution to higher growth completely misunderstands its purpose and shows your own limited understanding.
I never made any such link at all. 95%+ of the people who voted the other day would not be able to express in any meaningful way what economic growth is and comports.
78% of the people voting for a new constitution tells its own story
The story is very simple: Mestizo Chileans regularly take to the streets to loot and destroy. It happens every time there is a vacuum of power like earthquakes, floods or other disasters. But there are also days of the year, typically associated to some leftist celebration, when everybody knows that you must stay at home, especially at night, because no amount of police presence is capable of containing the violence of the mobs.
A year ago, shortly after Chileans had elected a right-wing president in deep disgust with the previous leftist administration, there was the customary outbreak of looting and violence after a new price hike in the disastrous public transportation system of Santiago (that substituted a very efficient private one). The violence suddenly grew up inflamed by the leftists who had recently lost power and reached uncontainable levels. The destruction of private and public property was unprecedented. Some 30 people died, a good number of them looters burnt alive by other looters.
Your new shiny constitution is a simple attempt by the political elites to placate the ever more violent mobs and avoid an economic catastrophe after the Chilean peso reached historical lows and production in many sectors was paralyzed by the violence. That’s all. Exactly no_thing will change with the new law about the underlying causes of inequality in Chile.
your pedestrian anecdotes about low-info plebs pining for Pinochet are irrelevant.
These poor people that I know personally do not appreciate Pinochet too much for the economic growth that barely reached them. What they really appreciated was the law and order atmosphere that enabled them to live without the constant fear of being robbed and assaulted. You don’t seem to have the slightest clue of what it is like to live all your life in a very low-trust, immoral and violent society.
Chile’s human capital is modest, so its growth prospects will naturally be constrained by this fact, but to use that as an excuse for rampant inequality is nonsensical.
Yes, the average is modest but it follows the same unequal distribution among different ethnic groups as everywhere else. Which is why it is naïve in the extreme to expect an end to inequality in Chile by decree.
Both Pali and Sanskrit traditions have these unanswered questions of Buddha. From point of view of Mahayana they are not useless itself, but those who ask such things are so entangled with the dualistic thinking that it was better for Buddha to remain silent.
I despise HHGTTG and always have, even when I was a teenager I thought that what a dumb book. Truly it was the harbinger of the modern shitty “lol so random”-humour. One of the most overrated books ever.
I despise HHGTTG and always have, even when I was a teenager I thought that what a dumb book. Truly it was the harbinger of the modern shitty “lol so random”-humour. One of the most overrated books ever.
I am not a great fan of HHGTTG either. In a similar humorous SciFi literature vein, I prefer the adventures of Jon Tichy or the Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem (of whom I am a great fan). But each time I hear someone discussing Great and Absolute matters or asking Great and Absolute questions, number 42 always comes to my mind.
The story is very simple: Mestizo Chileans regularly take to the streets to loot and destroy. It happens every time there is a vacuum of power like earthquakes, floods or other disasters. But there are also days of the year, typically associated to some leftist celebration, when everybody knows that you must stay at home, especially at night, because no amount of police presence is capable of containing the violence of the mobs.
I dont understand this, I know that HBD crowd says that its because of low IQ or something, leftists will claim that its because of social inequality or opression but I have been everywhere in India and Nepal, night and day, by car and walking and never have I feared any robbery or mugging etc.
Pinochet executed his US-sponsored coup in 1973. Ten years later, Chile was hardly much better off. And if you read about that period, what happened was that the worst excessess of neoliberal “shock therapy” began to be tapered, which allowed the country to breathe normally again. In other words, Chile had a period of moderation in the mid-to-late 1980s rather than an intensification of neoliberalism.
From 1990 until 2014 you had the rise of China which was starting to make itself felt and Chile benefitted from that more than most. We should also give some credence to their political class’ savvy, they had more domestic stability than most, in large part because they were loyal dogs of the US geopolitically. This meant that they did not have to worry about coups or subterfuge, unlike other LatAm countries that foolishly belaboured under the delusion of sovereignity.
Remember: in international politics, real sovereignity is reserved for only a handful of powerful nations. Rest are subcolonial entities, to be bargained with, bullied and ordered around. Chilean leaders understood this and acted accordingly. The only reason they are changing now is because the economic debate has shifted in the West, allowing them to make tactical compromises with the people’s demands. Austerity and neoliberalism are being openly called into question even by Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF. So the price of breaking with past taboos has fallen precipitously.
The rest of your comment is just blatant racial scaremongering about “mestizos” and bickering about the plebs getting a few scraps off the table. This is a very familliar pattern to those who have debated and discussed with right-wing Latin Americans. Many have a thinly-disguised racial disdain for the ‘brown hordes’ and are obsessed with keeping the stratospheric inequality intact at almost any cost.
Correct, but it’s the best fairly objective measure we have to compare dangerousness. Reporting of theft or assault may vary due to police competence, attitudes towards complaining to the cops, etc. but bodies are harder to ignore.
Oscar Peterson, the Canadian jazz pianist, angrily canceled a cultural‐exchange concert tour of the Soviet Union yesterday, and flew off to Helsinki, Finland, despite entreaties from Robert Ford, the Canadian Ambassador to Moscow. Mr. Peterson was piqued by his treatment at the hands of Soviet officials, who, he told Canadian representatives, made life generally unpleasant for him. He left Moscow only hours before he was to give the first of four sold‐out concerts, and also canceled appearances in Tbilisi and Yerevan.
I don’t know all of the details of this incident, but I do know that he did eventually give a great concert in Moscow in 1974, that was very well received by the locals:
Based on the chart you provided, it looks like the growth began in 1975 after a decline right after the overthrow, with an interruption from 1981-1983 when it declined, before resuming its growth on a greater trajectory than had been the case before Pinochet.
Prior to the overthrow Chile had slight growth, it wasn’t declining overall but was rather stagnant.
The rest of your comment is just blatant racial scaremongering about “mestizos” and bickering about the plebs getting a few scraps off the table. This is a very familliar pattern to those who have debated and discussed with right-wing Latin Americans. Many have a thinly-disguised racial disdain for the ‘brown hordes’ and are obsessed with keeping the stratospheric inequality intact at almost any cost.
All white Latin Americans, not many, but all that I have met, have been insufferable color blind leftists. That kind of people who believe that socialism would magically solve all their problems.
You evidently have far lower standards than I do. Taking off is a sustained process that is fundamentally and qualitatively different from what came before. It’s not bouncing around within a narrow band. Prior to 1990, Chile was a mediocre also-ran.
Now when we are speaking of Latin America and he is mentioned in your book cover, have you read any books by Borges. I havent yet but I have planned to read some day, but for for some reasont I havent found time yet. If you have read are they any good? He inspired greatly Umberto Eco, whose novels Name of the Rose and Baudolino I very much adore.
You have met the better minority then. The ones I’ve met have been a mix, but have tended to be more right-wing. One factor may be that they were typically from places like Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Not the best success stories, with lots of violent upheavals (and sudden reversals). That historical baggage gives birth to entrenched resentment and often more extreme rhetoric and ideology.
That kind of people who believe that socialism would magically solve all their problems.
That’s funny, because my interaction with LatAm rightoids has been the mirror equivalent. If only this or that tax reform was implemented, LatAm would suddenly regain its lost glory.
Disciplined long-term gradualism is admittedly far more boring, yet it is also much more powerful if you keep at it with an iron will.
I mostly agree, but sometimes there comes moments in history when one must seize the initiative and do drastic changes. Like Japan in the 1860s, they could have continued on the feudal path and ended up like China and Korea. There was no guarantee that by starting revolution and civil war against the Shogunate amidst predatory foreign powers, that things would have ended so well. But yes 95% of time you are correct and even when such critical moments of history appear, one should be calm and calculating.
Sure, but there may be fluctuations during the process of taking off.
The chart shows sustained high rate of growth starting in 1975 and ending in 2013, with a 2 year fluctuation 1981-1983 and one year fluctuations in 1999 and 2009.
Chan is Chan, too far from the source, we who follow the masters of Nalanda have a totally different view regarding the Sutras. Or maybe you have just misunderstood and the original saying was motivated by desire to have balance a between book knowledge and empirical knowledge. I just cant believe that any true Buddhist would disparage Buddhavacana, Buddhas words crucial importance on the path to the Buddhahood. I never can emphasis too much how dangerous is trying to learn Dharma alone, especially when reading advanced topics. Four noble(Aryan) truths, 12 causal links of existence, eightfold path, four seals of Dharma, three marks of existence, non self/anatman etc are already quite heavy stuff, but still elementary, compared to advanced Sutrayana like Chan or Cittamantra, all the masters have had their roots in the foundations before going forward on the path. I have understood that you live in France, if Im correct then you are lucky, they probably have the largest Buddhist community in Europe after Russia. Many Buddhist centers and even couple monasteries.
Alone its too easy to develop subtle wrong views that will just grow and grow. I speak from personal experience, some periods of my life I have met rarely with Buddhist masters and every time my mind has quickly developed deluded and dangerous views regarding emptiness or other matters regarding Buddhist philosophy, but after a good talk with a Lama, many delusions and deceptions are cleared away, and mind truly feels purified and one feels genuinely be on path towards the Buddhahood.
If you ever find a time, try to read Shantidevas way of the Boddhisattva, Bohisattvacharyavatara. Reading it will never do any harm.
I apologize for having formulated my question and thoughts in a way that somehow led you to attack me personally.
I understand that religious beliefs are delicate matters for some people and maybe I should have left any appearances of snark apart. My question was well-meaning, I was trying to see how a Buddhist would approach the science-religion conflict.
And yes, you are right in comment 396 about what prompted me to ask you that question. Unfortunately, the thermal death of the Universe means that the phenomenon we call Life is condemned to extinguish itself, along with any of its manifestation, such as the brain processes of the particular species we belong to.
Like I said myself, we cannot be sure that thermal death is the fate of the Universe or even that we are able to ask ourselves, let alone answer, the right questions about these matters but thanks to science we now have incomparably more information about the Universe than ever before. The scientific evidence at hand right now indicates that thermal death is the most likely outcome so I think that it makes sense to contrast it to mythical beliefs that were formulated before we even knew of that possible outcome.
If you liked The History of Time, I found The Great Design even more fascinating. But, as you know, there is little comfort to be found for a religious person in the masterpieces of a declared atheist like Hawkins.
I also apologize for not having followed up in earlier exchanges with you. It’s just lack of time.
PS- I don’t know about Buddhism but I had ten years of Catholic education at school and I didn’t find that they were teaching us to be happy at all. In a very superficial way, yes, they did try to cheer us up through the message that God is so good and that his promise of salvation if (and only if) we accepted their dogmas was fantastic news (but beware if weren’t able to believe them!).
However, deep inside there was a very disquieting message of a cruel God that had purposefully made us imperfect so He was constantly angry at us because of the imperfections He had imposed on us Himself. To make matters worse, He lost patience with us and decided to send his own son to be tortured and killed so that we finally started heeding his advice (not that it makes sense, but that’s literally what they taught us). Why would a benevolent god do such a silly thing? Only a few humans in the Middle East would be aware about this human sacrifice, they wouldn’t understand its meaning and the rest of humans around the planet would continue sinning and condemning themselves through no fault of their own because they had no means of knowing what the hell was going on in that particular part of the world where God decided to interact with humans of a specific tribe. Insane.
As in most traditional Indian presentations of cosmology, including the Buddhist abhidharma ones, there are countless universes, each of which passes through cycles of evolving, enduring, disintegrating and remaining bare. The cycles of each universe are not synchronous with the cycles of the others, so that when one universe is evolving, another will be disintegrating or bare. Because of that, the countless number of limited beings (or sentient beings) always has available to it some universe in which to take rebirth.
This is our traditional view, the bare state of universe or what you call as thermal death of universe is one phase in the cycle.
Like I said myself, we cannot be sure that thermal death is the fate of the Universe or even that we are able to ask ourselves, let alone answer, the right questions about these matters but thanks to science we now have incomparably more information about the Universe than ever before. The scientific evidence at hand right now indicates that thermal death is the most likely outcome so I think that it makes sense to contrast it to mythical beliefs that were formulated before we even knew of that possible outcome.
I just explained in my old comment that there is no consensus regarding the matter, so you truly know that our universe is a closed system? Just wow, I dont know what to say. I am bored to remind you that Hawking himself believed that entropy can be reversed if there is infinitely time, isnt there infinitely time in the universe?
If you liked The History of Time, I found The Great Design even more fascinating. But, as you know, there is little comfort to be found for a religious person in the masterpieces of a declared atheist like Hawkins.
As i know what, you silly cow? His book was for me quite comfortable, actually I loaned that book from my Tibetan monk friend.
I understand that religious beliefs are delicate matters for some people and maybe I should have left any appearances of snark apart. My question was well-meaning, I was trying to see how a Buddhist would approach the science-religion conflict.
For me they are not delicate matters, well established arguments against Buddhism make me happy. There is no science religion conflict with Buddhism and science. Buddhism tries to eliminate the suffering, we believe that the ultimate cause for our suffering are afflictive emotions and cognitive obscurations that deny the possibility of true happiness. Man can be rich, have power and women, but still not truly happy or happy but only momentarily, and when old age or disease comes the suffering will return in more horrible form. So ours is the science of suffering and how to truly find a well established and permanent state of happiness for us and others. The science on the other hand examines the the attributes of quantifiable phenomena. Even if brain chemistry is the reason for our diferent emotional states, it cant explain why some thing feels like it feels. Like the famous “what it feels to be a bat”-example. We can completely understand and know the anatomy and configuration of the animal called bat, but still we wouldn’t know how it feels to be a bat, whats its like when ones a bat. As I have mentioned to you and Dmitry before, we Buddhists believe like the physicist Freeman Dyson believed, that the mind is as much part of the reality as the matter. Actually it seems very probable that quantum physics cant be explained without the participation of the mind, subatomic particles behave differently depending on that if they are observed or not. The mental factors and aggregates change, grow and decay like material things, and they are dependent on material reality as material reality is dependent on mental factors. All concepts exist only in the mind, like big, or small, like beauty and uglyness, like numbers, like many or few, they do not have independent existence from our mind, they only exist in relation to each other. Matter or mind are not permanent, but they have a continuum, like a river has continuum and has nothing fixed in it.
And yes, you are right in comment 396 about what prompted me to ask you that question. Unfortunately, the thermal death of the Universe means that the phenomenon we call Life is condemned to extinguish itself, along with any of its manifestation, such as the brain processes of the particular species we belong to.
Yes Buddhism does believe that the life on earth will one day disappear, Buddha explained that in the sermon of the seven suns, that one day sun will scorch the earth and life becomes an impossibility on the earth. But we believe that subtle mental continuum of beings mindtream will continue, maybe on different worlds. Did you know that its the consensus of the scientific community that vast majority of the universe is dark matter and energy, and again dont take it as literally as you took the death in the thermal death, its dark because we just dont know what it is, it shows in calculatjons and observations of lights path and in gravity wells in space, but no one knows what it is, and like 90% of our universe is that stuff. We dont even know such things yet, how many things there are that we know nothing of?
I dont claim that Buddhism is a definitive truth for those who are non Buddhists but you scientific materialists just love to proclaim that you have found the ultimate truth regarding the nature of existence, in that you are epecially dangerous religious cult, that your nihilistic truth is truth for all men, now and always, but no wonder you were born from the writings of the Marx and his materialistic dialectic. You are that one shard of Communistic thought that still prospers, maybe even the most dangerous part?
May the demons who lead you to insult an unknown person who is just trying to have a conversation with you stop torturing you. You look very far away from any state of happiness or piece of mind.
As for the demons who, against my will, make me unable to believe in religious explanations of my existence, if they one day stop torturing me, now I know through your example that I am very unlikely to find comfort in Buddhism. Thanks for that.
PS- I don’t know about Buddhism but I had ten years of Catholic education at school and I didn’t find that they were teaching us to be happy at all. In a very superficial way, yes, they did try to cheer us up through the message that God is so good and that his promise of salvation if (and only if) we accepted their dogmas was fantastic news (but beware if weren’t able to believe them!).
However, deep inside there was a very disquieting message of a cruel God that had purposefully made us imperfect so He was constantly angry at us because of the imperfections He had imposed on us Himself. To make matters worse, He lost patience with us and decided to send his own son to be tortured and killed so that we finally started heeding his advice (not that it makes sense, but that’s literally what they taught us). Why would a benevolent god do such a silly thing? Only a few humans in the Middle East would be aware about this human sacrifice, they wouldn’t understand its meaning and the rest of humans around the planet would continue sinning and condemning themselves through no fault of their own because they had no means of knowing what the hell was going on in that particular part of the world where God decided to interact with humans of a specific tribe. Insane.
I dont know many Catholics, but this seems quite common with Catholics, at least if you believe depictions in literature. That Catholic schools are opressive and dogmatic. I cant help you with this, sad that your view of religion was born from such circumstances. I am not myself a fan of Catholic Church, but they have at least also done lots of good in history. I am little tired of being the apologist for the apostolic Christianity here on this site, but know this that the Orthodox Church does not believe in Original sin, they do not believe that babies are by nature sinful, like Catholics do, but they believe in ancestral sin, because of the sins committed by our ancestors we suffer the results of those sins and often arr afflicted by those sins made by our ancestors or parents, or close ones. The Orthodox church believes that all men are images of God, but this tainted and broken world has made the image dirty and muddied, but under all that dirt there is our good and Christlike nature.
But, but dont think that I say thtat its better for you to be religious, you have valid points from your point of view. There are often things in philosophies and religions that dont make sense for everybody, as there will be if one decides to walk ones own path, our mind is frail, under decay, under emotional changes etc. But if religion didnt work in your case it doesnt meant that it doesnt work for others.
Here is by the way what Freeman Dyson said regarding religion and science:
Science and religion are two windows that people look through, trying to understand the big universe outside, trying to understand why we are here. The two windows give different views, but they look out at the same universe. Both views are one-sided, neither is complete. Both leave out essential features of the real world. And both are worthy of respect. Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. The media exaggerate their numbers and importance. The media rarely mention the fact that the great majority of religious people belong to moderate denominations that treat science with respect, or the fact that the great majority of scientists treat religion with respect so long as religion does not claim jurisdiction over scientific questions.[
Oh and I specifically chose the silly cow, because I thought that it was playful and non offensive, except if you are discussing with a woman and I thought that Mikel is a mans name, like the archangel. If people knew how much I self censor myself…. What a silly barking dog( and a cawing crow) I have been. Oh well good riddance then. A little bit thick skin on the road to the Nirvana is sadly necessary…
AP and especially AaronB are quite far on that road. Arent you AP you Jesuit bastard child of the Catholic Church? Or Mr. Hack who is the literal Judas Iscariot of the Rus. Actually I must admit that I probably am quite badly behaving….
I own real state in Chile. I really wish I could rent it and get an income from it but I’ve tried too many times with always the same result: they stop paying the rent and leave a big mess of unpaid utility bills and destroyed property that I need to clean up afterwards.
And I’ve been very lucky that I didn’t have to evict anyone. It takes years of litigation. So I’ve given up, I prefer to keep my houses vacant and pay for property taxes and minimum utility bills. Now the only thing that I need to worry about is the periodic notices of people having looted the interior of my properties or just vandalized them for no purpose at all. It’s not so bad, you get used to it. They can’t possibly take away the land with them and it’s rather unlikely that they will completely destroy the walls and the roofs.
But most of all, I wish Chile would become a stable and very prosperous country. That would increase the value of my properties instead of seeing it go down as time goes by. If writing a new constitution that provides equality to womxn, original tribes, poor and rich, etc makes them stop looting, stealing and vandalizing, by all means, bring it on.
Unfortunately, it is what it is. I do not expect to see any such changes whatsoever.
The reason why I decided to live in Chile is quite similar to what brought me to the US West. I wanted to enjoy the mountains and virgin landscapes of the New World. So I lived on the outskirts of Santiago, where I could enjoy an unimpeded view of the majestic Andes. This means that I spent many years surrounded by ordinary Chileans. I know how they live, how they speak, what they eat, what they watch on TV, what they tend to think about different issues,… The only thing I will never understand is why they behave the way they do under certain circumstances. But it doesn’t matter, I know what to expect, even if it doesn’t make sense to me, and that is what counts.
The idea that a person living in Sweden with no more information about Chile than what he reads on the internet knows about the Chilean society better than me is very entertaining, thanks for the laughs.
Isn’t it about that time that you take a powder, take another bad turn towards emptying yourself of all that hostile puffery that you’ve developed over the years, hurling empty epithets towards other sentient beings? Just asking? 🙂
the Orthodox Church does not believe in Original sin, they do not believe that babies are by nature sinful, like Catholics do, but they believe in ancestral sin, because of the sins committed by our ancestors we suffer the results of those sins and often arr afflicted by those sins made by our ancestors or parents, or close ones
Although it is proper to each individual,295 original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted..
One of the most common Orthodox arguments these days is that one of the chief heresies of Rome is original sin. Orthodox supposedly do not believe in original sin, but ancestral sin. Augustine supposedly corrupted the faith using a mistranslation of Romans 5:12.
Anyone who makes this argument however is a heretic by Orthodox standards. One of the chief heresies of Pelagius is his denial of original sin. This is why the Council of Carthage placed an anathema against anyone who denies original sin, and this canon was accepted ecumenically by the seventh ecumenical council. Canon 110 of Carthage states that,
whosoever denies that infants newly from their mother’s wombs should be baptized, or says that baptism is for remission of sins, but that they derive from Adam no original sin, which needs to be removed by the laver of regeneration, from whence the conclusion follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins, is to be understood as false and not true, let him be anathema.
Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain included this canon in the Rudder and added commentary stating that,
This view too was a product of the heretical insanity of the Pelagians: this refers to their saying that newly begotten infants are not baptized for the remission of sins, as the Orthodox Church believes and maintains, but, instead… the infants themselves have not incurred any taint from the original sin of Adam.
St. Augustine was also declared as a father of the Church at the fifth ecumenical council, while Pelagius is universally recognized as a heretic. The idea that original sin is passed down from one generation to the next is also present in St. Maximus the Confessor and in St. Gregory Palamas (as part of his defense of the immaculate conception).
The idea that St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin is heretical is in part due to a misunderstanding of the doctrine. St. Augustine’s theology is not that infants are personally guilty of the sin of Adam, but that they receive the effects of it. Sin is not merely about guilt but is about an ontological reality like a disease. This stain of original sin prevents us from seeing God. This is why St. Gregory the Theologian says that,
those who fail to receive the gift [of baptism]…perhaps on account of infancy, or some perfectly involuntary circumstance through which they are prevented from receiving it, even if they wish…will be neither glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as unsealed [by baptism] and yet not wicked, but persons who have suffered rather than done wrong. For not everyone who is not bad enough to be punished is good enough to be honored; just as not everyone who is not good enough to be honored is bad enough to be punished.
This is what the West would later come to call limbo, but it is clearly here taught by one of the greatest Eastern saints. It is also taught at the Synod of Jerusalem in response to Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire.
This theological heresy is quite new in Orthodoxy, having been invented by Fr. John Romanides in the 20th century. It is also considered heresy by many Orthodox Christians as well but is now accepted by most Orthodox Christians.
I could not use those words to describe myself, sadly, but such a person would be closer to Socrates’ ideal than most.
“Boring” – implies also someone who is a little slow to believe, steady, calm.
“Positivist” – someone who only believes what they have evidence for, or that was derived from logic.
“Boring positivist” – such people (if they existed) would be somewhere closer to Socratic wisdom, by assenting to less, and knowing less, than an “excitable non-positivist”.
acquires “demonic” qualities
You are giving the “psychological” interpretation of demons, which is the normal view in our culture, so I don’t see where you disagreed – i.e. “Beethoven had his demons” (we don’t imagine from reading this, that Beethoven had a magical cage in his apartment, with pet flying demons inside – but rather that he was under influence of destructive emotions and fixations).
This word “demonic” from Ancient Greek, is often translated in modern texts (for example if we compare Plato’s Greek with English translation): “divine”, “relating to the gods”, “inner genius”.
Such kind of influence would for Greeks describe the sense of strong passions coming from outside person, as if from the gods – lust (from Aphrodite, Eros), rage and anger (from Aries), anxiety (from Phobos , Deimos), madness and ecstatic states (from Dionysus).
Similarly, outside influence would also include positive passions like wisdom and calm (from Athena), logic and rationality (from Apollo).
This matches our sense that these moods feel like they “hijack” our mind. It’s a description of the experience, rather than of an external causal process. Of course, lust is essential to man’s reproduction, and hardly requires the interference of gods – but lust subjectively feels like it “hijacks” your mind, as if from outside ourselves, and it has a divine quality (in both the positive and negative senses).
A criticism of the Semitic (or post-monotheistic Semitic) division between angels (good)/demons (evil), is that these strong emotional states can sometimes sublimate into good results (as the Plato argues in “Symposium” that Eros and lust, leads to art and philosophy), and other times apparently “good impulses” degenerate into evil results.
In the Greek mythology, there is emphasis on intrigues between the gods, that result in good leading to evil, and evil leading to good.
In the Semitic religion, there is sometimes problem in relation to the passions, which Nietzsche used the metaphor of dentistry to describe: “We no longer admire those dentists who extract teeth simply in order that they may not ache again… The Church combats passion by means of excision… . It never inquires “how can a desire be spiritualised, beautified, deified?”—In all ages it has laid the weight of discipline in the process of extirpation (the extirpation of sensuality, pride, lust of dominion, lust of property, and revenge). ”
For example, lust – which could usually be viewed as a “demonic” and negative – was also the fuel of an artist like Raphael, who sublimated it into beauty.
The whole World only exists within sentient beings consciousness. If there were no sentient beings to experience it, there would be nothing we could call Reality.
The phenomenal world exists within sentient beings’ consciousness. This is especially obvious with the secondary qualities – (e.g. colours, which are arbitrary markers used by our consciousness), but even the primary ones (e.g. electromagnetic spectrum) cannot be fully separated from the observer. But that doesn’t mean there is not a “noumenal world”, which exists independently of perception, and that idealism is correct.
We cannot access the noumenal world, independently of our perception, but that doesn’t imply necessarily that it doesn’t exist. Here is some sense of hubris in the arguments for idealism – “I can’t access this locked room, so there must be nothing inside it”.
If nothing changes, in a couple of generations the part of Eurasia where Rus tribes and their ancestors lived for times immemorial, will become a sparsely populated and resources rich territory to be milked by the global TNC, both Western and Chinese.
I used to think you were a more serious thinker when you first came to comment here. 😐
not as blind as your small strange circle of positivists.
strange and limited nature of circle.
I find romantic this idea of a “circle of positivists” – it makes me imagine that I am in the coffeehouses of 1920s Vienna, discussing verification principles with Rudolf Carnap, Frank Ramsey and Ludwig Wittgenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Circle
Sadly, I don’t live in such a “circle of heroic positivists”, but just in a normal environment.
Eccentric implies non-normative. As I have shown, it is a common belief in general society.
So we meet someone new for the job interview (let’s say in the typical office), and we ask them as the first question: “how was your week so far?”
And they answer “Week was good. I had some problems with a demon last week . He attacked me when I am having breakfast. But this week I had no problem with the demon and I’ve been working effectively.”
Would such a discussion of demons (used apparently in a non-metaphorical sense of the word), by our applicant, more likely to result in job offer, or phone call from the psychiatric hospital?
Witches make good money in Russia. You don’t know anyone who has ever experienced a ghost?
If I visited your country house as a guest, and you said to me “There is a choice of two empty rooms you can sleep in. In the front empty bedroom, the previous owner’s child killed herself, and my superstitious wife sometimes thinks she hears a child’s voice at night screaming in that empty room. In the back room, nobody has died, but the bed is uncomfortable.”
I would probably choose the back room (although I have slept without problem in a room with a similar history as in this example). I don’t believe a white apparition will fly through the room (until you present some convincing evidence this can happen), but the belief in ghosts are at least connected to real, creepy events: death and tragedy is no fiction.
If I sleep in the bedroom where the child has died, – the ghost doesn’t need to exist, but there is still something uncanny about the child’s death in the same space I would be occupy (separated only by time).
On the other hand, if you said, “be careful walking in the mountain behind our house, as there are often demons flying there” (like in a story from “Saragossa Manuscript”), then I would be entertained by eccentricity of my hosts, but not avoid mountain. What’s the difference? Concept of the “ghost” is connected to something which has really happened in the house (child has really died) and the death is creepy to us, while the demons flying in the hills, is abstract and requires some metaphysics I and most European men since 19th century do not share.
So we meet someone new for the job interview (let’s say in the typical office), and we ask them as the first question: “how was your week so far?”
And they answer “Week was good. I had some problems with a demon last week . He attacked me when I am having breakfast. But this week I had no problem with the demon and I’ve been working effectively.”
There are many groups today that really and actually believe in demons as much as the normies believe in viruses and bacteria, and behave accordingly.
Something you might not grasp if you just look up ‘what do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe’ is that they really, truly believe in Satan and demons. Not just in a ‘oh Satan is tempting me’ way or even in a ‘yeah demonic possession can happen’ way, but as in they deeply believe there are hordes of evil spirits wandering the earth right now that can and will fuck with you, personally and this is something you, personally, need to be worried about. Even the more religious conservative Christians I’ve known may say things like ‘demons are very real’ or ‘Satan is not a metaphor,’ but by and large (obligatory in my experience) they don’t really act like it. If you tell an evangelical or a traditionalist Catholic that you’re pretty sure you were attacked by a demon last night they’re probably only a little less likely than anyone else to give you a weird look.
JWs absolutely walk the walk in this respect. If you are a JW you almost certainly know someone who claims firsthand experience with demonic possession, cursed dolls, witchcraft, etc. I personally have several family members who will swear they’ve been personally assaulted by the forces of the evil one. My uncle believed he had nearly been killed by a clown doll, and my aunt insisted upon covering up the Catholic iconography in a house we once stayed in for fear it would draw demons to us, something she said had happened to her before. I also knew some people who believed Criss Angel had actual supernatural powers. Go search ‘demons’ or ‘demonic’ on /r/exJW if you want some fun stories.
So, in summation you have highly socially conservative people that also despise patriotism and ethnic and tribal loyalties, consider government and political participation to be literally Satanic by default, and live in a 24/7 Conjuring movie.
A few examples off the top of my head: my aunt claimed a demon came at her, as in she saw its glowing shape charge at her out of the darkness, and she managed to drive it off by calling out the name ‘Jehovah’. My uncle claimed he threw away cursed doll only for it to return to his dresser the following day. Someone else also claimed to have seen a tree divest itself of its leaves indoors, absent of any wind or human intervention.
I also know some second and third hand accounts of even more spectacular sights such as an exorcism or levitation, but couldn’t give a lot of details there.
“Boring positivist” – such people (if they existed) would be somewhere closer to Socratic wisdom, by assenting to less, and knowing less, than an “excitable non-positivist”.
There is this Zen saying about the Zen mind being an ordinary mind. About the whole Enlightenment thing being about chopping wood, washing one’s bowl and carrying water. But it is not at all materialistic. In fact, quite the opposite.
You are giving the “psychological” interpretation of demons, which is the normal view in our culture, so I don’t see where you disagreed
No you didn’t get my point. How to explain it… Do you sometimes dream by night? When you dream, your consciousness fractures or dissolves into separate interacting images among which the part that still identifies as yourself can get easily lost. This is more than just emotions or moods, this is really the field or stream of you mind becoming re-organized into an interacting web of “entities” (information attractors, archetypes in the human subconscious).
Some of these “entities” might be very nasty. Imagine dreaming, but being unable to wake up. When you will die, your sensorium will shut down, but your “dreams ” will not end. Quite the opposite, your stressed neurons will fire neurotransmitters like crazy, which will end up converted to DMT. DMT will make you see a whole Universe. Cut from the sensory inputs, in a state of sensory deprivation you will face these “entities” with no escape in sight. With no referential, there will be no time and no space left. But the “dream ” will go on. You understand?
A materialist will not be ready for that. A religious person would be more prepared. This is one of the good things about the religious and spiritual traditions.
We cannot access the noumenal world, independently of our perception, but that doesn’t imply necessarily that it doesn’t exist. Here is some sense of hubris in the arguments for idealism – “I can’t access this locked room, so there must be nothing inside it”.
This dichotomy between idealism and materialism is outdated. Noumenal is only cut from the phenomenal in the Western philosophical tradition. But I suspect that this separation is just a matter of point of view. Using a more modern language: mater is energy is information. Information is energy is matter. Energy is information is matter etc. There is no matter without information and energy.
The realm of ideas is not separate from our material being, our material being is not separate from our emotional, cognitive, perceptive states. They are two sides of the same coin. Or rather three sides of the same Triangle: energy, matter and information. Of course these are just human words, semiotic goal posts, signs, ideograms. Question is; is anything out there, something deeper than just our concepts and words? What is in the Middle of the Triangle?
I happen to believe in a Reality that is, while we exist. So I cannot say that there is nothing there. There is Truth. There must be, otherwise, why do we live, die and suffer for? We feel it, we have the intuition that it is here for us. And this Truth is to be experienced into our own consciousness. It cannot be otherwise.
To refuse the potential of this Truth being Real is also a form of hubris. A very sad and nihilistic attitude of those who are afraid of being disappointed. And because of that fear of being misled and disappointed, one would be lost and in a harm’s way. Better believe in elves and pixies instead.
And I thought that given you currently live in Moscow you would be better informed.
I actually hope that I am wrong in my assessments, but my feeling is that if nothing changes, another collapse is quite possible (probable?) on the territory of former USSR.
I think that the parasitic elites, that have the upper hand in the major part of that territory will end up completely ruining it.
And Putin is not even dead yet. But if things really go sideways, can we be sure that the vertical of power built by Putin will prevail? Perhaps Putin will suddenly “die of COVID-19 ” ?
In 1982 Andropov ruled the USSR with an iron hand, in 1992 there was no USSR left. No one I know expected such a dramatic change. Unfortunately, I think no one can truly guarantee that this will never happen again in Russia.
I hope that I am wrong with my pessimism, but perhaps Sorokin was unfortunately right when asked about what will become of Russia. “Nothing” is what he answered.
I own real state in Chile. I really wish I could rent it and get an income from it but I’ve tried too many times with always the same result: they stop paying the rent and leave a big mess of unpaid utility bills and destroyed property that I need to clean up afterwards.
Such is the life of a landlord. Tenants are mostly garbage everywhere you go. This is the reason why I have been investing in stocks rather than real estate. I’d rather not deal with the countless ways that plebs can and will fuck everything up.
The idea that a person living in Sweden with no more information about Chile than what he reads on the internet knows about the Chilean society better than me
This is a silly argument. One does not need to live in Chile in order to read basic facts. An overwhelming majority of Chileans voted for a new constitution. That screeching rightoids like you do not like that is neither unexpected or new, nor that you can find anecdotal plebs who are pining for Pinochet. The numbers speak their own language.
It also comports with my observation, namely that the only ones who wanted the old constitution to stay was the landed class, the property owners, the rich and the middle-upper class professionals. These patterns tend to repeat themselves in every LatAm country. Chile is no exception.
I hope that I am wrong with my pessimism, but perhaps Sorokin was unfortunately right when asked about what will become of Russia. “Nothing” is what he answered.
Russia has been the perennial laggard for all its history. That will continue given the outlook for oil exporters. Putin failed to build a vibrant non-oil economy during the oil boom. That failure will become painfully obvious to even the most obsequious observer.
We won’t see a 1990s-style collapse, however. Russians have learned their lesson.
Yes, it doesn’t matter in the slightest if you own properties in Chile, Iceland, Guatemala or Switzerland. You will be notified with the very same regularity that vandals smashed your windows, stole your doors or blocked the toilets with trash just for the fun of it. You definitely sound like a well traveled person.
This is a silly argument. One does not need to live in Chile in order to read basic facts.
Correct again. I have never been to Sweden (although I did once get a distant glimpse of the Swedish side of the mountains from Trysil in Norway) but I can read all the “basic facts” about Sweden on the internet so I am as perfectly informed as you to express sound judgements about social phenomena in Sweden and the deep reasons behind them.
An overwhelming majority of Chileans voted for a new constitution …/… The numbers speak their own language.
We are in full agreement. And those numbers, based on the electoral results of the last couple of decades, clearly show that it is very likely that in a few years time another overwhelming majority of Chileans will oppose the constitution that that they are about to vote for. All it will take is the realization that their new constitution has not brought about equality, along with some agitation from the usual TV talking heads.
the only ones who wanted the old constitution to stay was the landed class,…
This is what you don’t seem to get. I personally couldn’t care less about that old constitution that was approved in the times of Pinocho but has been amended multiple times in democracy with some of those amendments even being voted for in referendum. If Chileans themselves have forgotten these basic facts, why should I give a hoot about them?
These patterns tend to repeat themselves in every LatAm country. Chile is no exception.
At this point I wonder what we are even arguing about. I couldn’t agree more with that sentence of yours. In spite of all the myths about the never quite fulfilled Chilean “miracle”, Chile is just another LatAm country. It’s been quite close to reaching Southern European levels of prosperity with a solid majority of the population living a middle class life but this cold reality that you have yourself highlighted has put it back in its place by means of a widespread orgy of arson and looting.
By the way, what exactly is wrong with the Mexican, Paraguayan or Honduran constitutions? These countries have similar levels of inequality to Chile and worse growth indicators. Shouldn’t they also rush to change their constitutions and thus achieve equality and prosperity?
Again I try to compliment you but you take it as an offence. Like that time when I wrote that you are a good Devils Advocate. Is my English really so bad?
A little bit thick skin on the road to the Nirvana is sadly necessary…
AP and especially AaronB are quite far on that road. Arent you AP you Jesuit bastard child of the Catholic Church? Or Mr. Hack who is the literal Judas Iscariot of the Rus. Actually I must admit that I probably am quite badly behaving….
I tried to praise your patience and thick skin, that even when I hurled such insults, which were much worse than a silly cow, it didnt stop you or make you feel defeated etc. I wrote that you guys are quite far on the road to the Nirvana, how any one can take that as an insult? Oh maybe Americans are used to only superlative or extremely clear and expressive ways of praising. Is this cultural barrier or what? I even disparaged myself on that same comment and you take it as an insult!
Are you implying that I get drunk easily. Now thats an offence and insult. I rarely drink anymore, but Slavic capacity for alcohol is greatly over estimated. No Mongol or Buryat suffers from dehydrogenace deficiency, my great grandmother literally could drink more than any Russian man and very rarely I have met Russians in my life who can drink as much as I can. Its not a virtue or thing one should brag of, and one should remember that Russians of the Moscow and the west drink laughbly little in comparison to most Siberians.
I even despise beer, that horribly sour and watery bread, which only makes one feel bloated. If one drinks, and if ones a man, then one drinks only hard liquor and only neat, without any ice and juice bullshit. Vodka, whisky(irish and scotch, single malt and blended, but not American corn stuff), calvados, armagnac, cognac, brandy, brannvin, schnapps, herbal liquors, tsang, grappa, slivovica, airag are okay, oh sherry is also okay, but all the rest of alcoholic drinks are just gutter trash and waste, yes Rum too, both white and dark, and absinth who the hell spoils a good liquor with too many spices? But yes my drinking years are thankfully behind now.
But I must admit that there are couple good beers but they are all Belgian. Leffe Blond and especially the Chimay Blue, which is still made by Catholic monks.
I dont know, its your faith, as an external observer I dont trust the Catholic Church and their legalistic way to interprete canons and theology. But i know that Augustine is also saint of the Orthodox Church but that doesnt presuppose any infallibility on his part and Orthodox Christians often criticise him. Sad that we dont seem to have any defenders of Orthodoxy here on this site.
I don’t see how hurling baseless and unprovoked insults at anybody will somehow put them “on the road to nirvana”? Also, I don’t understand why you feel the need to try and toughen up somebody’s skin during a friendly give and take discussion within this blogsite? I buy Anon4’s defense on your part, explaining it all away on a little bit too much alcohol. I enjoy reading most of your comments and hope that you can refrain from trying to insult your fellow commenters here. Especially, if there’s really no need to do so.
It doesnt put them on the road to the Nirvana, but thick skin is necessary if one wants to go forward on that road. Thick skin is a sign of patience and patience is a virtue right?
But yes its not proper for me to insult others. Once again Im sorry, but I really and truly thought that a silly cow is a mildly offensive and even playful way to call someone.
Stephen Batchelor is not a Buddhist. He is just a proponent of secular humanism and materialism, but because he craftily knew that those dont sell, as something called Batchelorism would also not sell, he cunningly branded his philosophy as Buddhism.
Buddha directly stated that such opinions are wrong views, that itself would not be so bad, but that he sells his thoughts by the name of the Buddhism or Dharma, that is utterly evil deed.
His thought is not Dharma but actually extremely dangerous form of nihilism, without rebirth our philosophy will not make any sense, then the death would be the liberation from Dukkha and Samsara.
Batchelor is one of the rare human individuals, one who truly is heretic and an open enemy of Dharma. Even his books name is chosen because of marketing reasons. All Buddhists are atheists from the Theist point of view. But he knew his audience, as a shrewd businessman.
I am not inflating the problem, the so called secular Buddhism is a real heretical movement, which has nothing in common with the Dharma.
And yes I have read his book, he showed no understanding of Dharma, Vinaya or Sunyata, even though he was a monk for mamy years, and he builds a huge case based on couple fragments of Tripitaka. Once again a proof of why conversion to a new religion is a very serious matter and why it should not be done lightly.
In a better world we would have an emperor of China, or some Indian Raja or Chakravartin who would deal with the people like Batchelor, its for their own good….
No Mongol or Buryat suffers from dehydrogenace deficiency, my great grandmother literally could drink more than any Russian man and very rarely I have met Russians in my life who can drink as much as I can. Its not a virtue or thing one should brag of, and one should remember that Russians of the Moscow and the west drink laughbly little in comparison to most Siberians
.
Your grandmother must have been what is called in French une force de la nature.
Agree with your comment about hard liquor, but disagree about your written off most of beers and bourbon and American whiskey as unpalatable. There are many excellent and tasty beers around the world that go down well and smooth, while some American whiskey and bourbon are also very comforting. A good wine during a meal is also something to enjoy.
One has to always choose quality and practice moderation in chosing and ingesting one’s poison. But we have to remember that even with the highest quality it is still poisonous stuff that should be taken in a manner that increases our average wellbeing.
Not being preachy here, just stating the obvious truth. Binge drinking is an immature take on alcohol that doesn’t belong among grown men.
We won’t see a 1990s-style collapse, however. Russians have learned their lesson
I hope that you will be proven correct. But it would not be beyond Russian regional elites to take an attempt at decentralization as the financial pie shrinks. The majority of non-Moscovite Russians are fed up with the relative opulence of the capital. Even in Saint Petersburg you feel some resentment, something I never felt in Soviet times. Also Russian glubinka (deep province) is emptying up and some regions of inner Russia are truly dilapidated.
Another matter to keep in mind is Slavs are notoriously good at breaking apart and starting vile and annoying squabbles, while conversely they are also very difficult to unite and rule. And Russia is not just a Slav country, although of course Slavs are an overwhelming majority. So there’s also the ethnic factor to keep in mind.
Finally you are unfortunately right about the technological gap that is widening in many sectors between Russia and China and the West. Without high tech of their own, Russians are at the mercy of the exporters who might stop their trade with Russia any time.
I am quite worried about the future of all the Eastern Slavs. I wish them all the best, but I sometimes have a feeling that they perhaps have a tendency towards acting in a self destructive manner.
Oh maybe Americans are used to only superlative or extremely clear and expressive ways of praising. Is this cultural barrier or what? I even disparaged myself on that same comment and you take it as an insult!
He is from Minnesota, where people are known for being extremely interpersonally mild and aggression is passive in nature (rioters are not real Minnesotans). Your joking tone may not have registered.
I dont know, its your faith, as an external observer I dont trust the Catholic Church and their legalistic way to interprete canons and theology.
In matters of faith we Greek Catholics are closer to Orthodox than to Catholics. We simply recognize the Pope but are not obligated to follow most other aspects of Catholicism. This of course makes us not Orthodox but still…. For example my priest recommended the Orthodox Study Bible, we venerate Orthodox saints who became saints even after the schism and Brest Union, same Liturgy, etc.
I wish I was as knowledgeable about my faith as you are about yours. From my understanding (and I have heard this from priests also), which may be mistaken, only the stipulations made explicit in the Union of Brest are required of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This is largely limited to recognition of the Pope; there were also references to obligations to and by the king that were then transferred to the emperor but these are all moot after 1918.
As an aside to my other post to you -there is even a Wikipedia page about “Minnesota nice”:
Minnesota nice is a cultural stereotype applied to the behavior of people from Minnesota implying residents are unusually courteous, reserved, mild-mannered and passive-aggressive. The phrase also implies polite friendliness, an aversion to open confrontation, a tendency toward understatement, a disinclination to make a direct fuss or stand out, apparent emotional restraint, and self-deprecation.
You’re a typical emigre who’s stuck in the era at which he left.
Edit: This happens to be a case in point.
The majority of non-Moscovite Russians are fed up with the relative opulence of the capital. Even in Saint Petersburg you feel some resentment, something I never felt in Soviet times. Also Russian glubinka (deep province) is emptying up and some regions of inner Russia are truly dilapidated.
This was long accurate, but is rapidly ceasing to be so precisely in the past 5 years. As actually traveling about provincial Russian towns will rapidly show.
Sadly, I don’t live in such a “circle of heroic positivists”, but just in a normal environment
It’s an interesting perception, but what you deem normal is actually quite strange. Most people in the world (and even in Western countries such as the USA) do believe in the devil. If your environment does not include such people at all, it is an abnormal one by definition.
So we meet someone new for the job interview (let’s say in the typical office), and we ask them as the first question: “how was your week so far?”
And they answer “Week was good. I had some problems with a demon last week . He attacked me when I am having breakfast. But this week I had no problem with the demon and I’ve been working effectively.”
You are being facetious but the scenario would be impossible, as someone struggling with an attempted demonic possession would not be going to a job interview. Also, such cases are generally perceived as extremely rare. Much rarer than, say, ghost hauntings.
In the front empty bedroom, the previous owner’s child killed herself, and my superstitious wife sometimes thinks she hears a child’s voice at night screaming in that empty room
Why must one be superstitious in this case? I have never experienced a ghost but in the spirit of Halloween I will share my brother-in-law’s one. When he was a student at MGU he stayed in a dorm that had previously been an apartment. There were footsteps there regularly, left-right, as if someone was walking across the room. He invited others, who also heard them. He was not frightened at all but his roommate refused to sleep alone there and actually stayed at my in-laws when my brother-law went on holiday. I history of mental illness or significant substance abuse by either person. These people were not religious at all, but eventually they called a priest. It turned out that a girl living there a few decades earlier had killed herself.
I have known an American with a similar experience (this one involved not footsteps but lights being turned on and off). In either case, there is no implication of insanity concerning the person who admits to such experiences.
I sadly agree. Many Russians in the west feel ashamed, when the media and vast majority of well to do classes believe Putin to be a crook, mafia boss and dictator at the same time, so openly praising or supporting Putin is often even more damaging to ones image that supporting of Trump. Therefore many emigres want to look cool and criticise him. Especially if they are well integrated and have lived for a long time outside of Russia. It can be said that they have subconsciously internalised many western attitudes. But that problem is almost non existent with working class emigrants.
Just for the record: regardless of the silly cow and other dissonant adjectives that I’ve seen you throw at me and other commenters in your heated way of arguing, I still think that you are an endearing character. Thanks for taking the time to address my comments as you saw fit at the moment.
And I am in no position to object to drunk-posting either. We have all done it. The road to our own personal nirvanas is hard enough, let’s not make it harder.
Yes, and Minnesota was very heavily settled by Swedes (Germans may slightly outnumber them there but the Swedes set the tone, and Germans are also somewhat conformists within their community). Mr. Hack nay have been influenced by having grown up there.
ਦੀਬੋਕਛੂਮਯਪੀਬੋਘਨੋਕਹਿਸੂਰਨਸੋਇਹਬੈਨਸੁਨਾਯੋ॥
“Warriors! Pass a little along, and drink even more wine!”
ਜੂਝਬੋਜੂਝਕੈਪ੍ਰਾਨਤਜੈਜੁਝਾਇਬੋਛਤ੍ਰਨਕੋਬਨਆਯੋ॥
“To lose your life fighting in the hard of battle! This is what befits warriors!”
Final Lines of Dasam Guru Granth Sahib:
ਬਿਦਿਹਸਾਕੀਯਾਸਾਗ਼ਰੇਸਬਜ਼ਗੂੰ॥ਕਿਮਾਰਾਬਕਾਰਸਤਜੰਗਅੰਦਰੂੰ॥
Oh bartender ! Pour me that green-coloured drink ! That which will be helpful for me in the battle !
ਲਬਾਲਬਬਕੁਨਦਮਬਦਮਨੋਸ਼ਕੁਨ॥ਗ਼ਮੇਹਰਦੁਆਲਮਫ਼ਰਾਮੋਸ਼ਕੁਨ॥
Keep it filled up to the brim ! So I may forever continue to drink it and forget the pains of both worlds !
Russia isn’t doing bad this year. GDP drop of 4.1% with a 5.3% budget deficit as a percent of GDP. For example, UK, USA and Canada all have larger GDP decline but on top of that they all have a basket case budget deficit: UK 17%, USA, 18%, Canada 20%. Russia is also doing better than EU as a whole and better than almost every individual EU country. IMF numbers.
According to Worldbank, for Ukraine, 5.5% drop (August estimate I think), and Poland .4% growth, though this estimate was from April. In October, S & P estimated Polish GDP decline of 3.4 % for 2020:
Most elites despicably hoard wealth, its not a problem as long as it stays under a control of state and some part of the surplus is left for the common people. Unlike in the 90s Russia and Ukraine. You are stuck in time, the situation in Russia is not ideal, but still much better than before the Putin or during his early rule.
Ideally speaking of course every billionaire should be dealt by ……………. No man can earn so much money by honest means, except by inheritance. Rich are not the problem, but the superrich and the divide between millionaires and billionaires can be larger in many countries than its between millionaires and common people. Only a sick maniac could be obsessed so much with the wealth making.
Its stupid that we only talk about the rich as one group and not treat them in the same way as middle class, which is divided into two parts, the upper and lower, when we should also divide the rich into two classes like the ancients did, with their high and petty nobility. After all there was a huge difference between a knight and count, or a gentleman and duke.
So rich and the superrich? Sounds quite unimaginative, I think? Patricians and Magnates, too old fashioned perhaps?
I agree that I might have been traumatized by the 90ies. Maybe it’s a kind of PTSD.
As the Russian saying goes: “We’ll live, we’ll see “.
Agree with your comment about the super rich.
The 0.1% are the problem. In Russia they happen to be directly connected to and dependent on the good will of VVP’s inner circle. I would like to see Russia having less inequality, to see the earnings and quality of life increasing more or less uniformly across the majority of the population. Not just Moscow, Piter, E-burg, Kazan and other major agglomerations, but in the rural areas as well and in the remote regions.
Do they have Banyas in Minnesota? Actually do Americans ever go to Banya or Sauna? Swedes have their Bastu, maybe some of them build Bastus in Minnesota? Even Germans sometime go to Sauna, it must be hard to live in the North without Banyas.
if you said, “be careful walking in the mountain behind our house, as there are often demons flying there” (like in a story from “Saragossa Manuscript”), then I would be entertained by eccentricity of my hosts, but not avoid mountain.
The mountain near Dyatlov Pass was named “Dead Mountain” or something.
I grew up in a white, blue collar neighborhood that was nice but very ordinary back in the day. A lot of the old large homes (and some were good examples of Victorian type houses) have been bought up and renovated by the increasingly gentrified and new yuppie owners. What is most striking to me when I go back and look at it today is just how gleemingly white the neighborhood was. Here’s a photo of the beautiful Ukrainian Catholic church (noticed the large tiled dome with tryzubs emblazoned within) in the neighborhood. It was originally blessed by Cardinal Slipyj.
When I was a kid growing up there, there were remnants of the original French settlers, folds of German and Scandinavian descent, lots of Poles, Ukrainians and Slavs, and right next door was a small but thriving Italian neighborhood too. My high school sweetheart was of German descent and I met her in my German language class. She was into reading Goethe, Jung and Hesse, while I was mostly interested in her curvaceous figure and her long honey blonde hair. She could have a lot of influence over me. 🙂
I did have two good friends growing up that were of Scandinavian descent. One was even nicknamed “The Big Swede” and the other one had a father that had immigrated over from Norway. In this case, I think that it was the Ukrainian community that had the most influence on them and not vice-versa. They both would often show up for the various Ukrainian parties and dances in the neighborhood.
There were certainly some nice old Lutheran churches in the neighborhood, but no real “cultural” organizations that reflected a Scandinavian influence that I can remember.
Khoshut Khurul Buddhist temple, Astrakhan oblast. It was build by Kalmyk warriors who returned from victorious war against the Napoleon, they had seen the Kazan cathedral in St Petersburg and used it as an inspiration. Bolsheviks destroyed it like they destroyed all the two hundred Buddhist temples of Kalmyks.
This is the current Open Thread, where anything goes – within reason.
If you are new to my work, start here.
The chad Stalinist wedding-cake versus the virgin neoliberal skyscraper.
I noticed Israel Shamir’s incredibly stupid article recently, I wonder how common his views are amongst ‘Russian’ ‘Nationalists’ these days, I notice the Saker peddles the same Islamophilic crap. On the other hand, the Pope has now just practically come out openly in favour of homosexual adoption.
Apparently there’s a lot more about to come out on the Hunter Biden laptop story:
https://twitter.com/RealWayneRoot/status/1317991077266124800
Interesting take on the evolution of the American White Nationalist violent militancy in the last 50 years.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/white-supremacists-beat-jihadis-to-no-leader-model/
LOL.
You do realize that Shamir wants to put away ‘Russian’ ‘Nationalists’ in jail (as I have pointed out not on one occasion, quoting his own words)? Must have been quite the shocker to you, he’s said so many “based” things about Jews and the Soviet Union after all…
Russian nationalist opinion outside Israel-Sweden/Florida seems to range from total indifference to Caucasoid squabbles (e.g. Prosvirnin) to moderate pro-Armenian positions (e.g. myself, Kholmogorov, Sergey Grigorov).
Kremlinology & “Meddling”
Re: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/20/russophrenia-or-how-a-collapsing-country-runs-the-world/
Great shots at the foolishly wrong neocon, neolib and flat out Russian hating pronouncements. Russia is a “threat” in the sense that it doesn’t live up to their expectations. Bravo Strategic Culture Foundation and Patrick Armstrong.
Bolsonaro endorsing Trump:
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/20/brazils-bolsonaro-endorses-trumps-reelection-430301
Not much if any outrage, serving as further evidence that the Russian election meddling claim is a hypocritical crock. Try finding a top Russian government official endorsing any US candidate. On the contrary, they’ve gone out of their way to steer clear of such.
Once again, recall Schiff saying he has proof of Trump-Russia collusion, as the US mass media pretty much glosses over that, while asking Biden which ice cream flavor he likes?
Putin’s like of Steven Seagal is utterly unaccountable. Not only is he a known A-hole, but was he ever in a single good movie?
I mean I could understand it if it were Chuck Norris (even though he’s Conservative, Inc.) or Van Damme (even though he’s probably an A-hole too, and it’s been a while since he made a good movie.) I could even understand it if it was relative C-listers like Don “the Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, or Ernie Reyes, Jr. But Stephen Seagal???
I blame the relationship on the relative decline of Western martial arts movies.
Under Siege was a very good movie.
Seagal’s movies can sometimes fall into the ‘so-bad they’re almost good’ (On Deadly Ground is one of the worst movies ever, the environmentalist hero blows up an offshore oil-well) category, though I can’t imagine watching anything of his sober, alone or since turning turning 18.
Well Putin seems to have pretty pedestrian tastes, there’s that story of him being inspired to join the KGB after watching Щит и Мечь, apparently he’s also a big fan of the classic Брат and even its markedly inferior sequel.
Well, I’ve never even heard of any of them except Seagal, so that proves something I guess. I can’t think of any ‘classic’ action actors that could at all act except Bruce Willis, really. Anyway, I don’t think anyone watches, say, Escape From New York for Kurt Rusell’s acting.
Glad we agree. Usually our film tastes differ so much as to be mutually incomprehensible.
It would’ve been cool if USSR had kept up some construction of impressive looking buildings. Did they even build anything attractive looking after the 50s?
Are you talking about his views of Armenia? And do you mean by “nationalist”?
When I was growing up, the word “nationalist” has to me always implied a kind of racist person, who dislikes non-slavic/non-white people, and possibly uses their face for kickboxing workout. Of course, racist people in Russia will typically hate “hachí”, without distinguishing between their variants.
But in this forum, “nationalist” has a different meaning (and perhaps this is how the word has also changed in recent years and transnationally) – more similar to “imperialist patriot”.
On the forum, Karlin is the only pro-Armenian person I have been reading. It would interesting to see a post where he explained about his pro-Armenian orientation.
Re-reading it now – it was an interesting discussion. Melanf was warning the forum against brown women, while Gerard was recommending Armenian cognac. Then sudden death is posting photos of Filipp Kirkorov. https://www.unz.com/akarlin/color-revolution-in-georgia
More or less, yes. It’s rather blatant hypocrisy from him considering how involved Israel is in this whole conflict. Although it doesn’t really matter, both him and ‘Saker’ have no influence, both almost exclusively write for an Anglophone audience that barely knows anything about Russia.
Well Saker paints himself as Russian nationalist (lol), Shamir doesn’t, although their views are almost identical these days. At least Shamir can be entertaining, Saker is the personification of an armchair general without a shred of humour or self-awareness.
Well, a broken clock is right at least once a day. Like, Navalny is right about the ruinous scale of government corruption, ironically his unpopularity outside of his core-audience probably allows people to dismiss it where they wouldn’t otherwise.
As I’ve repeatedly re-iterated, I don’t expect Russians to have any special affection for Armenia, but simply that a Azeri-Turkish victory would be deeply harmful to Russia’s long-term strategic interests. Islam and Turkish presence is continuing to grow in Russia and doesn’t look to be changing soon.
On basis, we could call like “Echo of Moscow derangement syndrome”
Saker is Swiss blogger living in America. From his YouTube, I guess his views are mainly about Islam? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTo5rXDCxw.
Shamir is an eccentric columnist from Russian newspapers. In Russia, it seems he has been banned from publishing much recently, I guess because he started writing anti-Israel content (which is against the general newspapers’ positions). Well he just writes on the RT website now and keep him away from the Israel topic https://russian.rt.com/opinion/blog/israel-shamir
Before he was writing for “Komsomolskaya pravda”.
https://www.spb.kp.ru/daily/author/816198/
Yeah he seems to be writing everything while intoxicated with LSD – I read a few articles by him, and felt like I have taken some strange psychedelic drugs, and was reading about some parallel universe. But I respect that he comes down out of his “highs” to write to us, and answered my comment when I wrote something on his blog.
Also remember when Admiral Martyanov used to write here and have endless arguments with Karlin?
Wilson was a kickboxing champ. Rothrock was actually popular in HK (she was a star there), partly because of her Western looks.
As Dmitry would say, America had a “bourgeoisie” martial arts subculture in the ’80s and ’90s which was possibly unique outside of Asia. There were martial arts magazines like “Black Belt Magazine” They came with posters kids would hang on their walls. There were countless direct-to-VHS movies. There were celebrity chains of martial arts studios. Little kids would get into heated arguments at school over what Asian country had the best fighting techniques.
Who finances the newer Seagall movies? The Russian mob to launder money, through losses?
Another reason why the oppression of Gerard is illogical, harmful and frankly immoral.
A lot of these “lone extremists” are basically mentally ill people who are found by FBI operatives online and then ‘encouraged’ to act out so that they can be arrested.
This was a model used against moslems in the early 2000s, but rightoid racism prevented them to see how this game could be used against mulitiple groups, so everyone ran away with dumb islamophobia back then. If you look at the background of many of the terrorists that attacked Europe in the 2014-2017 timeframe, lots had Western intelligence backgrounds. The manchester arena bomber, the nice truck driver etc. These were all mentally ill people recruited/encouraged by Western intelligence agencies, some had been used in Syria, and then came back all fucked up. It was essentially blowback.
Some ask why moslem terrorism slowed massively in recent years. It’s not that Western intelligence services suddenly got great at stopping them, it’s just that they stopped these mentally ill recruitment binges from moslems. Now they are just using the same tactics against another group domestically. But rightoid racism prevents them from seeing the parallels and learning from others. That’s the price you pay for a closed mind, so no sympathies from me.
Going back to the 1960s with Bruce Lee, leading to the weekly ABC TV series Kung Fu in the 1970s.
I enjoyed this not too distant release:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_the_Dragon
Not sure how historically accurate it is.
The recent 2020 election in Bolivia is a victory for humanity. The blatant 2019 coup – supported by many US “liberals” posing as concerned humanitarians to justify Western imperialism – removed democratically elected Evo Morales.
Now his party (MAS) stormed back to power. Bolivia has one of the highest lithium deposits in the world, and Elon Musk wants it. He openly supported the coup.
The right-wing puppets in Bolivia were geared towards only two constituents: the upper-middle class in Bolivia and Washington elites. Yet danger is not gone even if they were temporarily removed in the recent election.
Washington is more subtle than most other operators, so they know it isn’t smart to once again blatantly remove MAS. I expect a shift in tactics (buying up local media, NGOs etc) to push a soft coup, to slowly delegitimise the government and then do a color revolution instead. If Biden wins, these more sophisticated tactics rather than Trump’s blatant removal of Morales will likely succeed as liberal imperialists are more sophisticated than Trump’s hamfisted approach.
When people speak about Latin America, I find it remarkable how little attention is paid to imperialist meddling by the US.
Continuing from Karabakh thread||
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9EugqSF2hv/
2 1/2 strikes of Singhs:
1st strike surprise
1/2 strike Shock
2nd strike Quick Dispersal
Rinse Repeat.
If their armies take to flight, do not take it as an actual flight. It is a war tactic of theirs. Beware, beware of them for a second time. They turn back and set fire even to water – Jangnamah – Qazi Nur Muhammad (Court Poet of Ahmed Shah Durrani)
ਤਊਖਾਲਸੈਉੱਤਰਦਯੋ।।ਰਾਜਮੰਗਯੋਕਬਕਿਸਨੈਦਯੋ।।
ਤੁਰਕਨਔਸਿੰਘਨਕਯਾਮੇਲ।।ਬਰੂਦਅਗਨਕੋਜਿਮਹੈਖੇਲ।।
Thus did the Khalsa reply: (to the Afghans)
“Nobody gets sovereignty by asking.
How can Singhs and Turks (Muslims) be friends?
It is like a game between fire and gunpowder.
Why would they wait so long? People are already voting.
I literally agree with everything in your comment besides this:
Yes, Bosnia 1995, Serbia 1999, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, etc …
Quite sophisticated huh?
Democracy has been a disaster for Latin America, much of the educated class is now in Miami, I can only see Latin America declining further. Militarised police states run by ethnic Europeans and Near Easterners worked better.
Out for Justice is a great Seagal film.
https://twitter.com/restorationpac/status/1319239578339823616?s=20
My bad, I meant the NATO aggression against Republika Srpska in 1995 that killed over 1,000 Serbs (both civilians and military) despite earlier proto aggressions against Srpska in 1994.
This is important to clarify because Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a real country but a US protectorate-semi-Islamic State occupation of Serb land forced upon Serbs with the Treaty of Dayton (which had some favorable terms for Serbs, but nearly all of them have been flagrantly dishonored since 1995).
I’m retiring.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/551662870455386115/769076847287599134/Ek3-O8AW0AAIxaR.png?width=533&height=664
I am trying to understand whether the young woman in the picture is a Dravidian or an African American mulatto.
Is she someone we should know something about?
Care to explain?
BTW, I agree with you about Pope’s stance on homosexual couples. The Gay lobby is supposedly strong in Vatican.
An interesting map of West Eurasian (that would be Indo-European) and East Eurasian (Sino Tibetan or Mongolian) admixture in ancient burials in Central Asia.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ryan_Wei/publication/318897882/figure/fig2/AS:[email protected]/Components-of-East-or-West-Eurasian-heritage-in-ancient-populations-in-Xinjiang-and-its.png
Taken from this publication:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318897882_The_separate_origins_of_the_Tocharians_and_the_Yuezhi_Results_from_recent_advances_in_archaeology_and_genetics
Given what we recently learned about the genetic makeup of the elite Hun burials, I think the overall trend towards the formation of Central Asian Turk populations becomes clearer.
For the Chionite (Xionite) Hun genetics read here:
https://indo-european.eu/2020/08/xiongnu-ancestry-connects-huns-avars-to-scytho-siberians/
Basically it appears that Xiongnu ended-up speaking some Altaic language, while their Hephtalite Spenta Huna (White Huns) cousins ended up speaking an ancient form of Dardic (i.e. Indo-Iranian).
I suppose that despite this marked difference in language, the genetic makeup of both populations was more or less similar with perhaps more Uralic Y haplogroup N in the Xiongnu.
Recently, an haplogroup N subclade mainly present in Central Asia and Volga Turks has been described.
https://indo-european.eu/2019/04/n1c-l392-associated-with-expanding-turkic-lineages-in-siberia/
I came to think that the people carrying this Y haplogroup might be the descendants of the earliest Turkic language speaking populations.
Which brings me to the “Scandinavian” Y haplogroup N, perhaps it was not so Indo-European after all. Might it have been an offshoot of a similar Siberian population, which ended up speaking Ugro-finnic languages and then Old Norse through admixture with local populations?
Also Y haplogroup N is found among ancient Hungarian burials.
Given that ancient Rus Rurikid lineage is mainly haplogroup N, that they seem to have initially called their princes Khagan, that they used Tamga style signs to identify their clans and that early Moslem travelers on the Volga described early Rus as “belonging to Turks “, could it be that basically Y haplogroup N elite warrior clans spread all the way from Siberia and influenced such a large territory from modern day Scandinavia and Central Europe to Xinjiang?
Also, all that Old Norse sagas mythology about the Aesir conquering the Vanir takes an interesting new twist. Perhaps Norse Seidr shamanism was a surviving
remnant of some Siberian tradition?
Especially given that:
https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2019/04/on-association-between-uralic.html
The hair seems natural and is not nappy, so not African.
If only the Jesuits had never been expelled from Paraguay
For the IQ explains everything crowd here, how do people explain that Episcopalians do not dominate the US social elite, instead of Jews, considering that Jews actually have a lower IQ than Episcopalians, and Episcopalians outnumber Jews in the US by a factor of 15 to 1, so shouldn’t dominate Episcopalians dominate the US elite, like they used to before WW2, instead of Jews?
Nope. But thanks for your interest in my sexual orientation.
So who’s the girl?
From Azerbaijan, spot the odd flag out.
https://i.ibb.co/5M6RhRd/Ek-Tt-E4-LU4-AA4-JV5.png
Yes, I think it was related to American troops being in Japan and Korea. Norris started his training in SK. Possibly also the small population of citizen East Asians. And the presence of Hollywood, which fed people’s ambitions to take risks and finance their own movies, when VHS came along – some were quite terrible.
And I forgot the tournaments. I think America’s scale helped a lot. Pay-per-view made the UFC possible in the ’90s. I don’t think it would have worked financially anywhere else.
Last martial arts movie I enjoyed made chronologically was “The Raid”. Not Western unless you count the director. I didn’t like the sequel. Someone recommended “Man of Tai Chi” to me. It has Keenu Reeves in it, so it is partly Western. It was okay, but pretty derivative.
Yeah, trying to pin “collusion” on Trump seems like a fruitless affair, especially after how he characterized his dealings with Russia during last night’s debates:
The idea that Muslims absolutely detest Jews is a bit of civ nat “counter Jihad” myth I think. Their beef with Jews/Zionists is in a very specific sense over Palestine, and even that seems to be waning to a certain extent what with countries like the UAE and Bahrain normalising relations with Israel and possibly even more Muslim countries to follow shortly.
The fact of the matter is Muslims hate Christians much more than Jews, with Jews their hate is really just over that one Palestine issue, but their hate of Christians is culturally and historically ingrained. It seems to me that Muslims and Jews are perfectly happy to collaborate with each other geo-politically, especially against Christians. They also collaborate with each other against the native people in white countries too.
Bernie Sanders was quite popular with Muslims (though he billed his parents as Polish), and Jews I know were very pleased about this support.
The Tarim Basin mummies prove that white presence in that region is very ancient and certainly predates Mongoloid presence there. It seems to me that the Chinese government have been very uncomfortable about those mummies since their discovery and in latter years have started actively suppressing research into Tocharian history and genetics in the region, probably related to their increasing crackdown in Xinjiang.
Something I find odd is that Spain on one level is very left wing, was one of the earliest countries in Europe to legalise gay marriage and is known among gays as being a very “gay friendly” country, and is also known for having liberal drug and prostitution laws.
Yet at the same time Spain is thought of as a very Catholic, very conservative and traditional country. No one thinks Spain and thinks “sodomite land”. I would imagine most people basically think of Spain as a Catholic country with nice weather, rich traditions as well as very civilised.
I guess what I’m saying is that it seems Spain is an example of a country where extremely liberal/left values and trad con values can exist side by side completely harmoniously with no apparent “cultural war” that exists in most other Western countries.
I would guess that most people would say that the UK and Germany are degenerate sodomite countries far more so than Spain, despite the fact that in many respects those countries’ laws are less liberal and permissive than Spain.
Taking an analogy from aboriculture, and thinking of American elms and chestnuts which were severely damaged by blight, caused by globalism, I wonder if it would be possible to breed poz-resistance into different European nationalities, or into new hybrid nationalities, seeking to preserve the good characteristics – the stately shade of the elms, or the tasty nuts and beautiful lumber of the chestnut tree.
Like a breeding program that sought out short serotonin transporter allele people. I wonder how far that one gene would get you, if you segregated people with it in order to try to limit betrayal and facilitate cultural production.
I mean, wouldn’t it be theoretically easy to breed “Sweden, no” Swedes and then encourage them to segregate into a high fertility culture, within Sweden. I think it would take 3-4 genes max – much easier than many would suppose. Provided segregation was possible, such an area would easily monopolize tourist dollars.
Is it not ironic that the people and bloggers here decry the social ills brought forth by liberalism in Western society, and yet their only solution seems to be…………..more liberalism?
Russian Navy ships accompanying Iranian tankers bound for Syria
H.I. Sutton – USNI News
22 Oct 2020, 18:38 GMT+10
https://www.dublinnews.com/news/266759051/russian-navy-ships-accompanying-iranian-tankers-bound-for-syria
https://twitter.com/admirim/status/1319377872700772353
Hopefully Trump will win
Has anyone changed their mind about Joe Biden’s touching kids being sexual, after the new allegations of what is on Hunter’s laptop? The apple does fall far from the tree.
I don’t mean to say that it is 100% sexual in every case – and I’m not sure he ever broke the law in that sense – but I mean that he may have cast his net a bit wider to make it slightly less obvious, like how gameshow host Richard Dawson would kiss grandmothers, so that he could kiss 12 year old daughters.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQsJRpzD8nY9hqvM5OhE7qRud40dj3dQkHOJg&usqp.jpg
Good point. Muslims and Jews cooperated to massacre Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
It’s closer to 5 than 15; but otherwise I agree.
Bernie never hid the fact that he’s Jewish.
Yes, it is popularly perceived.
Popular views about foreign countries is usually about 40-50 years ago out of date. Look at the American boomers who still believe that Russia is Communist country, because this was what they were taught during childhood.
The same effects is here – today’s Spain is as Catholic as is today’s Russia Soviet.
See here similar view of American visitor
https://dormin.org/2020/08/09/notes-on-spain/
The view on the left (based on the lefties I talked to), is that Franco and his supporters got away with what they did. Spain was ruled by a dictator for 30 years, tens of thousands of people were killed, and yet when Franco died, there were no tribunals or exiles or even cancellations. Instead, much of the bureaucracy of Franco’s government simply merged with the democratic government. Worse yet, the main Spanish conservative party was built by Francoists and is still run by their children. These people and their at least semi-fascist ideology never paid the price for what they inflicted on Spain.
On the other side, my totally outsider’s perspective is that Franco and the nationalists decisively lost on the cultural battlefield. Just as (almost) nobody in America looks back fondly on the pre-civil rights days, almost nobody in Spain seems to pine for Francoism. As an example, the Reina Sophia Museum, Spain’s second most famous museum behind the Prado, has a very pro-Republican bend in its art exhibition, and IIRC, the museum even flew Republican flags on its exterior when I visited. Such flags were also hung in balconies and windows throughout the cities. In Madrid, I even stumbled upon a Republican rally where people called for the end of the monarchy and the imprisonment of the remnants of Franco’s supporters.
Well yeah Afansaievo and Andronovo cultures were certainly White. There was a progressive admixture between these ethnic groups and the Mongoloid/Altaic ones and it ended-up producing Scythians and then after the Hun/Xiongnu domination the population there mainly became Turkic speaking.
True, I think both also share a lot of similarities such as ritual slaughter of meat, prohibition of pork consumption and male circumcision, the Muslim and Jewish lobbies often work together in this regard. The much more powerful Jewish lobbies often use Muslims as a first line of defence.
The philosemitic counter-jihad types also run into a problem when they talk of banning halal because then the Muslims retort “well then you have to ban kosher too” which is a fair point and discrimination or quasi-discrimination against Jews elicits a very strong reaction in almost all Europeans of all political convictions bar a small minority on the very fringes of the right.
If I recall correctly, it was the Jews who opened the gates of Toledo to Muslim invaders, Jews have also historically enjoyed a far better lifestyle under Islamic rule compared to Christian rule (the recent antagonism is entirely due to Palestine as you say, Jews enjoyed a great life in Arab countries before the establishment of Israel)
For many, that moderator is an easy to convince hack – no pun intended. Clearly a foreign policy military industrial complex type, downplaying the idea of giving the benefit of doubt to a perceived adversary and seeking a diplomatic route.
Biden went unchallenged on the rehashed lie that the Russian government paid a bounty to kill US forces in Afghanistan – something that NBC reported on as lacking credibility by top US military brass.
Well, he speaks with a Brooklyn accent, and I’m sure he was asked about it and didn’t deny it, though he probably downplayed his identification a bit. But the fact is I do recall a commercial spot where he said his parents were “Polish-Americans” or “born in Poland” or something – seems implicitly dishonest, even though the latter is technically correct.
Central Asia has always been a kind of leakage area of West and East. Just look at Denisova Cave in the Altai mountains which was inhabited at various times by Neanderthals and Denisovans.
The ancient Chinese were quite surprised to discover civilization in the Tarim Basin. It was certainly not a Chinese offshoot. For a while, there were walled roads connecting the two civilizations. Regardless of the question “who was there first?”, China’s ability to assert dominance is the main determinant of its borders.
I, for one, do not covet the region as it is filled with Muslims, and I believe the sand particles cause lung cancer.
Chinese history has always noted the present of Turkic people, note Tang statues or mentions in the War of Heavenly Horses. They were really quite sparse all things considered though.
Probably not Turkic though. Although certainly there were Turkic people there throughout thousands of years, as well as Indo-Iranian, and probably both in greater numbers and over long time scales, Tocharian seems to be something else. It’s kind of a mystery though. Linguistically speaking it is an extremely ancient IE split that probably split long before most of the other IE languages even differentiated. And unlike Iranian, Turkic isn’t even an IE language.
Thing that stands out to me is, the mummies, besides having tall stature, big noses, pale skin and red and blond hair, had plaid tartan pants. Possibly closer to Celtic than Turkic.
They were Greeks not Turks
There were Indo-Europeans living in Tarim Basin, Gansu, and even Southernmost Mongolia long before the Turks. The Wusun and the Ordos culture, actually Turkic people came relatively late from the area of Yenisey and Altay mountains, the Mongolic people inhabited before them Mongolia, known as Donghu and Wuhuan in ancient Chinese chronicles. No one knows what language or languages Xiongnu and Huns spoke, but there are many competing theories.
But these Indo-Europeans didnt exactly look like modern “whites” and had some Asian admixture. Red hair was more common in ancient times because of the distances and relative isolation between the populations. My mother and grandmother claim that there are red haired Mongols, although I have never seen, but I have one cousin who looks completely Asian but has natural hazelbrown hair. One my Asian great grandfather had grey eyes, but I think that Mongols, Buryats, Oirats and Altays have some ancient Indo-European admixture. Of course Im not sure, but their physiognomy varies greatly, some look very Tungusic, some almost like Kornilov, some like Chinese or Korean, who by the way look somewhat different from each other.
I get the feeling that Francis will reasonably soon be renamed Formosus II, and treated like his namesake.
Greco-Bactrian. Hellenistic Scythians.
Pagan Euro Nats, sure they get an esteemed place among the Aryas for playing the same role as Vibhishan against you Rakshashas||
If you’re going to do ancestor worship, then do it properly and whole-heartedly.
This we wuzzing is just small dick energy,
Also if you’re asking me the ethnic origin of a bitch instead of responding WB or WNB
YOU ARE GAY!!
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾ।।ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ।।
Yes, he also mentioned the incessant sanctions but forgot to add the attacks in Syria and the withdrawal from the arms treaties.
In general, the 2020 Trump has nothing to do with the 2016 Trump. Let’s remember that he ran (and won) on a platform of building a wall with Mexico, deporting all illegal immigrants, preventing the entry of Muslims into the US, ending foreign wars, improving relations with Russia and disengaging from US military commitments in Asia and Europe.
For those who voted for him based on this platform, there is basically zero left to vote for in November.
To be fair, it will be extremely amusing to watch the meltdown of all MSM talking heads, celebs, academics and big-tech bosses if Trump happens to win again. I won’t be able to avoid having a good laugh. But perhaps the best thing that could happen to Trumpism is the defeat of Trump in 2020. He showed that a platform like that is still a winning combination in the US and, after some disastrous years with Harris/Biden/AOC, we might get a more articulate and clear-minded personality with a similar, more focused agenda who will actually try to implement it seriously. Tucker Carlson or even Kayleigh McEnany could be much better Trumpists than Trump.
Trump also forgot to add that he derailed the Nordsteam2 pipeline whose beginning occurred under Obama’s watch. The delay has probably added a few billion dollars to Ukraine’s budget.
No.
What Trump did is not permanent. All can, and most will, be undone if he loses. Packing the Supreme Court will undo the effect on the judicial system.
Trump losing would involve the rescinding of executive orders – ban of people coming in from dangerous Muslim countries, and banning the teaching of evil Critical Race Theory in federal settings.
Trump has also started examining and pushing back against this brainwashing in schools. I would expect this to start bearing fruit in a year or two if he wins, lawsuits are already in the pipeline. This will be stopped if Trump loses.
If Puerto Rico and Washington DC are granted statehood, the Senate may be lost for a long time (automatic 4 Democratic Senate seats). I’m not sure how feasible that is , I’ve read that in the case of DC it may require a constitutional amendment. But there is the possibility.
The Wall he partially built probably won’t be torn down, but immigration will be opened up.
I agree with this part.
Kristen Welker is “clearly a foreign policy military industrial complex type”?
Only in the world of an “Independent Foreign Policy Analyst”. 🙂
None of the self created Scythian images that I’ve seen seem to incorporate any Mongoloid features?
In fact most depictions look very much like the Vikings to the north. The bottom gold relief looks Slavic and could pass for the Ukrainian Symon Petliura’s death mask. 🙂
https://www.gettyimages.ie/detail/news-photo/vessel-with-relief-of-scythians-greek-middlethird-quarter-news-photo/564034175
https://drakenberg.weebly.com/uploads/6/7/4/7/6747442/9106132.jpg?279
Plenty of Jews speak with a Brooklyn accent or a Bronx accent.
Bernie is very open about being Jewish.
https://youtu.be/i7r5FINbFLM
This funerary mask looks like my cousin’s face.Of course it is en European phenotype, but the Scythians controlled an immense territory from modern day Ukraine to modern day India and Mongolia. They varied greatly according to the territory. The Siberian Scythians ended up thoroughly admixed with Mongoloids. The Turks appeared on the territory that has been settled by Scythians for a thousand years. We witness a progressive change of phenotype on the Dunhuang frescoes. Y haplogroups of the Uyghurs are around 30% descended from Afansaievo people, 30% from Andronovo people and 30% Eastern Eurasian (Okunevo, proto-Han, other?). The Kirgiz are descended from Tagarian culture in which burial masks we see a progress change towards the Asian phenotype. They are around 50% of Scythian Y haplogroup R1a.
Yes, but the dynastic armies encountered the Tarim Basin people along the way and defeated them in 102 BC. Their combined encounters led to the first defeat.
Their surrender in the subsequent expedition helped lead to the creation of the Silk Road as Tang standards and systems were standardized across.
A lot of what we know about them is due to Chinese paper being used by the oasis states to record their official events; some of this paper was used to wrap grave goods, keeping the official notices on them.
Just found this:
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1319454852548841472
Honored to be in such good company.
Is that what you think?
From what I’ve read about the Scythians, the ruling clique was known as the “Royal Scythians” and probably mostly included one tribal affiliation, most likely of a European phenotype that are commonly depicted on the lavish golden drinking vessels and funerary masks, etc. The larger territories that were under their control undoubtedly included large numbers of members of other more Asiatic tribes. This would not be unlike other nomadic movements and their inclusion of a core central organizing group or tribe. I’d include the movement and consolidation of the Mongols, Turks,
Hungarians and even the Rus to a smaller extent in similar processes.
What “company” do you have in mind?
Folks who provide insight like the below:
Not that I’ve to agree with everything said. Well worth watching in full.
lol, all 36 Royal Gotras are now in Punjab.
I know you guys won’t stop we wuzzing but christians have no place/need for ancestor worship.
You have Noah & Ham, in VR 3D :joy:
I believe that most people are not aware of the extent and the duration of the Scythian cultural phenomenon in Eurasia.
Unlike other Steppe Empires, the Scythian cultural phenomenon lasted for a very long time. The European Scythians, known to ancient Greeks, are just a fraction of what Scythians represented in both area and time.
Basically, one could talk about proto Scythian ethnic groups as early as the demise of Tripolyan civilization and still find Scythians as late as the Indo-Scythian kingdoms. This means an era of around 3000 years. In fact, when we say Indo-Iranian, we could as well say Scythian.
The Scythians had a lasting impact on a very large part of Eurasia both in space and time.
The French seem like utter morons, they invite millions of Muslims to live in their country, and then go out of their way to antagonise them with anti-Muslim cartoons in an attempt to force them to be secular, left wing, pro-multikulti French citizens, with disastrous consequences.
Most of the “Je Suis Charlie” types are pro-mass immigration, but they believe that they can force secular republican French values on the Muslims, they believe they can bend the Muslims to their will if they keep forcing these anti-Muslim cartoons on them.
In Britain those Charlie Hebdo cartoons would never have been allowed in the first place, what these left wing “Je Suis Charlie” types do would be considered racist here and prosecuted.
The reality is when you live amongst people who are much more warlike and fanatical than you are, you are best not to deliberately antagonise them regardless of what ever idealised secular republican “values” you believe in.
It probably adds much height to Punjabi manlets, who seem to have shrunk over the past couple of decades for some reason.
Pictured: Chad Sikhs towering over a virgin wehraboo. Nowadays it is a much sorrier tale from the perspective of Harjeet.
https://i.ibb.co/9mxGv1K/gj-Wu0-As2-HKpy6zmuu-Zix3pwxod-G0ie2k7-Hmym-DWlw.jpg
OTOH this Wehrmacht Soldat might have been a midget. Regardless, I am pretty sure that he was in the commanding position.
For me exonym Scythian means just those Shakas who lived near the coasts of the Black Sea, then there are Iazyges, who were Indo Iranian people living in the area of the modern day Hungary and Transylvania and were closely connected with the ancient Scythians.
The Buddha himself was very probably descended from the Indo-Iranian Sakas and even his clans name Shakya means Scythian/Shaka in Sanskrit. As I have once mentioned before here, the Shakyas shared more cultural similarities with the Sakas of the steppes than with the Puranic or Vedic Indians. The Stupa or Kurgan as a burial place for a great king, the belief that fire is sacred and purifying, the immense respect for the horse, horse was for them an animal above other animals. Shakyas worshipped the Sun and the Fire, and they believed that they as descentants ofthe Sun belong to the Solar race, Suryavansha. Then they had other embarrassing Indo-Iranian traditions, like marrying with cousins, so that their divine blood would not be defiled, which was common among Iranian royalty. Although it was done only when they couldnt find brides of suitable pedigree. But for Vedic Indiands such marriages were a horrible transgression. There were also many other traditions shared by the Shakyas and Shakas. The tradition of the Shakyas tells that they came to foothills of Himalayas 5 or 6 generations before the time of the Buddhas father Suddhodana. Their reason for migrating was quite funny from the modern day perspective, the Buddha tells that they wanted to uphold the purity of their lineage. Also Shakyas had only a one caste, the caste of warriors, all Shakyas were warriors like the Scythians of the steppe and they thought that the warrior caste is superior to Brahmins or priestly caste.
In Mahayana we always call the historical Buddha Gautama by the name Shakyamuni, the Sage of the Shakyans!
How tides turn..
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769537064730755082/unknown.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/551662870455386115/769340154150125628/IMG_20201023_191830.jpg?width=332&height=665
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769538232860803072/IMG_20200926_1635052.jpg?width=699&height=664
At least the boot on ur neck is well polished..
The most popular leader among young people and women by a wide margin is a Singh.
Last PM of India Singh.
Must suck to be an old white (christcuck) dude, watching ur young people idolize a literal Saracen||
Why shouldn’t they?
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769539443786776586/unknown.png?width=1209&height=664
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769540049724375050/unknown.png
It just means Jatt, who are Sikh, so join the Khalsa||
And no Bhenchoding the Ganas of Rudra (Jats) don’t do that!
http://yugaparivartan.com/2016/07/29/how-to-revive-the-hindu-kshatriya-spirit/
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769541655094624256/unknown.png
I should have written just Iranian or Iranic and not Indo Iranian.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769556600196300860/unknown.png?width=710&height=664
I’m not sure what kind of holy foreskin cult encourages you to find malice in another’s bliss
You don’t strike me as v. manly||
I was aware of the Gautama’s descent from a Scythian clan. BTW his description as being blue eyed and having a “golden hued” skin color also matches the Scythian phenotype of the earliest times. This phenotype changed progressively through acculturation with BAMAC, Davidian and Siberian populations. Ar the end of the day we got Scythian Y Y haplogroup R1a Z93 widely distributed among different Central Asian populations. In Europe it is mainly present among the Tatars. Slavs are not descended from Scythians.
Liberalism rots your brain
I know a phuddu when I see one
You’re trying to disparage the Khalsa out of a sense of hatred and insecurity
I don’t have much else to say to you I’ve never met an anti Sikh person who was spiritually serene
Now is probably the best time to invade Canada, since the Canadian army has a higher proportion of trannies than the general pop and is stacked with gays and Sikhs (but I repeat myself.)
But seriously, contra expectations, Sikhs seem like the most pozzed of Indians in the West (including Muslims.) I would almost posit that it has something to do with their costumes – that for signaling value, they are akin to the skin of blacks, causing multicultists to promote them, flatter them, and generally pander to them, just as the Church of Scientology treats celebrities. But the problem with this theory is that many have dropped the old customs. Perhaps, it is better explained by HBD.
Yes, on this basis some weird Ukrainian ridnoviry were claiming that Buddha was a Ukrainian. One of them (Sylenko) lived in India for a time and compiled a Ukrainian-Sanskrit dictionary:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Ukrainian_National_Faith
Why should we pander to you when you’ve never done us any favors?
Since when have white nationalists ever helped themselves let alone any allies?
What possible reason could we have to help you, and what common interest can you conceive of?
You taking being powerful as being pozzed, or paying lip service to liberalism while carrying a sword.
I think you believe in this delusional reality where “rational” minorities accept white supremacy and flatter you and your devilish critiques.
Let’s be honest, being racist is incompatible with being Christian, and the Pagan Europeans are on our side anyway.
Many more have come back to them, those political leaders they’re Canadian born..
https://m.hindustantimes.com/rf/image_size_800x600/HT/p2/2016/06/06/Pictures/25-years-of-operation-bluestar_9d3a0c14-2bb8-11e6-ae51-029221314c47.jpg
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L06znGk32Aw/U5VQFDsD0GI/AAAAAAAAAEo/VbOCW97INWc/s1600/article-2554897-1B4F275400000578-589_964x964.jpg
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BsQrvtss8OQ/UvStes9gRSI/AAAAAAAAQkM/TF2BHwy6jMU/s1600/operation-blue-star-1984-rare-photos+(29).jpg
With the comment section now having Intra-Slavic, Turko-Armenian and Wignat-Sikh flame wars it is a huge upgrade||
How are you doing?
It is now a competition between the Chinese and the Sikhs to see who can take over Canada first, will Canada become part of of the Chinese Co-prosperity Sphere or will it become part of Greater Khalistan?
https://www.680news.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/sites/2/2019/04/CTCN_WEB_PIC_KHALSA_DAY_2019APR28-.jpg
https://globalpunjabtv.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/sikhsoldiers-660×330.png
Sikhs have support in the halls of power from Justin Singh Trudeau
https://images.thestar.com/fX7k3sE_EOCa9lxyXs-UeDSkT0I=/1200×821/smart/filters:cb(1555184309982)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/politics/federal/2019/04/13/trudeau-to-visit-gurdwara-after-government-removes-reference-to-sikh-extremism/trudeaugurdwara13.jpg
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769564870646431744/BhaiSukhaJinda_Vaidya1.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769564994915270687/0a14339b08db57627f8ebe453b8c09a2.png
Singhs were hitting targets all the way in Romania.
Would you like to be next?
We speak of defending the weak, punishing the wicked.
You cheer on the massacres of the innocent & slaughter of the defenceless.
Is it any wonder you find no ears in your home, and no banners sympathetic?
What will write on your tomb, that a great man lived here?
No, that this one had the spirit of a Rakshas but none of the vigour||
Sikhs cucked by Hindus/Muslims once again
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769566701171638273/unknown.png?width=767&height=664
You are blind in your lust for power, that you think the Singhs wish to do anything but serve others||
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾ।।ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ।।
Greater Khalistan’s London cell couldn’t even finish the job. Sad.
If you consider the Sarmatians as a closely related and cultural offshoot of the overall Scythian world including an Iranian outer veneer, then there was certainly a lot of intermixture between the two groups. Before the Slavs started to make a name for themselves by constructing their own huge Slavic Empire known as Rus, they were closely allied with the Sarmatians.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/0_Sarcophage_-_Soumission_des_sarmates_-_Museo_Pio-Clementino_%282%29_%28cropped%29.JPG/220px-0_Sarcophage_-_Soumission_des_sarmates_-_Museo_Pio-Clementino_%282%29_%28cropped%29.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatians
https://twitter.com/Parikramah/status/1319125593439559680?s=20
You have a different Maryada।।
https://twitter.com/Parikramah/status/1319124560583733248?s=20
Lev Sylenko was an erudite and charismatic religious leader that counted among his followers not only the lost Ukrainian hippie generation of the 1970’s, but also various movers and shakers within the larger Ukrainian community, of which the most famous was perhaps Viktor Yushenko’s wife’s family the Chumachenkos from Chicago. I also remember seeing photos of Sylenko along with no other than the first patriarch of the Ukrainian Kyiv patriarch church, Mstyslav, graciously entertaining him within his home drinking tea and smoking cigarettes (Mstyslav could never, it seems, quit his lifelong addiction).
Back in the 70’s when the Ridna Vira really took off, several houses of worship were constructed in North America for the ever enlarging new (old) faith. Even in Minneapolis, rumors’ were riff of several prominent Ukrainian artists/intellectuals that left the environs of the traditional Ukrainian churches in favor of this more “nationalistic” church. As you can see from this photo, they were building their temples for the long term, don’t know how they’re doing today?
https://i2.wp.com/romaninukraine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Ukraine-National-Faith.png
Above all ties, is Maryada.
It seems to me that British imperialism was always much too soft, despite the continual whining of Indians, Chinese, Irish, etc, who blame the British for all their problems.
Look at South America, that’s how colonialism is done. The original native cultures were all but wiped out and they are now nothing but a reflection of the colonialists/conquistadors.
Britain in contrast more or less totally failed to have any meaningful and long lasting cultural and demographic impact on its colonies. I suppose some might cite North America and Australia as counter examples, but I don’t think those really count because the natives there were few in number and also primitive, not really a “civilisation” per se. They are almost 100% settler states, little to no assimilation of the natives has taken place.
That’s why I find it bizarre when Indians and Irish whine about the “brutal” Brits, because if Britain really were so brutal would those countries/civilisations even exist any more in the way pre-Colombian civilisations in Latin America no longer exist in any meaningful way? You could say the same about the way the Japanese wiped out the Ainu for that matter.
Wasnt Sarmatian just a later name for the Scythians of Ukraine and Southern Russia? I wouldnt think it strange if many of them were later assimilated by the Slavs, but there are still the Ossetians/Alans who are at least linguistically direct descentants of Sarmatians.
Although I have lost some goodwill towards Sher Singh/Jatt Arya, I still wouldnt laugh too much. Sikhs survived 700-800 years of being under Muslim rule, they ferociously and untiringly broke the Muslim power in India by constantly revolting against the Mughals in the very heartlands of the Islamic power in India. Lets see in what kind of condition Britbongs will be after 10 generations of Sadiq Khans. I would be very surprised if some Englishmen in future would develop an unified and martial ethnoreligious group identity. Yes Sikhs have some problems, but they are pretty okay for people who have survived much longer under Islam than Serbs or Greeks, and didnt fall in dhimmitude like the Copts of Egypt.
The Slavs have not much to do with Scythians, those who are mostly related to Scythians on genetic level in Russia are Volga Tatars and indigenous people of Altai mountains.
Nevertheless, Sanskrit speakers find learning Slavic languages easy as there are hundreds of cognate roots between Sanskrit and Slavonic lexicons. There was a strong Indology school in Russia since the early XXth century and I believe that the earliest Russian-Sanskrit dictionary was composed before the WWI.
Russian Sanskrit dictionaries and lexicons are found online, but even without a dictionary a Slavic language speaker can sometimes guess the meaning of Sanskrit sentences.
An example is the Prajnaparamita Mantra:
Gate, gate, paragate, Bodhi, Svaha!
If one knows that gat‘ is a way through a marsh or swamp in Russian, that get’ means go away in Ukrainian, that the prefix para is cognate to Slavic prefix pere and the Bodhi is of a cognate root to Slavic bud’, then one can guess the meaning of the mantra.
Also, if one knows that the Sanskrit prefix pra is cognate to Slavic prefix pro, that jnana is of a root cognate to the Russian znanye and that in Russian parom is the boat/ferry used to cross a river, one easily figures out the meaning of Prajnaparamita.
Therefore producing an Ukrainian-Sanskrit dictionary must have been an easy endeavor.
This being said, the Neopagans everywhere are mainly LARPers, although I do not see any problem with reviving the folklore and what is left of pre-Christian mythology of any European culture.
But since the fall of Retra and Arkona, the Balto-Slavic Paganism is dead and buried. BTW in Tocharian ratre means red which is coherent with the Wendish temples being described by contemporary witnesses as entirely painted in red color on their outside.
Speaking of colors: I have read somewhere (can’t recall where exactly) that in Old Tokharian blue was esyn’ (East Slavonic sin’), while the founding dynasty of the first Turkish empire was the Ashina Turks, with their Empire being called Gökturk or Blue Turk Empire (Gök being Blue or Heavenly in Old Turkic). Also Asana in Tokharian means worthy/noble (compare with Russian sanovnyi or Ukrainian shanovnyi). So basically the early Turks might well have been directly related to Tokharians through their ruling elites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6kt%C3%BCrks
https://penzev.livejournal.com/234433.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%BE%D1%85%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8B
The Tokharian were composed of two related ethnic groups: the Kucanne (Kushans) and the A’rsi.
A-Rrsi… Sounds curiously cognate to Rus’.
But that’s another interesting story…
No, Sarmatians were not Scythians. All Sarmatian burials produce haplogroup R1b and the Sarmatian and Scythian languages were probably not mutually intelligible. Although both were Indo-European. Sarmatians are directly descended from Yamnaya. I believe that they become Bashkirs under Turkic influence.
Sarmatians are not related to Slavs.
Really? This is news to me? Where they were hidden then during the Classical era of Greek civilization? Not in Central Asia, because Achaemenid Persians and Greeks thought that Sakas of Kazakhstan were related to Scythians of the Black sea.
I would also add that the prevalence of the English language around the world today is a result of American pop culture/media and globalisation by American multi-nations and not a direct result of British colonialism.
In many respects the American Empire has been far more effective and ruthless in expanding Anglo cultural hegemony than the British themselves ever were.
You’re nuts. Spain is probably the gayest country in the world. (A stunning achievement considering that the (((USA))) exists.)
Ural and Southern Siberia. The oldest remains of Sarmatian (Savromat) culture are found there. They were really a kind of relictual Yamnaya / Afanasievo population who wrestled back the power from the Andronovo Scythians after being allied with them. And you are right Alans were a subtype of Sarmatians who intermixed with sedentary Caucasus populations to become Ossetian.
He was a buddy of one of my grandparents, I think from their days at a DP camp in Germany after the war. His patriotism was admired but his ideas judged as rather strange and not taken seriously, we are Christians after all. I came across some of his writings and at my request he gave me some Ukrainian-Sanskrit stuff when I was curious about it in my teens, but I did not pursue anything further.
He would be cancelled nowadays:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Ukrainian_National_Faith
It identifies the Trypillian culture (3000–5000 BCE) as “Oryana” or “Orania”, assumed to having been the epicentre of the Indo-Europeans or Aryans (whom the book calls Oryans, evoking a connection with the Ukrainian word for plowing, oraty;[1] cf. the same cognation in Latin, arare). According to the book, the white racial type and consequently European civilisation first developed along the banks of the Dnieper, and ancient Oryans-Ukrainians are credited as the initiators of the philosophy later written down in the Vedas, developed as the Oryans migrated in different directions including the north of the Indian subcontinent.
Correct me if I am wrong (and I may be, I defer to your expertise here), but I thought that Antes were partially descended from Sarmatians.
Yes, but not only:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatians#Genetics
A genetic study published in Nature Communications in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of the Ural Mountains) between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture.[29]
A genetic study published in Nature in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD.[32] The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1, I2b, R (two samples) and R1.[33]
A genetic study published in Science Advances in October 2018 examined the remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples),
A genetic study published in Current Biology in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332, R1a1e-CTS1123, R1a-Z645 (two samples) and E2b1-PF6746,
In a study conducted in 2014 by Gennady Afanasiev, Dmitry Korobov and Irina Reshetova from the Institute of Archaeology Russian Academy of Sciences, DNA was extracted from bone fragments found in 7 out of 10 Alanic burials on the Don River. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them possessed mtDNA haplogroup I.[37]
In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In these analyses, the two Alan samples from the 4th to 6th century AD turned out to belong to yDNA haplogroups G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while two of the three Sarmatian samples from the 2nd to 3rd century AD were found to belong to yDNA haplogroup J1-M267 while one belonged to R1a
I believe that there are thousands of cognate words between Slavic and Sanskrit. I cant read Sanskrit, but I know surprisingly many Sanskrit terms relating philosophy and religion, and I do often read Sanskrit Dharanis or Mantras and all the time I do recognize cognates that I did not notice before. Like Dana, which means giving and generosity, clearly its cognate of Дать.
Lets return to the question of the origin of the Sarmatians. Closest language to modern Ossetian is small Yaghnobi language in Tajikistan, Yaghnobi is believed to be the descentant of the Sogdian language. You probably know that Sogdia was the ancient name for the Fergana valley and surrounding areas. I am not sure, but I think that ancient Sogdians were Sakas or closely connected with them.
Buddhas people the Shakyas, sometimes used word Kanhe towards dark skinned people, kanhe means black devil. Shakyas seemed to be very proud, elitist and maybe even xenophobic? I could give more examples, but I fear tarnishing the reputation of Dharma by silly off topic facts. Especially nowadays….
In many respects the American Empire has been far more effective and ruthless in expanding Anglo cultural hegemony than the British themselves ever were.
English language hegemony, yes, but unlike the British Empire the American Empire is almost exclusively promoting subversion and deracination both at home and abroad, rather than promoting anything that could be historically recognised as Anglo culture. The rulers of the American Empire will not be spreading the English language so that the world can read Shakespeare in the original language. No, they will be spreading English to more easily inform the world, in English, that they should be burning Shakespeare’s books due to racism and anti-Semitism.
Antes were the indigenous Balto-Slavic population. Sarmatians were related to Alans. Alans have nothing in common with Slavs.
Lev Sylenko was an inveterate world traveler and aside from visiting several ashrams in India and Tibet, spent time in Iraq, Greece, Turkey, and had a monumental trip all throughout Mexico and Central America. He had an enormous interest in the cultures of the Aztec, Mayan and Toltaiac worlds. He even produced a documentary film about Central America called “Tropical Cantata”. I found this very readable biography about his life to be quite entertaining: https://www.dazhboh.org/v?id=uchs&pg=97
https://oligarh.net/f/image/1%2816%29.jpg
A very young and enthusiastic RUNvirist (in Chicago?) Katheryna Yushchenko (nee Chumachenko) who later helped Lev immigrate back to Ukraine to live out his last earthly days.
This is what I was referring to. The early Savromat in the Urals and Southern Siberia seem more related to haplogroup R1b populations.
I was not aware of these more recent studies although I was aware of a gradual admixture of Alans with the Balkanic and Caucasus populations (Y haplogroups E, G and J2).
So basically you and Altan Bakshi are right, it is quite possible that that the Sarmatians / Alans and Scythians fused after the Sarmatian domination was established.
Thanks for correcting me. I will need to have an update on the subject.
I don’t agree. The prevalence of English in India has much to do with the British Empire.
The natives in all of those Spanish territories suffered heavily from disease, just like in North America. That is the difference. Not Spanish brutality. Africa and Eurasia already had disease exposure, so they were not so vulnerable to imported diseases. Most sub-Saharan Africa due to the climate and the presence of other great apes was difficult for Europeans to survive in without modern medicine. So the Europeans had little demographic impact, except in the far south of South Africa where the climate is more moderate(even this impact looks to be muted over time). It turns out disease is a major determinant of history.
Demographically speaking, Spanish/Portugese colonialism was much less total than that of the Anglos. This is because the Anglo migrations had large numbers of men and women, whereas the Spaniards were mostly men who mixed with local women. As a result, there is much more native ancestry in Mexico, Central America, and South American than there is in north America, or for that matter Australia or New Zealand.
There is plenty of native culture in Peru or Bolivia for example, much more so than anywhere in North America.
Whining from minorities only continues because Anglos listen to/support it. If the incentives were removed, Indians, Chinese, and even the Irish would shut up. The Irish in particular have nothing to whine about, the English have been excessively nice to them. Promoting overseas invasions and assassinations of royal family usually leads to massacres, but the English can’t be bothered. The Indians owe most of what they have to the English. The Chinese, who whine the least, actually have an air tight case that English intervention has caused them nothing but harm.
Btw the Bakshi in Mongolian language is not anyway connected to the Anatolian Turkish word Bakshi, which means garden, nor to Persian Bakshi, which means paymaster. Just to make this clear.
Well that explains a lot.
Although around the same time the so-called Русская Партия in the KGB also played with the revival of Slavic mythology and promoted early Slavs as a heroic and proud people as opposed to degenerate Byzantines and devious and aggressive Khazars.
See Valentin Ivanov’s Русь изначальная.
https://www.litmir.me/bd/?b=12756&p=1
A book I truly enjoyed reading
Possibly also the paintings by Konstantin Vassiliyev a very talented surrealist painter who has met an untimely death (some say that he was killed).
https://24smi.org/public/media/resize/800x-/2018/10/25/105_tNK95b9.jpg
https://24smi.org/public/media/resize/800x-/2018/10/25/109_x3C2sAk.jpg
https://www.wikiart.org/en/konstantin-vasilyev
I regret that this trend was not the one that had the upper hand during the Perestroika…
As I pointed out above:
See footnotes 51, 52 & 53
ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmatians
Certainly, if the Sarmatian presence seems to have been assimilated within the large East Slavic world, they must have added something to the genetic DNA structure of the Slavic inhabitants of this area?
Also, I’ve been hunting to obtain a book written by a Ukrainian historian, Oleksandr Pali, entitled “The Key to the History of Ukraine” where its main thesis is that there was indeed a large Slavic/Sarmatian coalition within Ukraine in early historic times. I haven’t been able to locate this book and would be very interested in finding it?
I have seen before Vasilyevs art, and in my opinion mostly tasteless kitch, his works resemble surprisingly much cheap western fantasy art during the 80s or 70s with fascist vibe or spicing.
In line with her stated views.
Indeed, Vassilliyev appears to have been a very talented painter, with his attention to detail some of his work remind me of Ukraine’s current artistic phenom, Ivan Marchuk, as in this painting of Vassiliyev’s:
https://www.beautyandwisdom.ru/vaslv/repr4.JPG
Who and why would have this artist murdered? In any event, it shows you how the world of ideas are very important (worth killing for, sometimes?).
Too melodramatic, histrionic and sentimental, just tasteless.
Which languages specifically and how do you know that? Do you speak any other languages or have a passing familiarity with them?
Someone once explained the relationship between Putin and Steven Seagal to me as being based on the similarity of Judo to Aikido, but I think Putin is really just trolling Americans about their lack of culture, like that Russian minister who says he likes Pollock and Dr. Dre (or some other rapper.)
RUNvirist and also CIA agent, it checks out.
I agree about the pictures Anon4 posted but the one Mr. Hack posted was better.
Appreciation of art is always subjective. We have to remember that the “official ” Soviet art until the 60ies was Socialist Realism. Vassiliyev’s works clearly stepped outside of the official boundaries. Vassiliev died young and did not have time to completely develop his talents. I find some of his works quite good. Anyway, he was a Surrealist painter so he did not need being realistic. I think he tried to capture the Archetypal representations of Slavic culture and Rus history. I respect him for that.
Are you sure that is her? I don’t think people of that generation had tattoos (look at the girl’s raised hand) and the guy in the back doesn’t like like he is from the late 70s/early 80s. It looks like a recent picture of other people.
That having been said, now I recall that Sylenko did emphasize Jews doing bad deeds in Ukraine and how bad it was for Ukrainians to abandon their own Gods in order to follow a Jewish Messiah.
I found this about Katherine Yushchenko growing up in a Dazhboh-worshipping family (in Russian):
https://kp.ua/politics/51447-ekateryna-yuschenko-vyrosla-v-seme-pryverzhentsev-dazhboha
I don’t think she stayed though. One of my kids went to a summer camp with one of her kids and there was no mention of paganism.
Don’t forget that she was probably a tri-lateralst, Bilderberger, Rothschildan Illuminati/Masonic agent too totally funded by Soros. It must have been her childhood upgringing as a RUNvirist that prepared her fully for her momentous role in Ukraine’s history. I feel cheated that the movement didn’t really take-off much in Minneapolis. 🙂
Good, maybe Habsburg rule left you Galicians with some artistic sensibility, unlike other Rus on this site who seem to like hyperemotional and sensational propaganda masquerading as art. Just joking….
Excuse me Ano4 archetypal representation of Slavic… what the hell, by mimicking fascist propaganda and dungeon and dragons art of the 70s? His use of colours and contrasts is like from Saddam Husseins favorite artist, dont remember the name… And no one demanded any realism from him. Wheres the surrealism by the way? Cheap fantasy art does not equal surreal art. Yes he could have been an excellent book cover artist for cheap fantasy fiction. Alphonse Mucha tried to capture the archetypes of Slavic culture, but he too failed, the man you are looking is Ivan Bilibin, his art expresses the archetypes and allegories of the Russian soul.
Do you mean Vladislav Surkov?
Putin often plays games with his foreign counterparts so it is harder to know, but Surkov was reportedly that kind of type even as a student (pink hair and listening to Pink Floyd), so I think he is genuine. He also produces various forms of countercultural art.
His most recent work:
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/09/03/paradise-without-cocaine-ousted-kremlin-aide-surkov-publishes-poem-a71324
To be honest, he reminds me somewhat of Dmitry. Both Russian part-Jews and having the similar far-too-serious interpretations of and taste for degenerate modern American art and life.
He was able to create very different types of paintings.
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/0f/f0/12/0ff0120f7a3c554e5ca0999eeec9a9a3.jpg
https://aif-s3.aif.ru/images/010/492/a69f0204b6af44ff8ac5bb9149802b23.jpg
He was also quite visionary sometimes:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9b/5c/04/9b5c047e780edebc976c54a8ccec53c4.jpg
A talented man who died young…
Мир праху.
Oh we still have quite an obsession with bones and burial places, many monks have Tantric musical instruments made from leg bone and Skull cups are quite common in the monasteries. Among other things…. like carved skulls or dresses made from bones… our holy relics… et cetera….
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangling
Well, it could be worse: (Zurab Tsereteli)
https://i.imgur.com/6O4AF5j_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
This was given to the US to commemorate the losses of September 11. Some thought it was a not so subtle insult. In truth, he is just a horrendous artist.
Here are some of his more “patriotic” works:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/atg-prod-oaas-files/hum54-15/original/d77ef79a8f54b2c222708866aa52a386.jpg
https://previews.123rf.com/images/id1974/id19741406/id1974140600379/29814015-monument-to-the-russian-georgian-friendship-russia-moscow-sculptor-zurab-tsereteli.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/00_1423_Monument_to_Peter_I._in_Mosco.jpg
Chumachenko briefly headed the bigoted, anti-Russian pro-Bandera, Captive Nations Committee, when she was in her early twenties and at a time when she said some stupidly inaccurate anti-Russian views.
Sure looks like her. Is that photo completely non-doctored? The salute and arm band really stand out.
Yes. It was Dmitry who mentioned him originally, I believe. (And I believe he also likes Tupac) I thought it was a brilliant troll, but am disquieted by the poetry. Even though it is doggerel, it seems to be too much effort to be a troll. And what sort of young man ever dyes his hair pink?
And yet it is hard for me to believe that anyone really likes Pollock.
I dont like his art, but he clearly had a potential to grow and improve, I must acknowledge. Maybe his overtly sensational style was his way to react to the stagnation and greyness of late Brezhnev era?
I can’t attest for the authenticity of the photo, but that’s the way it was presented within the internet. You have a good point about the tattoo on her arm (you must have good eyesight). There’s plenty of information about the Chumachenkos friendship with Sylenko that you can find on the webosphere in Ukrainian. I don’t know that katherine continued in her RUNvira faith into adulthood, but she did seem to be sympathetic to Lev’s condition and was instrumental in getting him back to Ukraine around 2008 after he had a debilitating stroke. Taken from the BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/staticarchive/1bc9ee4103ccf877221e4234b08842c6e8e85f51.jpghttps://www.
https://www.bbc.com/staticarchive/1bc9ee4103ccf877221e4234b08842c6e8e85f51.jpg
Finally, back home.
Obvious Demon Worship. I went to the Tantra exhibition at the British Museum and found it very unsettling.
Sometimes you guys seem rather stiff to me in your appreciation of more modernist trends in Art. If it’s not a renaissance masterpiece, it immediately gets relegated to the second hand heap of art…
Art has always evolved, one should try to learn to appreciate at least some of the modernist trends (says one who rarely has anything positive to say about modernist filmmaking). 🙂
He is also known for Rock song lyrics and dingy novellas.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/did-kremlin-political-chief-really-write-murky-gangster-novel-1771881.html
I am pretty sure that he died before completely developing his art. And you are probably correct that the Volkish and kitsch overtones in his works were a kind of provocation against the norms of the Zastoy period.
That was the time when you had to walk the line as an artist. Vassiliyev didn’t and some say that he paid it with his life. The conspiracy theory is that he was killed on the orders of the “Cosmopolitan” or “Globalist” fraction of the Soviet Deep State. A similar story is told about the death of Igor Talkov.
Whether it is true or not is hard to tell, but Vassyliev died just at the moment when he started being known around USSR.
Anyway, for those who are not aware of the fact that Soviet Deep State also had its Globalists (not internationalists, but Club of Rome affiliated people):
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B5%D0%B6%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%83%D1%82_%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BC%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE_%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0
And a more conspiratorial take:
https://hi-in.facebook.com/ZambekMalhsag/posts/%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%83%D1%82-%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9-%D1%81%D1%88%D0%B0-%D0%B8-%D0%BA%D0%B3%D0%B1-%D1%81%D1%81%D1%81%D1%80-%D0%B4%D0%BB%D1%8F-%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B7%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BA%D0%B8-%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B8-%D1%81%D1%81%D1%81%D1%80/2225044937513847/
There are many masterpieces of modern art, like art of Francis Bacon, but what evolution there is in kitsch? I think that many Baroque Catholic artists were too melodramatic and emotional, but at least they mastered the highly emotionally charged style.
Art and architecture made of human skulls and bones was common in Christianity too, as symbol of humility and mortality of all flesh.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Sedlec-Ossuary.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capela_dos_Ossos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Concezione_dei_Cappuccini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_Chapel
Feel free to whip up your Jack Chick cartoon collection and start another subthread why Catholic church is satanic, anything is better than the never ending Ukrainian, Balkan or Caucasian debates 🙂
Oh you were serious, I thought that you were just joking last time when you replied to me that I shouldnt try to communicate with demons.
Its very wrong of British Museum to even hold such exhibitions, of course they seem demonic when taken out of their context. I dont know what you have seen, Buddhist secret practices or so called path of Hidden Mantra and Hindu Tantra is a huge topic with thousands of traditions and lineages. If you are just shocked from bones, then its your problem, whats wrong with bones?
Curious to know just what exact “stupid and inaccurate anti-Russian views” she proposed while heading the “bigoted anti Russian pro-Bandera, Captive Nations Committee”?
I agree that the Balkan and Caucasian debates are totally out of place here, but haven’t you heard that Ukrainians are in fact really “Little Russians” and therefore deserve a place at the table here, at a “Russian blog”? 🙂
Chandeliers and gothic arches made of human bones via Roman Catholicism is much trendier!
Levasovites have headed down this road. Not an actual Brownshirt though.
Image search on google shows it’s almost always posted on anti-Ukrainian Russian nationalist websites. So a fake.
The tattoo is an easy giveaway. No way some white middle-class girl in the late 1970s would have her lower arm covered in tattoos (or, indeed, have any tattoos). It’s a double-giveaway: tattoos in that location are often used to cover up wrist-cutting. Wrist-cutting wasn’t as popular among young people in the late 1970s as it is now.
The hair, glasses, clothes on the people also don’t match the late 1970s era at all.
And FWIW Yat meant gate or water passage in Mercian English. Symonds Yat, a village name along the river Wye in Herefordshire is an example. It controled the main route through rapids.
-gate such as Meiklgate (Big Street) means street in Northern English dialects influenced by Danish. My favourite is Gallowgate in Durham City.
March = boundary
goodwill?
I don’t notice you criticizing the glory they ascribe to senseless slaughter of civilians or the insults levied at the Turban of MahaKal||
You’re compromised, you have no Maryada either||
In the Treta, Sri Ram is Maryada Puroshottam
In the Age of Kali it is Khalsa||
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/640459736919048202/769715780790517770/Sher_3.png?width=678&height=664
Penned a piece suggesting that blaming Russia/Russians for Communism is legit on account of no strong Russian anti-Communist movement. Not true for several decades following the end of the Russian Civil War. As time progressed, the newer generations born outside Russia became prone to losing some of that zest, while often times marrying another ethnicity.
Another matter had to do with anti-Russian/anti-Communist groups likely to be better received by folks connected with NGO type of aid. This holds true to this day. Some nasty anti-Russian/non-Russian nationalist types have found some headway in such instances (Soros included), as pro-Russian/anti-Communist stances don’t get the same outside support.
Really curious about that Chumachenko photo you posted. Were that someone of a Russian nationalist variant, in that salute pose and armband, who became the spouse of a high ranking Russian official, the Ioffes and Gessens would be going bonkers.
I appreciate your stance and ability to clearly articulate your preferences. As you point out, some modern art is accessible and interesting, and other is not. I too find a lot of the “way out” avant guard like what Pollock represents in painting or Sun Rae does to jazz music to be too grating to enjoy.
If I could recommend a jazz musician for you to listen to, it would be Chick Corea, A truly cutting edge and creative artist, whose been around for a long time now.
As AP points out, the photo was most likely a fake. That she and her family had certain ties to Lev Sylenko and the RUNvira movement is not malarkey.
That Chumachenko’s biggest crime while working for the Captive Nations Committee was conflating communism with Russia doesn’t really shock me, for she was involved during the height of the cold war. She certainly wasn’t unique here with her views, as most Western pundits held similar positions.
Sure, we can step step back today and point out some inconsistencies in this blanket approach, but overall I don’t think that she wa too far off. It’s unfortunate but true, that Russia was the first big prize for the Bolsheviks to win, before this cancer spread to other countries.
My immediate impression of that photo likely being a fake as well.
Going back awhile, I’ve made it point tell neocon anti-Russian leaning folks (often but not only Jews) that blaming Russians for Communism isn’t so far removed from the Judeo-Bolshevism emphasis.
Nazism couldn’t have succeeded to the degree it did without many non-Germans. Ditto Communism not being a Russian monopoly. Some Western based/articulated ideals meshed, with someone (Lenin), who wasn’t a Russian patriot.
Now that you mention it a gate is a passage, a door, which is also connected on the semiotic level.
Anyway, the last time (if ever) most Europeans spoke mutually intelligible dialects was probably at the end of the Unetice culture period. It was probably the last time they also had a common religious tradition. Sad that they didn’t have a script then.
I sometimes think that someone should use a bioinformatics type of approach to compare different Indo-European and Indo-Iranian languages and deduce their LUCA. Perhaps reconstruct the language.
OTOH, what for? Not sure that much people are truly interested at finding out what languages their ancestors have spoken.
A lot of crazy ideas were in the air after the Perestroika.
But even before that, from 1975 to 1985, there were also some unorthodox thinking among Soviet Nomenklatura and Deep State. It is impossible now to reconstruct exactly all the conflicting trends and tendencies, but I believe there were at the very least a kind of cosmist/transhumanist trend, a globalist social-democrate and a (pseudo)nationalist and somewhat traditionalist trends all competing for the domination of the narrative.
The “globalists” won, but they had to share the power with organized crime and the siloviki (criminalized Deep State). I am not sure everything worked as intended. Just like in 1917. Russian affairs never work as intended.
Bones make a great bouillon. You can also make a fertilizing biomass if you have enough bones. That would probably take millions of them. You can make glue…
Speaking of demons, Bodhidhama wrote that demons have the power of manifestation. But the locus they manifest from/into is our own Buddha Nature. That is of course a Cittamatra take on the whole “entity problem”.
Samantha Power’s husband:
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1320189328103006208
In line with Power aggressively seeking to unmask individuals, on the basis of her hypocritically biased notions. This fact based observation explains why Twitter has done nothing against Evelyn Farkas and Tammy Duckworth for tweeting facts as lies, as detailed by yours truly.
These points are a respectful counter to the likes of Aaron Mate, Noam Chomsky and Ray McGovern, who believe that Trump is bad enough to vote for Biden. Does McGovern really expect Biden to suddenly drop the foreign policy sources that the latter has favored, on top of the Biden-Harris flip flopping on several key domestic issues?
Jim Dore is great in assessing such matters:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TYTComedy
Demons in Buddhism? Its much more complicated than that. There are quite many kinds of malevolent or possibly malevolent beings in Dharma. There are 4 different types of Maras, then there are many different kind of evil spirits, ghosts and hell beings, although some masters say that the hellbeings are just a manifestation of ones mind in hell. Because otherwise how that kind of beings can ever gain enough good karma and get out from hell.
What exactly did Bodhidharma say concerning demons? Maybe translator just used word demon and not Mara, Rakshasa, Picasa etc? I have noticed that Buddhist masters mostly use precise and clear language, but often western languages lack equivalent words and translator chooses to use just some common western terms. This problem is especially prevalent with comparatively old translations of Buddhist texts from the 60s and before. But it seems to me that Bodhidharma was talking about the Devaputra Mara, for he resides in the “Heaven of Those Who Have the Power of Emanations over Others.”
We believe in Buddhism that the Kama or Kamadeva of Hinduism is the “Mara the son of the god,” devaputra-mara. The same being who challenged the Buddha before his awakening. Kama is by the way Krishnas son! Some gods can be extremely dangerous, more even than malevolent spirits.
Kent nationalist is partially right with his “dont try to communicate with the demons.” Its always a danger that when you see Buddhas or awakened beings that they are just demons in disguise, this problem is commonly acknowledged in Buddhadharma, we are taught to not to trust too much visions and apparitions, especially if we are beings lacking of merit. In this we share the Orthodox view of prelest, spiritual delusion, sober and calm mind is better than one which is is agitated and sees grand visions of Buddhas everywhere.
So, when you put the findings of these various studies together, what conclusions do you come up with?
I am very grateful to you AP and Mr Hack, because before you two I really had what one can call as a Great Russian or Neo Soviet attitude towards the Ukrainian nation and I thought that all Ukrainian nationalists are just far right nutjobs. Instead you have made a good case for an independent Ukrainian nation even though your logic is sometimes not for my liking or too far fetched in my opion, mainly my problem nowadays is your strong emphasis on historical differences between Ukrainian and Russian nations, when in my opinion those differences have been relatively small in comparison to other great European nation states who all had feudal and decentralized origins, with many different regional cultures, dialects or languages, and even had extreme religious sectarian conflicts, like France, Germany and UK. But the question is off course extremely subjective. Still I must say now that thanks to you two I now understand better the reasons and motivations of Ukrainians desire for an independent nation and I am not anymore categorically against the independent Ukraine. Still no to Nato, thats the redline….. and shouldnt Ukraine just give up on Donbass, those people have suffered enough, its not even a gift to Russia, repairing everything there is going to take trillions of rubles. I have understood that most or all Ukrainian nationalists want to keep Donbass, and that you AP are an exception? I dont know Mr. Hacks opinion, he never seems to write anything about the question of Donbass.
By the way AP, if I can ask, do you really believe in Christ, like Christ as saviour and stuff, because you seem quite silent on that, except just expressing that you are an Uniate Catholic? I understand if its too personal question and you dont want to answer, people can be good without religion, if they havd a good ethical framework and morals, but I believe that self improvement is much harder without religion, after all individual must then depend on himself, and I do believe that only exceptional individuals are capable of that.
Are you FAS?
If you are not East Asian or perhaps Indian, why waste your time with Buddhism?
Orthodox monks also gather human skulls.
https://orthochristian.com/104973.html
https://travelmaven.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83476d41669e201156f954eec970c-pi
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Prodromos-9.jpg
“What I am, you will be, too. What you are, I’ve been myself” is written in skull.
But I am an Asian on my mother’s side and I have Buddhist ancestors at least from the 18th century. Probably even before that time.
Still all serious converts are welcome to Dharma. Its not an ethnic club.
Or did I misunderstood your question, maybe you asked what Buddhism can give to non Asians? That ultimately depends on a person, but for those who take Buddhism seriously it will open door to liberation from all suffering, in other words it offers salvation, pretty basic stuff with religions, isnt it?
In my youth I was more of a cultural Buddhist, in those times I had no respect for Christianity, none at all. It was only after I got really interested in Buddhism, that I started to truly appreciate Christianity. From my fathers side my ancestors were Lutheran, but at least from the 1950s no one from that side of family have taken religion or Christianity seriously. Without Buddhism I probably would think that Christianity is just a meaningless and possibly dangerous relict of the past. But thanks to the Dharma I have now thought for a long time that only a (metaphorically) blind man cant see the therapeutic or healing truth of Lord Christ.
That was exactly the context in which Bodhidhama warned his student about the manifestation of demons.
Bodhidhama:
The sutras say, “All appearances are illusions.” They have bo fixed existence, no constant form. They’re impermanent. Don’t cling to appearances, and you’ll be of one mind with the Buddha. The sutras say, “That which is free of all form is the Buddha.”
Student:
But why shouldn’t we worship buddhas and bodhisattvas?
Bodhidhama:
Devils and demons posses the power of manifestation. They can create the appearance of bodhisattvas in all sorts of guises. The buddha is your own mind. Don’t misdirect your worship.
This is basically Cittamatra.
Where is the ‘context’ where giving prayers and offerings to a statue of a demon with a man’s severed head drinking from a skull cup is not demon worship?
Tantric Episcopalianism
Catholics don’t worship these. Actually, the objects made directly from skulls were the least disturbing part.
2 completely unrelated, decent people (me and Singh) getting the identical impression that you are a fake, pompous sexual deviant.
Coincidence? I think not.
Your a nasty individual, a very bad person. Who pays you? The Albanians? Sicilian mafia?
Surely you’re a fan of the great Soviet sculptures /monuments?
Obviously as part of Paris landscape, the Eiffel Tower is spectacular and beautiful at a distance , but up close it is extremely ugly, I would not want to live less than 5km away from it…. the great US skyscrapers from late 1910’s – 1940’s remain aesthetic from close or long distance.
I trust that you think as I do that anybody who gets satisfaction from viewing a nothing artwork like l’escargot by Matisse….. is an extreme cretin?
Seriously, why do you persist in pestering Anon4? He’s made it obvious here that he’s a family man and enjoys his family outings. His brand of Russian nationalism seems like the most intelligent form that I’ve seen expressed here. What’s your beef with him, Geraldina, not enough sheet music to keep you busy on the piano? 🙂
https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/nintchdbpict000323924155.jpg?w=620
Geraldina preparing for her upcoming piano tour in Viet Nam.
The question of Donbas is kind of a sticky one for me. When the violence there first occurred, I was up in arms about it all. After all, the region was first populated by Ukrainian settlers, and even today Ukrainians make-up most of the population. The Russian and pro-Russian settlers have mostly crossed over into the area from Russia over a long period of time, especially during Soviet times. I’ve known Ukrainians from Donbas that are very much in favor of staying put within Ukraine. But, as they say, “it is what it is”, and under mostly the persuasion of AP and his “Donbas is a cancer for Ukraine” theory, I’ve become more and more open to the idea, that perhaps it should be just cut off and left to suffer its own cancerous death. In reality, I would like to see it brought back, but what a high price to do so. It’s way too late for any meaningful plebiscite on the issue. 🙁
The problem is that non-Russians mostly don’t care about the anti-Communist struggle of some Russians during the 20th century, especially considering that it’s a matter of history of “Russia” now. There’s no way in hell Western/Liberal/Soros NGO’s are going to be sympathetic to the plight, wellbeing and cause of ethnic Russians (regardless of how “anti-Communist/Soviet” they may be), both past and present.
A better approach is to emphasize some of the most horrific episodes of The Russian Genocide in the 20th century done by the Communists (Jews, Latvians, etc.) during the Russian Civil War.
These include the horrific starvation, freezing to death and drowning under the ice of massive columns and convoys of ethnic Russians that as part of the White Army fled from Communists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_March
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Siberian_Ice_March
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starving_March
An uncomfortable fact about the Russian Civil War you would do well to accept instead of awkwardly whine about is that the international/western forces that supposedly helped the White Army were not genuine friends of the Russian White Army (especially obvious by UK royal family refusing to host Romanovs). Have you ever asked yourself why these “allies” never seriously supplied the White Army with arms, munitions and supplies (despite UK still bothered to use chemical weapons on ethnic Russians far north near Arkhangelsk and Komi) even though when the White Army captured Kazan it had access to most of the Russian Empire’s treasury?
Truth hurts.
Nobody of serious importance is going to truly start to like Russia in the West. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter for Russians because Russia is large and strong enough to be able to shrug things like sanctions off (not entirely cost free though) and capable of successfully, cost-effectively fight serious wars and wage prolonged geo-political struggle against stronger enemies (although Russia could improve its diplomacy and efforts to maintain influence among smaller countries).
I think our friend here is a Putler- worshipping Sovok. And he/she/it dislikes my take on Soviet history and post-Communist Russia’s predicament.
I can understand this. My opinions are not subtle at all: Revolution was bad, Perestroika was worse and Putin is not the Great Statesman a lot of people imagined. Russia is under a regime of corrupt siloviki allied with cosmopolitan oligarchs. Russian people deserve better. Russians have suffered enough and should have a good and peaceful living in their homeland. If that means giving up on geopolitical ambitions of the ruling elites, so be it, and the sooner the better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cass_Sunstein#Early_life_and_education
Sunstein = I don’t think I need to explain further.
There you go. That explains why Cass Sunstein is so obsessed with “cognitive infiltration” and mind control over the masses.
As for Samantha Power, Biden better not win because this bitch is going to be in power and as a hysteric believer in “Bosnian Genocide” and “Srebrenica Genocide” future prospects will look bleak for Serbs and Republika Srpska.
In general, if Biden wins a whole bunch of other officials bad for Serbs and enemies of Serbs from the 1990’s will stack key US policy positions and they will make types like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo be sorely missed.
Serbs will be in very, VERY serious trouble if Biden wins (His newly released Kosovo and Bosnia declarations are direct plans of attack on Serbs). The only ways out for Serbs from their current plight are Trump victory or a US Civil War.
Magnificent wit with the Liberace reference, I would have been proud to do the same type of joke ( I probably have)
I don’t know about this Israeli – Vietnamese creep Ano4’s family but I do know that:
Even by your standards Mr Hack, that is a staggeringly idiotic statement.
He is as much a Russian nationalist…… as I am a 16th century Zulu spear.
He is an obvious liberast who hates Russia and likes covering his ass in the most twisted way possible.
Even someone as foolish as you must realise if this creeps “nationalism” is acceptable to somebody like you…. then obviously it is because it is not Russian nationalism you dummy.
That you or anybody can’t even differentiate if he is into Russian nationalism or Russian ethnonstionalism is an indictment of the duplicitous,ass-covering game this animal Ano4 wants to play.
Ethnonationalism
He is steadfast in his dislike of liberasts and distrust of “cosmopolitanism”, just read his latest comment #201. My reference to Vietnam was in response to one of your own, where you extolled the virtues of high brow culture on display over there (or something to that effect). Perhaps, Vietnam could be a bridge of rapprochement for you two, as you both seem to have an interest in its culture? 🙂
There are beautiful Soviet-era artworks, but I tend to see them as offsprings of Neoclassicism.
I have a low opinion of it, but it would be prudent to tone down your vehement insults in general, it is part of why Karlin bans you.
A reasonable position. If I were Russian I would opt want Ukraine to join NATO either. However recent events have pushed Ukrainians into wanting to join. Ideally Ukraine would have a strong deterrent on its own, without NATO.
This has been my position for a long time. Donbas has provided coal and hard currency for Ukraine, but has been toxic politically and culturally. It isn’t worth keeping it.
Most do, out of a sense of outrage that Russia helped remove “our” territory. But this is a short-sighted and stupid idea. Why add millions of voters who are hostile or indifferent to the Ukrainian idea to the Ukrainian state? What good comes of that? Why does Ukraine need that? They will be miserable and troublesome, and the rest of Ukraine will suffer with their presence. Without Donbas there would never have been a Yanukovich presidency in the first place.
Also, there is a mistaken belief by any Russians that a person from Ukraine who considers themselves a Ukrainian (rather than a Russian) is a Ukrainian nationalist by definition. I consider nationalism, like other modern idolatries, to be an evil. It is not as bad as Communism because it is older and somewhat more rooted in tradition, but it is still bad. In a conflict between nationalists and Communists I will choose the nationalists. But nationalism gave Europe the fratricidal first world war.
Without being a nationalist, I do appreciate my forefathers’ traditions, language, and culture and would not want them to be snuffed out, I support their development. With respect to Ukraine vs. Russia, I would not want the unique culture and traditions of Little Russia/Ukraine to disappear and be snuffed out, like that of Novgorod, and for there to only exist Muscovy/Great Russia.
Yes, I do, but it seems sort of profane to share such details of personal faith. I do pray and until COVID I attended church weekly. Our services are like Orthodox ones, liturgy is song by both choir and parishioners, there is incense, candles, etc. which I think heighten the connection. I find it harder to pray in Roman Catholic churches, they seem more sterile to me. But I also feel it in nature.
I try to be Christlike in my behavior towards others but of course fall short as do we all. There is a competitive, video-game quality in on-line squabbles and relationships which is okay, but I am gentler IRL.
In my family there was a tradition since the 17th century of the oldest son being a priest (our family were priests, merchants, and military officers). This was broken when we came to America after World War II, otherwise my uncle would have been the 16th. My great-grandfather and all the way down the line were priests with noble background (which meant that they didn’t worry about persecution or trouble from Poles):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Ukrainian_clergy
Just to be clear, I wish no suffering upon the people of Donbas. Their suffering is mostly self-inflicted but I hope they find a good path out of their Sovok existence. It didn’t happen through Ukraine, let it happen through Russia.
Also, gangrenous appendage is probably more accurate than cancerous.
There are and have been Ukrainian patriots from Donbas but they are outnumbered, like Russian nationalists in Kiev. Let them each resettle to where they belong; this has already been happening.
This is an implicit admission that Serbia’s reliance on Russia is insufficient to safeguard its interests. As I’ve maintained for a long time (and got ferocious pushback from various serb bootlickers on this blog).
It is true though. Russia is too weak to be Serbia’s protector, and changes in the US administration and policies have far greater impact.
But herein is where part of the problem lies. Donbas was originally settles by Ukrainians’. Great Russian settlement into the area occurred later. In the countryside today, Ukrainians still constitute the majority.
If you decide to ignore the 10s or 100s of 1000s of arrests and imprisonments of siloviki that have occurred in the last few years, deliberately decide to not follow their trials just so that you can scream “human rights abuse” or then schizophrenically conflate fighting corruption now with mid-late 1930’s “Stalinism”….. then of course your BS is “true” you cretin!
In reality corruption is being fought democratically and successfully in Russia with extremely high power MVD, FSB, SKR etc. guys being arrested every week (from everywhere, including ethnic republics) . This is different to Banderastan where the only Ukrainian official imprisoned for corruption was….
Paul Manafort, LOL.
If you can at least dismiss the noticeably much less corruption from traffic police, in hospitals etc occurring because of development of technology with the recording equipment on everyone’s phones ( I would not because I believe it is because of democratic, structural evolution of Russian society initiated by intelligent decisions of authorities)….. then you have no excuse like that to use for the high-powered people arrested in Russia by own law enforcement agencies that they work for.
That is serious work, not the fake, ultimate failure judging from secondary effects, of that imbecile Saakashvili “fighting corruption” in Gruzia, which effectively followed the principle of PR and :
in his idiotic firing of everybody.
Cosmopolitan, mainly Jewish, oligarchs are a western creation/tool in Russia you dimwit. Putin fought, with huge political risk and longterm repurcussions, 3 of the worst and most internationally powerful oligarchs and won…. as did the revenues for the government budget and savings. Subsequent creation by side effect of alot of smaller local oligarchs, particularly in ethnic republics was normal , they are fighting against now…. and was significantly better for Russians than small number of Jewish cosmopolitan oligarchs controlling and stealing from the country.
BTW fool, how many state companies in Russia can you say are managed badly and become less professional ? Our postal service is approximately 5 million times better than compared to 10 years ago. Most russians will say that Federal government and top regional government work well for them…. further down they are trying to make perform better.
LOL clown, WTF is “suffering” now? Economy is succeeding or failing now based on democratic merit…..not because of “corruption” or “dictatorship”, that is why our social indicators like crime and health and use of services etc are so much better now.
Sorry, can’t do it. I have temporarily declared for myself eternal immunity from moderation, just like in certain states there is immunity from prosecution
One warning I gave to all people slamming Sweden’s approach was Wait For The Second Wave.
I hate to say it but… I told you so:
https://i.imgur.com/JNUzT6C.png
Northern Donbas, which is still part of Ukraine.
Look at the territory of the UNR in the Treat of Brest-Litovsk: notice that it didn’t include most of the parts of Donbas currently not under Kiev (nor did it include Crimea):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/UNR_2.1918_Brest-Litovsk.png
Here is self-declared native language in Luhansk oblast:
https://i.imgur.com/oJmM3hm.png
Notice that the frontline (blue line) rather neatly keeps the Ukrainian parts in Ukraine and Russian parts away from it.
So the current borders are, I think, rather correct.
I most certainly know why and have explained in some detail.
On another point, I don’t awkwardly whine. Rather, provide the specifics.
If Power’s hubby was a WASP, it wouldn’t change my opinion of his views.
On your other point, tack on Susan Rice, Evelyn Farkas, Michael Carpenter and Michael McFaul. Antony Blinken is someone who I sense knows better, but has the establishment in mind, relative to what he wants.
All schools agree that ones mind is the Buddha or has potential to be the Buddha, Chittamatras differ from the shravaka schools because they dont hold dharmas as ultimately real but that they are manifestations of ones mindstream, Chittamatras believe that everything is mind, not in solipsistic way, but that all things exist only in relation to mind and mental faculties. For Chittamatras mind is ultimately real.
Madhyamika school which I follow does not make such statements. I dont know how well translated is your citation, especially if its from Chinese to Japanese and then to English, and the guy who spoke those things was an Indian man over a thousand years ago in China. Maybe Bodhidharma didnt spoke against worshipping of Buddhas but against superstitious and mechanic idol worshipping. Where repetition and tradition is more important than genuine understanding of Buddhas teachings and applying those teachings in real life.
So Agnus Dei should be taken literally? I cant take seriously people who worship a lamb god. Or if its not a lamb then but son of man whose blood you drink and flesh you eat, you sick demon worshippers. At least we dont practice cannibalism!
Agnus Dei is a metaphor for something good, whatever the below represents, it is something evil.
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/UserFiles/images/weeklynews/24-october-2020/18.jpg
In the first text where he was mentioned, Bodhidharma was described as a “Parasika”, only later has the story of him being “the son of a King from the southern India” been added.
If we look at the historical circumstances in the fifth century AD when he supposedly travelled to China (Hephtalite Mithraist and Persian Zoroastrian persecution of the Central Asian Buddhism), the fact that he was described as a “Tripitaka master” (therefore a translator of Buddhist texts) in one of the earliest Ch’an texts found in Dunhuang and that he supposedly went back home through Tianshan mountains, we might come to the conclusion that he was most probably a Central Asian.
In the earliest Ch’an Anthology found in Dunhuang and in the Treatise of Bodhidhama translated from the Chinese by Red Pine (which I used for the citation in the comment above), Mind is the Ultimate Reality that a human consciousness mightexperience. This Mind is not personal, it is not limited by anything and it pervades the whole Universe. There is nothing beyond it. But, in the Ch’an Anthology it is also clearly stated that whatever the attempt to the objectification of this Mind, this attempt would only be a failed “vision in a dream”. Therefore, to avoid their disciples falling into the solipsistic contemplation of their own consciousness, later Chinese Ch’an masters used the famous saying: “Mind is not mind, we just call it such”.
Yes, he mentioned this in his treatise: ignorant people believe that they will be liberated through painting Stupas in different colors, giving flowers and burning incense in front of the statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This might increase their merit, but this will not bring them to the Awakening and Liberation. Only witnessing the true nature of the Mind will ultimately bring them to the Other Shore.
Oh moving the goalposts, arent we? So now metaphores and allegories are okay?
Buddhists dont worship Kali, its against Buddhism to worship or to take refuge in such beings. Whats next? Should I now accuse Christians of worshipping of Allah? Actually it would be a less far fetched analogy, Allah is after all a cognate of Hebrew El. El means Lord and Arab Christians call God by the name of Allah. Calm down you Allah worshipper.
(I believe that Christian God and Allah are quite different, so these are just rhetorical or polemical arguments, no offence meant towards the Christianity or Islam)
Obviously just a sign of Biden’s senility, but if the Democrats seize power I hope they don’t “take care” of Biden and replace him with Harris too quickly. It would be funny if he did this kind of thing during a constitutional or diplomatic crisis.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1320107370312323073
You’re a fucking Hapa showing your true colours.
Ma Kali is form of Ma Durga wife of Lord Shiva.
You’re a fake
She’s mother of the same Sikhs who destroyed your empire and are now pivotal in destroying your race।।
ਤਾਂ ਸੀਸ ਕੇਸ ਰਖ ਸਿਪਾਹੀ ਕਰਨੇ । ਕਟਿ ਸ਼ਾਸ਼ਤ੍ਰ ਬੰਧਵਾਇ ਸਿੰਘ ਨਾਮ ਧਰਨੇ ।
[And the Guru remarked], Adorning [unshorn] hair on your head, you shall be warriors, fastening weapons to your waist, and adopting Singh [Tiger] in your name.
ਮਾਤਾ ਕਾਲੀ ਦਾ ਬਾਣਾ ਨੀਲਾ ਪਹਿਰਾਵਣਾ ।
[You shall] wear the blue dress of Mata Kali [The Dark Goddess]
ਕਰਨਾ ਜੁਧ ਨਾਲਿ ਤੁਰਕਾਂ ਦੇ ਮਾਰਿ ਹਟਾਵਣਾ ।293।
Conducting war with the Turks you will kill and stop [their tyranny].
Bansāvalināmā, page 151, verse 292-293
Aren’t you a rotting pensioner whose knowledge of such things comes from Indiana Jones? Why not stick to your expertise on assembly lines and mops/toilet cleaners?
We don’t view good evil as separate as they’re part of the same cosmic reality.
Everything is will of creator.
All are part of Hari.
Destroying the oppressive white christian race is righteous।।
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾ।।ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ।।
https://kapital-rus.ru/articles/article/poteri_gazproma_dostigli_35_mlrd_rublei_v_den/
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-54016107
https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-50499231
https://www.forbes.ru/newsroom/biznes/407087-rosneft-ponesla-ubytki-na-113-mlrd-rubley-v-pervoy-polovine-goda
https://www.ng.ru/economics/2019-06-26/4_7607_gossovet.html
https://www.rbc.ru/economics/02/04/2019/5ca1d7949a79475d1c2f6e4a
https://www.finanz.ru/novosti/aktsii/prosto-deneg-net-minfin-zapuskaet-sekvestr-byudzheta-1029413396
Ещё добавить, или тебе и так нормально?
В общем всё как 1200 лет тому назад: “Земля наша велика и обильна, а порядка в ней нет.”
Хоть опять варягов приглашай…
Correct, but this would seem to be a criticism of Hinduism, not Buddhism.
Spaniards seem to have been much more successful at extinguishing demon-worshipping among the people they ruled.
Do you really think that dividing up Donbas along ethnic lines would be a good long term solution for the area? If something like this were to transpire, wouldn’t it give adventurists on both sides opportunity to help “our countrymen to unite with our brothers across the border” A solution similar to the one in Ireland, although things have quieted down there for now…..
Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Warren Report: Fact or Fiction?
https://youtu.be/-fPiKZBgXGg
The problem here is that Serbia basically has no alternative but to rely on Russia to safeguard its most basic national interests in the face of relentless hostility by the “West” since the fall of the Berlin Wall (and throughout many episodes of past history). Russia is what ultimately blocks “Republic” of Kosovo’s UN and international organization membership, supports Republika Srpska’s continued existence against campaigns to eliminate it (Russia vetoed a UK-US pushed UN resolution for “Srebrenica Genocide” to become international law in 2015) and has basically been the most important contributor to the restoration of Serbia’s military since 2012/2014 after domestic traitors deliberately destroyed Serbia’s army from 2000-2012/2014. Also, Russia is the spiritual, cultural and emotional center around which the national consciousness and hearts and minds of many Serbs (real ones, not liberals, political Croats and crypto-Croats) revolve around (although it’s unfortunately more LARPing than it ideally would be), hence why Putin’s incoming visit to Serbia to consecrate the opening of the Church of St Sava in Belgrade (never would’ve been completed without Russian funds and other support) will be highly noteworthy and trigger the hell out of anti-Serbs and Russophobes.
There’s also China as well, which is even more helpful than Russia when it comes to strengthening Serbia’s economic power, but it also helps nicely in strengthening Serbia’s army and complementing Russia’s political support.
Btw, before going to Brussels to negotiate over Kosovo, Vucic often visits Putin and Xi in Moscow and Beijing for their support and personal advice to him. Before and after this Washington “agreement” he consulted with Putin several times over the phone and according to Putin this was “at Vucic’s own initiative”.
Really? Korenchkin and Epigon are on somewhat similar thought-waves with me. Maybe you’re referring to other commenters some time ago.
Or maybe by your description of “serb bootlickers” you just dislike the fact that Serbs are fond of Russia with good reason.
The reality is that in the Balkans the most important countries will always be the ones with military occupation and/or raw military force projection capability along with a willingness to do so, whether you like it or not. That’s obviously been the USA for the past 30 years and will be for the immediate future, but it’s inevitable that sooner or later other powers capable of force projection will become very relevant in the future (Turkey and Russia).
Here’s another map from roughly the same timeframe (revolutionary war period, 1917 – 1921) that you’ve presented, that was very similar to the one that I viewed for many years on Saturdays when attending Ukrainian school. It includes not only Kuban, but other areas that clearly would be looked upon as Russian ethnic territories today. I think that back in the day there were a lot of ethnic Ukrainians that also lived in these South Russian lands too (this would explain the very similar genetic structure of both groups in this area too).
Here’s another map from roughly the same timeframe (revolutionary war period, 1917 – 1921) that you’ve presented, that was very similar to the one that I viewed for many years on Saturdays when attending Ukrainian school. It includes not only Kuban, but other areas that clearly would be looked upon today as Russian ethnic territories. I think that back in the day there were a lot of ethnic Ukrainians that also lived in these South Russian lands too (this would explain the very similar genetic structure of both groups in this area too).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Map_of_Ukraine_%28postcard_1919%29.jpg
I assume you are trolling some of the “exotic nationalities” that post here. If you believed in demons, and were scared by such an infantile (albeit gothic) cartoon, that would be leaning towards mental illness. For a small child, or superstitious peasant grandmother in medieval times, it could be normal to be afraid of blue demons that collect human heads, but for an adult man? – symptoms of schizophrenia.
When I was around 9 years old, I used to draw pictures of things like flying cats or walking trees. The fact I could draw these pictures, does not imply that we have to worry about flying cats and walking trees on the walk to the office. Such cartoons are not evidence of real things, but of the mind’s ability to recombine shapes – “human imagination”.
Bones remind us of death, and what reminds of death brings a feeling of the uncanny and ominous, and revulsion. Ask any children if they want to be all night in a cemetery. Or sleep in a bed of someone who has died? There is a natural feeling of spiritual fear.
Sinister emotion which surrounds everything to do with death (even the image of the coffin is macabre), is in a sense of discord between our internal feeling of immortality, and the powerless and transitory reality of the life of our friends, family and ourselves.
Although to be sometimes reminded of death, – and the human skull is a traditional memento mori – is probably healthy for us, especially now, where much of our culture (especially the high level of organization in society which separates dead and dying people into hospitals) has become like the father of the Buddha, who tried to shield his son from knowledge of sickness and death .
Part of spiritual quality of Gothic cathedrals – the fact they have dead bodies buried into the floor.
And the depictions of “Danse Macabre” was to remind people to remember the transitoriness and superficiality of their life, and think of something more eternal than their trivial worries of the day.
https://i.imgur.com/GaS8N5J.jpg
Covid is a fake and gay nothingburger.
(I probably had it, don’t care enough about this bullshit to test for antibodies.)
From the little I see about Serbia, it seems somehow attractive to me – i.e. people who lazily defeated Islamic armies; partisans against Nazi Germany; created films with dancing gypsies like Emir Kusturica; and were crazy enough to build New Belgrade (which now looks like ancient shipwrecks from the future).
In terms of 21st century educated people in Russia – there won’t be much knowledge about Serbia as a country. I can’t remember learning about Serbia at school (perhaps through reading Tolstoy). And we had hours of history class about many other countries – I remember even a class about 17th century Netherlands.
But Serbia started to become fashionable with tourists from Russia. I wonder what kind of Russian (or other nationality) tourists are now arriving in Serbia? I’m guessing it will be a kind of hipster destination.
My parents visited Bulgaria for a vacation last year and seemed to like it. Perhaps they will want to visit Serbia as a next vacation into the Balkans.
Well yes, although the reality is that there was much more blood, sweat and tears in this then you could begin to grasp. The outcomes for Serbs and Serbia have been extremely unfavorable though in the past 100+ years, although I guess the reluctant acknowledgement of Republika Srpska’s existence in the 1995 Treaty of Dayton by the USA is a sort of recent victory (limited) against Islamic Armies (although it was Croat and NATO military force on the Islamic side that caused the situation to deteriorate for Serb so much and to sign Dayton).
Serbian society is also strongly divided between fans of Chetniks versus Partisans (there are several permutations of this friction) and nationalists versus liberals (political Croats, crypto-Croats).
Lol. I watched a bunch of Emir Kusturica’s films and I’ve never seen one with “dancing Gypsies”.
I believe with “dancing Gypsies” you may be referring to a different, but somewhat well known, movie that was famous during SFR Yugoslavia about Gypsies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_the_Gypsies
To me it’s clear that it was effectively Communist state “brotherhood and unity” of nations propaganda to make people hate Gypsies less for committing violent and petty crime against ethnic Serbs at ridiculous rates.
At any rate, Kusturica is quite a good filmmaker. He and his ancestors are/were proudly Serbs of the Muslim Faith that had to hide but keep awareness of their Serb identity throughout centuries. Kusturica had to leave the Muslim part of Bosnia because of this and the Islamist SDA party of Alija and his son Bakir Izetbegovic thrashed his home and stole it from him so he now lives in Serbia ever since. He has since then chosen to renounce his Islamic faith and has become a moderately devout Orthodox Christian.
I would say more like dumb enough.
That’s because it seems like many non-Balkan people in the world have not fully processed the breakup of Yugoslavia and simply think Serbia = Yugoslavia (which is highly incorrect).
I’m sure if you referred to NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia in 1999, most Russians would immediately know what you’re talking about.
Serbia is definitely mentioned in Tolstoy and Serbia-Russia ties in the 19th century and first half of 20th century are quite strong and back then Russia was far more relevant in the Balkans then it is now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Serbia#Statistics
From this it’s clear that Chinese are the single largest visiting tourist group to Serbia. Tourists from destinations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Germany are mostly Serb diaspora. There are also quite a few Turkish tourists that visit as well because many of them are deeply curious about the Balkans/”Rumelia” and it’s an important part of their neo-Ottoman mindset. Vucic also made an effort to improve and develop economic and other ties with Turkey so that’s partly the result there.
I wouldn’t qualify anything in Serbia besides Belgrade and Novi Sad as “hipster destinations”. Chinese, Turkish and Serb diaspora tourists also don’t really count to me as “hipsters” either lol.
Well, that’s up to them.
Serbia is unfortunately a land-locked country so there’s no coastline which is something they should keep in mind. Although there are still a bunch of nice things to do in hills, mountains and things to see in Serbian towns and cities.
You Indians are absolute scum, I find it bemusing why so many whites think Sikhs and Hindus are their allies when they’re utter scum like you in reality. It’s fact that you Indian savages frequently murder Christians, yet most whites don’t believe it they’re so brainwashed about your lot.
The British empire was far too soft on you Indian filth, if it had done the job properly you disgusting people and your vile “religions” wouldn’t even exist any more, you would be like South America.
Mr Hack, we are both attached to past glories of our respective Eastern Slav tribes. We value the blood and tears of “our people ” and care about “our lands”. In my case I have ancestors and relatives on both sides of the tribal divide (actually Polish and Ruthenian too).
We both care, but so also did the Wendat and the Mohawk. Where are they now, how are their lands and their people faring?
Both Ukraine and Russia are reaching a dangerous threshold in their devolution: center cannot hold. And antagonizing each other only accelerates their demise.
That is why all these questions about who took what land from each other and how important are linguistic and cultural differences among the Eastern Slav tribes, are non-essential questions. What is essential is the fertility of Eastern Slav women, the capacity of Eastern Slav men to inseminate them and the birth of healthy Eastern Slav children.
Demographics is destiny
If nothing changes, in a couple of generations the part of Eurasia where Rus tribes and their ancestors lived for times immemorial, will become a sparsely populated and resources rich territory to be milked by the global TNC, both Western and Chinese. A fraction of surviving Eastern Slav population might well have a decent level of income, but they will be 3 to 5 times less numerous than they would have been if Tsarist Empire survived. After a hundred years of tribulations, a lot is lost and not much gained.
Was it all worth it?
I don’t think so…
Perhaps it is because many years ago I read this book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.N.U.F.F.
Hindustani tribesmen as foederati of the American Empire:
https://asiatimes.com/2020/10/us-india-military-alliance-comes-into-view/
Yes, because India with 100x the population of both the UK and Americas combined was ever in such a vulnerable position.
If we frequently murdered Christian(s), then how can you still use that word in the plural sense?
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾ।।ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ।।
Hah our mr. edgy Atheist(?) casually diagnoses majority of historical humanity suffering from schizophrenia. Ancient Romans believed that there resided the genii or spirits in their statues depicting emperors and gods, many later Christianized Romans or Byzantines believed that those statues contain demons.
For us Buddhists the statues or paintings are just depictions of our mental objects of reverence or ideals, a way to make them to feel nearer or closer to us, anyone who has loved ones knows the feelings which will arise when one sees photos of those which we love.
What else our imagi-nation is than imagined images? Quite maximalist of you to claim that our imagination has no bearing on reality? Or what did you mean? Because your childhood paintings were meaningless and senseless it somehow means that all paintings are meaningless and senseless and have no power upon reality? That very much depends on particular individual and how one perceives the reality. I myself try to avoid such universalist claims.
Thats mainly the reason for all the bones and skulls. To be reminded of the mans transient nature. They are not a dominant theme of our temples nor our religion. Also traditionally holy men or priestly caste have been the caretakers of cemeteries or charnel grounds throughout the history. In most cultures at least.
Sad that people here think that you are representative of Sikhism, with your “death to the white race,” postings you sound like a BLM activist both in steroids and meth. You probably belong to one of those strange Hindu-Sikh syncretic sects that try to install Hindu statues in the Gurudwaras. The Akaali Sikhs, the true Khalsa drove you out of their temples long time ago, or maybe you are those odd Vaishnavite Sikh hybrids. Maybe, because for you Vishnu seems to be quite important. True Siks are monotheists and never ever they worship Kali. You very well know the battle cry of Sikhs, Ek Onkar, God is one, God is supreme, a true Sikh puts his faith in thr highest god and knows that only he is the true guide and only he is infallible. Some Sikhs believe that Hindu Gods are aspects of the highest, but still in Sikhism one should never worship individual attributes or aspects of most high one separately, but worship God as an united whole.
I think you are funny and that you give some Masala spice to the commenting section, but clearly some people take you too seriously and for them you are tarnishing the reputation of the Sikhis.
People can create all kinds of maps with claims but the one I posted was of the Brest-Litovsk boundary, which does correspond to ethnic boundaries.
Many westerners wrongfully think that Hinduism is an unified tradition, in actuality its just a category for different Indic religions, who share some common religious terminology. Although most Hindu sects do claim that the Vedas are definite and authoritative, in reality later Puranas, different Hindu Sutras and Tantric manuals are much more important for them.
About 20-25% of Hindus are follower of Shaktism, they unironically believe that God is female or that the most highest absolute creative principle of reality is feminine. For those Shakti Hindus Kali is very important, but for many Hindus she is often just a depiction of destructive and chaotic female energy. We must remember that many Hindus believe that Godhead contains all differents apects of reality, the totality of existence, so by that logic its quite understandable to have a goddess like Kali among other strange gods, like gods or goddesses of pestilence, diseases, wars etc… I mean that its understandable from a pantheistic/panentheistic point of view.
Not gonna dignify you with a proper response.
A Chinese expert on cold war, post cold war in the 90s.
All the wars in eastern Europe, in North Africa, in the middle East. The ones we thought was for the benefit of Israel and Jews. Was in fact for the benefit of the dollar vs euro. The wars effectively killed off euro expansion for 3 decades now.
Dollar vs Euro formed after both competed fiercely in gobbling up the assets of the collapsed USSR.
That was a fascinating even with my limited Mandarin. I had to ask my local Chinese restaurant guy for help. Lol. He enjoyed it too.
Congratulations, Serbia.
https://twitter.com/business/status/1320371349894930437
I’ve long maintained that religion in places like Serbia is a superficial identity rather than serious piety. A longing for a national identity to set yourself apart from your neighbours. Deep down, the social mores are quite liberal. Even places like Albania are becoming far more open than they were 20-30 years ago.
Same is true with Turkey, and of course the continued fertility decrease across the Arab world, the increase in women’s representation in their parliaments, higher share of women in universities etc.
Liberalism’s long march continues unabated.
What do you really have against the British?
That they demonstrated that one Englishman, for the purposes of conquering India, is superior to about 1000 Sikhs? That they effectively conquered the whole place, and Sikhs didn’t have the werewithal to hold it together, even after extensive military tutelage?
Stop crying like a fag over unrequited love, and conquer Pakistan! BTW, if you did that, you’d still need to do a lot to equal the English! Better get started now! Sikh fertility means that time is running out! And I don’t know if your mulatto children will be up to it!!! (Harris seems to be a whore, rather than a fighter.)
I’ve wondered how some of these decorative accretions of skulls and bones are protected from rodents. Maybe, they have armies of cats around?
You’re a bad concern troll.
This is exactly why only the language of replacement and genocide gets through to you||
LOL.
I’m glad that people like you so easily fall for Balkanoid PR stunts (although that was extremely bad for Serbs during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War).
If you don’t believe me, Vucic just formed a new parliament and government in Serbia hence why this is even news (just go and take a look at who occupies all the truly important and relevant ministries: men).
Sure bud.
Tell the Serbs of Republika Srpska that religion and national identity are superficial and see the responses you get. Same for Serbs in Montenegro that are struggling to defend their church and ethnic identity, for Serbs that live in enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija under siege, persecution and terror by Albanians, for Serbs and their descendants that were remorselessly ethnically cleansed from Krajina-Slavonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo and Metohija that now live in Serbia/diaspora and etc. …
To universalize tell the same thing to Palestinians, Russians in Donbass, Armenians in Artsakh, etc …
That might have to do with those “social mores” being violently enforced by Communists/Yugoslavians/Red Croats for 45 years (literally things like imprisonment for going to Church and etc) …
At least this is one of the few upsides of the US military and EU dominance over the Balkans in the last 30 years is that Albanians are the single worst demographically performing ethnic group in the whole region. It means they have no future in the long run and a Serb victory in the long run is completely possible if Serbia can survive incoming geopolitical upheavals.
You sure about that?
Are you seriously an un-ironic believer in things like Francis Fukuyama’s “End of history” triumph of Liberalism?
I guess you’re right: a war on the subcontinent would almost certainly cause many more Indians to flee to the West , rather than return to India to fight for their people and civilization. Will the last Sikh to flee India, please turn the lights out?
Your lamenting for a return to the Russian Empire in the 21st century is unrealistic and at best disquieting. The general flow of world history has strongly evolved against this sort of governance. Putinism is as close a you’re going to get to this sort of thing, are you satisfied? It could be worse, it could have been somebody as vapid as Kim Jong-un.
I wouldn’t worry too much about either Ukraine’s or Russia’s populations being eminently displaced by marauding Asians or by others anytime soon. Both countries (especially Russia) seem to have formidable militaries to protect their borders and interests. Internally, at least as far as Ukraine is concerned, the populations although not increasing satisfactorily are homogenously Slavic as the appeal of migration is not at all uncontrollable.
It’s easy enough for you, a Russian, not to worry much about such mundane topics as “linguistic and cultural matters”, but for Ukrainians it’s a matter of surviving intact as a nation after centuries of intense Russification. If progeny of Ukrainian descent, born on another continent, can still stick up for their own back home, imagine how intense these feelings must be at the street level in Ukraine where it’s a matter of personal pride and survival. I’m quoting AP here, from a comment made above:
.
Whatever faults the reigning dynasty have, at least under their rule the Korean race and ethnos will last indefinitely, which is better than can be said for South Korea.
The same goes for DDR vis-à-vis BRD as to the fate of the German ethnos.
What’s the point of an ethnos if you’re trapped in a dirty, poor and backward shithole? Eventually, you will be swallowed up by more successful countries. And not necessarily militarily as much as culturally. It’s not a coincidence that US culture dominates most of the world.
North Korea can only hold out for so long, if you’re even willing to be that generous. After all, they are already highly dependent on Beijing, which sort of proves my point. True independence in this world is a mirage for vast majority of peoples, including the North Koreans. Only a tiny selection of states can afford that luxury and most of them are multicultural anyway (US, India and to a significant degree Russia). China is the sole outlier.
Chile has voted for a new constitution replacing the old Pinochet-imposed one, which made them into feudal labrats. Next year, a new constitutonal assembly will be voted in – a clean slate of people who will write the next one from scratch.
What impressed me was the role of Chilean women, demanding (and successfully getting) a 50% women quota guarantee for next year’s constitutional assembly. By contrast, the old and oppressive constitution was purely written by manoids (typical). Liberalism’s march continues unabated.
“Albanians are the single worst demographically performing ethnic group in the whole region.”
The Albanian demographic edge has been diminishing, but to say they are the worst performing group is to exaggerate. Besides, hypothetically if Serbs and Albanians both had a tfr of 1,6, Albanians would still have a stronger demographic profile than Serbs. Since Albanians have more demographic momentum, from past demographic, ie younger population.
Perhaps in the future, Serbs will perform better demographically than Albanians?
I think it proves the opposite. Despite their geopolitical dependence on the PRC the DPRK is capable of retaining strategic autonomy and importantly despite their junior status remains ethno-racially and culturally unchanged.
The failed emancipation of the serfs left a large part of the rural population living in communes. Accepting Bolshevism was not so difficult.
I know I should avoid your bait but all real life Ukrainians, I have met, have been politically tired and apathetic, like “all politicians and parties are just thieves and scoundrels.” Outside of far right fringe most people on the street level in Ukraine dont share your sentiments, why else the majority in Kiev, Odessa, Harkov and Dnepro continue to speak Russian. I dont claim that those people are not patriotic, not at all, but clearly they do not fear for the survival of the Ukrainian culture. If they would truly fear for it, then they would switch to Ukrainian language.
Yes for majority of Ukrainians most important thing in life is daily economical struggle. Thats also is behind the success ofc Euromaidan, not the supposed inherent fear of the Russia. Most Ukrainians just wanted better quality of life and desired to leave their failed Soviet past behind. Often when there are successful major societal changes, its a sum of many different groups and movements, who can have very different visions and goals.
That is not because of their own efforts. It’s simply dumb luck (for them) that China itself is a de facto ethno-nationalist country, so it has no problem with those policies in its subcolonial tributary states.
In other words, it is not despite but because of their reliance on Beijing that they can get away with it. The illusion of sovereignty is hard to shake for romantics.
At first it was the Wild Lands with not enough surface water to supply draught animals for agriculture. Cossacks and Jews were pushed out onto this less valuable land. Some Cossacks mined coal to make poor quality iron. Then, wind pumps came and large landowners settled Little Russian peasants, not so many in the South East. Also Germans, Greeks, more Jews and other foreigners. When John Hughes arrived, he could not hire enough workers because the landlords refused to let go of those peasants wo were serfs. So he hired workers from St Petersburg and Ekatrinburg. They filled the towns but not the countryside. The independent coal companies mostly hired Russiansm even more than Hughes, so Gorlivka was Russian and White during the Civil War.
They are the last large proleteriat in Europe. They impose solidarity on each other. The pro Ukrainians have left or been silenced.
Plenty of people that I heard in Kyiv, from the center Podil area to outlying ones like Kurenivka, do indeed speak in Ukrainian. Have you ever been in Kyiv and heard what languages the people speak, or are you getting your information second hand? As of 2019:
On the left of the image you can see the general answers to the question “Which language is your native language?” The results are the following:
Central Ukraine:
83.8% – Ukrainian
10.1% – Both Ukrainian and Russian
5.8% – Russian
Every year, especially after the Crimea rip-off and war in Donbas, Ukrainian language usage has increased in Kyiv. It’s only a short matter of time before the Kyivans more resemble the entire Central Ukrainian population.
https://www.ukrainianlessons.com/language-situation/
You know Philip, I usually truly value your input at this blog, but in this case, I think that you’re way off (kindly put, a pile of BS).
So, am I to believe that the movement that was hatched during the EuroMaidan has been silenced? Has Ms, Nuland lured them all to the US with a freshly baked batch of cookies and milk? 🙂
https://youtu.be/-nNFrvGOb9o
Ukrainian resolve to form their own nation-state only grows stronger every year.
I wonder when and where this system will be first implemented?
Will it make any real difference to the efficiency Eurasian transport networks?
https://youtu.be/h9J9Phup_kY
I am talking about those in the Donbass cities not the whole of Ukraine which has obviously consoldiated its identity.
Here is another map of Greater Ukraine. The Germans, who knew the area, obviously saw a larger area of Litle Russian settlement than we have today.
https://images.app.goo.gl/ktkkQYHsW2d7XVZY6
The failed faked sh*thole state of Ukraine is going from one farce and disaster to another as the (again placebo) effect from voting in Zelensky and his Potemkin party has collapsed, recession this year going to be twice as bad as Russia’s and Belarus and Armenia …. with the added shame of this toxic waste site of a state now doing an advisory referendum on allowing use of cannibis on the same piece of paper as some other far more essential issues………
but you want to waste time indulging in pseudo-history?
Here is the real history…. Stalin is Ukraine, Lenin is Ukraine, Putin is messiah of Ukraine, Chernobyl is GREAT legacy of Ukraine, collectivisation is beautiful Ukraine, Chikatilo is moral conscience of modern Ukrainian state.
I was in in Kiev last time in 2017. One does indeed hear Ukrainian in the streets but it is clearly a minority language there- I’d guess around 1 in 10 speakers one hears, speak Ukrainian; maybe it’s even 20%, but no more than that. Of course over 90% are capable of speaking proper Ukrainian and will usually happily do so if addressed in that language. Street signs and announcements in the metro are in Ukrainian.
In a lot of surveys patriotic Russian-speaking Ukrainians will say that Ukrainian is their native language, they support pro-Ukrainian language policies, and they can speak Ukrainian, but with their friends they will still more likely speak Russian. Most of Kiev’s people are like this.
“People” also includes political hacks and bureaucrats. Look at how this class of “diplomats” redrew the map of the Middle East during this same general period of time? I’m not saying that the map that I presented is useful today as a blueprint for the future, I only included it to show how different perceptions effects the writing of history and the drawing of maps. The area of Kuban had at least a simple majority of Ukrainians living within, that never made the Brest-Litovsk final draft.
I was there in 2011 and I almost never heard anyone speaking in Ukrainian. Not in restaurants, shopping malls, nightclubs etc. Bad that I didnt visit any local rynok, maybe there some peasants would have spoken in Ukrainian. But LvOv was a totally different story.
Assuming for the sake of the argument that this is true, if American power is weakening relative to China’s then North Korea’s position with regards to domestic nationalism should be improving and be less willing to cave, considering that they didn’t collapse even during the worst years of the 1990s.
Or is the expectation that China will undergo Peaceful Evolution and thereafter turn against the DPRK?
This is a fictional Axis Victory map.
The real Reichkommissariat Ukraine’s borders were not even further east of UkSSR borders, but further west.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Reichskommissariat_Ukraine_%281942%29.svg/1280px-Reichskommissariat_Ukraine_%281942%29.svg.png
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Reichskommissariat-Ukraine.jpg/1280px-Reichskommissariat-Ukraine.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Reichskommissariat_Moskowia.svg/1280px-Reichskommissariat_Moskowia.svg.png
10% to 20% is quite a spread. Perhaps, it’s 30% or even more?..I agree with the bulk of your observations though. I have a first cousin that lives in Kyiv who I stay with when I’m there. She holds a good position with a Ukrainian artistic cultural organization there, and speaks to her co-workers and neighbors usually in Russian. She tries to avoid this archaic habit when I’m around. 🙂
Kyiv is a very large city, and I’ve only really spent time in the center and in Kurenivka (where Ukrainian is heard a lot more than Russian). I haven’t been back for a few years, but would think that with the large influx of Western Ukrainians, the language preference has to be improving for the native tongue. Have you spent any time in the environs away from the Center in Kyiv?
I stay with a cousin on the edge of the urban part of the city. She came there from a neighboring oblast and speaks Ukrainian; her husband is a native of the city and spoke Russian but switched over after marrying her. Both are patriots and I guess they decided if anyone is going to change it will be the Russian-speaking one.
Most people who move to Kiev do not do so from the West but from neighboring central Ukrainian oblasts. Westerners are probably matched by easterners.
10% to 20% Ukrainian-language usage is more realistic than 30%; no way 1 in 3 of the people one hears in the city speaks Ukrainian naturally.
I haven’t visited nightclubs in Kiev. But walking the streets one does hear Ukrainian occasionally. I had a taxi driver who was speaking Ukrainian on his phone while driving. People bringing food into the city to markets speak Ukrainian. Etc. IUkrainian speech is uncommon, but definitely present in the city.
I couldn’t agree more, nationalism and classical liberalism are just less virulent and aggressive forms of modern vices. Difference between classical liberalism and progressive one is like a difference between HIV and Aids, or so I like to think. Who knows maybe in the longer run Communism will be a healthier choice than the current far left liberalism?
For some reason I always thought that Bodhidharma was from Southern India and that he travelled from India to China by sea route.
Of course, many historical societies had believed about demons in the past, and they were used to explain things that were not understood at the time – for example, epilepsy, was believed to be a demonic possession.
But in the last centuries, what we have observed systematically in the world, follows the laws of physics (or should be reducible to them by bridge laws).
Perhaps after we die (or before we are born), our soul will be in a different reality, where the rules of the game will be differently arranged, and yet still connected in some interesting way to the rules of the game we are currently playing. Perhaps there might be extraordinary supernatural creatures in the next reality, including blue demons with ten hands. However, to claim to have knowledge about different realities, than the one we currently share and can talk about, seems rather a hubris.
Sure, most would understand these cartoons are symbolic depiction of different emotions, passions and fears – states of consciousness, dreams, art, etc.
It doesn’t mean that painting is meaningless and senseless. But the fact we can choose to recombine shapes (e.g. blue demon with ten hands; cat with wings; unicorns, etc) in our mind, doesn’t imply that those shapes exist outside our mind. Creating such creatures, is a mental ability everyone has since childhood.
Perhaps it was “edgy” in 1740s, when Hume published “Of Miracles”. “1740s kids” can remember this as a controversial view.
I.e. That’s around 280 years in the past – it’s not so edgy today. Our shared reality conforms in lawlike and regular way, without need of interference by demons and fairies.
To notice the regular and lawlike physical reality, is not to say that we have an explanation for it. A party of the mystery has been shifted onto why we have this lawlike, regular, physical reality.
A much more mysterious miracle is not the (never has been observed “miracle” of) supernatural intercession in the regular order of our current reality, but the stable regularity itself
I’m a critic of this idea.
The major belligerents were all multi-ethnic empires. Started with Austria-Hungary – arguably the most multicult empire in Europe. Over 138,000 Indians fought in Belgium and France. France recruited 450,000 troops from West and North Africa to fight against the Germans – where those African and Indian soldiers motivated by nationalism?
What allowed it to spread and continue was international alliances. The UK with France and Russia. Are those England’s closest blood brothers? Well, France is arguable on a genetic level, but the fact is that it was a longtime enemy, and not held in high regard by the English people, who had relatively recently been quite congenial to Germans on a cultural level, and quite scornful of the French. And the case against Russia seems even stronger. Germany with the Turks! England with the Japs! These alliances seem to have been elite-driven, rather than the result of organic populism.
One of the motivations for the war was gaining territories. Most of these were not contiguous, but quite foreign in character, filled with completely alien peoples – land in sub-Saharan Africa, or the Middle East.
Can we say that nationalism caused the war? On what basis? What is our control? That Europe isn’t fighting a fratricidal war today? Let’s not be facetious. Empires with ethnic cores are all that existed back then – it was the state of organization back then. International communism had not yet claimed Russia. We have no control. The claim that nationalism caused WWI appears to me to be unscientific and often politically-motivated.
Can we blame it on Serb nationalism? Well, Ireland had many rebellions, but never caused an international war (though foreign troops were sometimes landed in it), so I don’t think that is reasonable. Probably, no power thought that they could take Ireland and integrate it into multicultural empire, without England’s okay (which they would not give.)
How do I explain WWI? Elite dysfunction. Predicated on the political units of the day – the elite of Europe (meaning a broad spectrum of the upper classes) existed in separate, unintegrated spheres. (Even though, they had many internationalist tendencies, such as monarchs being avaricious of having new, nonwhite subjects.) They were effectively proto-globalists. Just as today (we must be parsimonious) – they had a very poor ability to forecast the future and to think about long term consequences (today: immigration). Their thinking was short-term, during a technological period, when industrialization allowed for unprecedented escalation. Indeed, one of the motivations for early Russian mobilization was that it was a less developed country than Germany and would take longer to mobilize.
Again, to put it into today’s context, now the elite are united in a common, integrated sphere – real globalization – but still pursuing a cataclysmically short-sighted policy: mass immigration. The technology of today has made escalation in immigration possible on a scale completely unthinkable in 1945 (the start of de-Nazification), just as the technology of 1914 made escalation in war possible at an unthinkable pace in 1914.
Interesting. I know and like his music…….possibly Herbie Hancock is at the same level in “cutting edge” and creativity? Maybe the main creativity for Hancock comes from him on the keyboard but for Corea it is through the interactions of a wider variety of instruments /musicians in whatever size group he is playing with.
Though I have to say much of modern jazz is not for me….of the modern performers I prefer stuff that has much simpler goals – the intelligent and skillful reworking on jazz standards by somebody as Diana Krall is more to my liking.
Yes Vronsky goes to fight for Serbia in the end of “Anna Karenina” .
That’s funny that Chinese tourists are already exploring the Balkans, while it seems that Japanese tourists don’t go there at all. Chinese are something more adventurous in their choices, than other nationalities.
Tourism numbers are low though for Serbia, even in normal years like 2019. There is a very low number – 64000 – of Russian tourists… (e.g. it’s 24 times lower than Russian tourists in Georgia).
Of course, from the point of view of the tourist, this is an attractive thing that the numbers are still not high – with lower numbers of tourists, Serbia must be relatively unspoilt by mass tourism, relatively “authentic” as a destination, not turned into too much “Disney land” yet.
It has should develop a similar attraction as Georgia, which is now overpopular – cheap food, cheap wine, unique culture, warm summers. And I’d rather go to Serbia than Georgia, not just as Georgia was getting flooded with too many tourists.
Such pride in one’s naivety.
Of course demons exist.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/01/as-a-psychiatrist-i-diagnose-mental-illness-and-sometimes-demonic-possession/
Hubris is the belief that reality is limited to the systematic observations of advanced apes and particularly by laws derived from them by their advanced ape brains and that everything in that reality must be contained within those laws. The scientific method is merely a great tool (the best one we know of now) to enable us to manipulate the physical world. You think too much of it.
One of my favorite passages by Musil, who knew something of science:
Science smiling into its beard, or first full-dress encounter with Evil
A few words must now be said about a smile, a masculine smile at that, with a beard attached to it, whereby the general activity of smiling in one’s sleeve was transposed into the masculine one of smiling into one’s beard. It was the smiling of the men of science and learning who had accepted Diotima’s invitation and were listening to the celebrated men of the arts. Although they smiled, it must on no account whatever be believed that they did so ironically. On the contrary, it was their way of expressing homage and incompetence, a matter that has already been mentioned. But one must not let oneself be deceived by that either. It was true enough where their conscious mind was concerned; yet in their subconscious—to make use of this customary word—or, to put it more exactly, in the sum total of their being, they were people in whom a propensity to Evil crackled like the fire under a cauldron.
Now that, of course, looks like a paradoxical remark, and any professor at a university, if it were made in his presence, would presumably retort that he simply serves the cause of truth and progress and has no other concerns: for that is his professional ideology. But all professional ideologies are high-minded. Hunters, for instance, would not dream of calling themselves the butchers of the woods; they prefer to call themselves the real friends of animals and Nature, just as business men uphold the principle of fair profit, and the god that thieves also take for their own is the business men’s god, that distinguished promotor of international concord, Mercury. So not much importance need be attached to the way an activity is mirrored in the consciousness of those who practise it.
If one asks oneself in an unprejudiced way how science came to have its present-day aspect (which is in itself important, since after all it dominates us, not even an illiterate being safe from it, because he learns to live together with countless things that are born of science) one gets a quite different picture. According to credible traditions it was in the sixteenth century, an age of very intense spiritual emotions, that people gradually ceased trying, as they had been trying all through two thousand years of religious and philosophic speculation, to penetrate into the secrets of Nature, and instead contented themselves, in a way that can only be called superficial, with investigations of its surface. The great Galileo, who is always the first to be mentioned in this connection, did away with the problem, for instance, of the intrinsic reasons why Nature abhors a vacuum, so that it will cause a falling body to enter into and occupy space after space until it finally comes to rest on solid ground, and contented himself with a much more general observation: he simply established the speed at which such a body falls, what course it takes, what time it takes, and what its rate of acceleration is. The Catholic Church made a grave mistake in threatening this man with death and forcing him to recant, instead of exterminating him without more ado. For from his way of looking at things, and that of those whose outlook was similar, there sprang—in almost no time at all, if one applies historical measurements—railway time-tables, factory machines, physiological psychology, and the moral ruin of the present age, against which the Church no longer stands a chance. It probably made this mistake from an excess of shrewdness, for Galileo was, after all, not only the discoverer of the law of gravitation and of the earth’s motion, but also an inventor in whom, as one would put it today, high finance took an interest; and he was, besides, not the only one at that time seized by the new spirit. On the contrary, the historical reports show that the matter-offactness that inspired him spread and raged like an infection. And however disconcerting it may sound today to speak of anyone’s being inspired with matter-of-factness, when we think we have too much of it already, at that time the awakening out of metaphysics to clear-cut scrutiny of things must, to judge by all the evidence, have been an out-and-out intoxication, a very fire of matter-of-factness!
But if one asks oneself why humanity took it into its head to change in this manner, the answer is that all it was doing was what every sensible child does when it has tried to walk too soon: it sat down on the ground, making the contact with a dependable and not really dignified part of the body, in other words, precisely the part on which one does sit. And the remarkable thing is that the earth has shown itself uncommonly susceptible, and since that contact took place has let inventions, conveniences and discoveries be wormed out of it in downright miraculous quantities.
After such a history one might think, and not quite without justification, it was the miracle of the Anti-Christ that we find ourselves in the midst of now. For the ‘contact’ simile that has just been used is to be interpreted with reference not only to the dependability of the part of the body that is involved, but also to its aspect of the unseemly and taboo. The point is, before intellectual man discovered his delight in facts, the only people who had such a delight were warriors, hunters and merchants, that is to say, the people whose nature it was to be cunning and violent. In the struggle for existence there are no philosophical sentimentalities, but only the wish to kill off one’s opponent by the shortest and most practical method. There everyone is a positivist. Nor would it be a virtue, in commerce, to let oneself be taken in instead of putting one’s trust in solid facts, profit being in the last resort a psychological vanquishing of one’s opponent, arising out of the particular circumstances. However, if one investigates what qualities it is that lead to discoveries, what one finds is freedom from traditional scruples and inhibitions, courage, as much initiative as destructive spirit, the exclusion of moral considerations, patient bargaining for the smallest advantage, dogged endurance on the way to the goal, if necessary, and a veneration for measure and number amounting to the most acute mistrust of all uncertainty; in other words, one sees nothing but the old hunter’s, soldier’s and merchant’s vices, simply transposed into intellectual terms and re-interpreted as virtues. And though by this means they are raised above the urge for personal and comparatively vulgar advantage, yet the element of primal Evil, as it might be called, is something they do not lose even in undergoing this trans formation. It is apparently indestructible and eternal, or at least as eternal as everything humanly sublime, since it consists in nothing less, nothing other, than the pleasure of tripping that sublimity up and watching it fall flat on its face. Who does not know the malicious temptation—when contemplating a beautifully glazed vase, all voluptuous curves— that lies in the thought that one could smash it to smithereens with a single blow of one’s stick? Intensified into the heroically bitter realisation that one cannot rely on anything in life except what is clinched and riveted, it is a basic emotion enclosed within the soberness of science, and even if, for reasons of respect, one does not want to call it the Devil, the fact remains that it brings with it a faint whiff of brimstone.
I think Hancock’s playing more interesting in the 1960s, on the acoustic piano in Miles’ second great quintet – before he went unfortunately to the electronic synthesizers.
For example, he would just play only right hand, and making stepwise shapes on different scales – “time no changes”.
Have you tried his album “Solo Piano: Portraits”?
In this album, he presents a talk about how Scriabin is the “father of jazz”, and creates some jazz piano improvisation based on Scriabin, which doesn’t quite sound good for me (he starts sounding like Bill Evans half way through the Scriabin).
Although I thought the more successful improvisations were ones like this based on Stevie Wonder songs
Austria-Hungary was a Conservative pre-nationalist entity (nationalism is an ugly product of modernity and populism, less ugly than what came later such as Communism, Nazism, or modern hedonism-consumerism only because it is older than those) whom the nationalists sought to destroy. The tragic self-destruction of Europe of the early 20th century began with a vile crime of Serbian nationalists against Austria-Hungary.
These Africans and Indians are irrelevant because they are not the ones who chose war. The ones who chose war were the newly-literate masses riled up with their nationalism. The monarchs (neither Willie and Nicky wanted world war) were powerless, they were swept along.
Russia went to war out of nationalism using pan-Slavism, France out of nationalist resentment towards Germany for the lost war and territories, Germany out of its own nationalism, etc.
Of course nationalists want their nations to grow in size at the expense of other nations. They will die and kill for the sake of their nations. Since I’m pasting beloved passages here is a great one from Celine:
It’s the philosophers . . . another point to look out for while we’re at it … who first started giving the people ideas . . , when all they’d known up until then was the catechism! They began, so they proclaimed, to educate the people . . . Ah! What truths they had to reveal! Beautiful! brilliant! unprecedented truths! And the people were dazzled! That’s it! they said. That’s the stuff! Let’s go and die for it! The people are always dying to die! That’s the way they are! ‘Long live Diderot!’ they yelled. And ‘Long live Voltaire!’ ….And long live everybody! Those guys at least don’t let the beloved people molder in ignorance and fetishism! They show the people the roads of Freedom! Emancipation! Things went fast after that! First teach everybody to read the papers! That’s the way to salvation! Hurry hurry! No more illiterates! We don’t need them anymore! Nothing but citizen-soldiers! Who vote! Who read! And who fight! And who march! And send kisses from the front! In no time the people were good and ripe! The enthusiasm of the liberated has to be good for something, doesn’t it? Danton wasn’t eloquent for the hell of it. With a few phrases, so rousing that we can still hear them today, he had the people mobilized before you could say fiddlesticks! That was when the first battalions of emancipated maniacs marched off! … the first voting, flagmatic suckers that Dumouriez led away to get themselves drilled full of holes in Flanders!… The free-gratis soldier . . . was something really new … So new that when Goethe arrived in Valmy… he was flabbergasted. At the sight of those ragged, impassioned cohorts, who had come of their own free will to get themselves disemboweled by the King of Prussia in defense of a patriotic fiction no one had ever heard of, Goethe realized that he still had much to learn. This day,’ he declaimed grandiloquently as befitted the habits of his genius, ‘marks the beginning of a new era!’ He could say that again! The system proved successful . . . pretty soon they were mass-producing heroes, and in the end, the system was so well perfected that they cost practically nothing. Everyone was delighted. Bismarck, the two Napoleons, Barrès, Elsa the Horsewoman. The religion of the flag promptly replaced the cult of heaven, an old cloud which had already been deflated by the Reformation and reduced to a network of episcopal money boxes. In olden times the fanatical fashion was: ‘Long live Jesus! Burn the heretics!’ . . . But heretics, after all, were few and voluntary . . . Whereas today vast hordes of men are fired with aim and purpose by cries of: ‘Hang the limp turnips! The juiceless lemons! The innocent readers! By the millions, eyes right!’ … Let whole legions of them perish, turn into smidgens, bleed, smolder in acid—and all that to make the Patrie more beloved, more fair, and more joyful! ”
Chick & Herbie both rose together through the ranks and spent good quality time working with Miles Davis. Both were hugely influential in the “fusion” movement. I like them both very much, but because, as you so cogently put it “for Corea it is through the interactions of a wider variety of instruments /musicians in whatever size group he is playing with” that he truly excels and I’d have to give a slight nod to Corea for overall importance and impact. I especially like Corea’s work within the Latin jazz segment of the genre too.
It’s good to see that you seem to have at least part of your head screwed on correctly! 🙂
Your maps here are 100% accurate. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Of course I thoroughly enjoy Hanchock’s input to the great second Miles Davis quintet. With his first flirtations with electronic music (Mwandishi, Crossings) and later with his two masterpieces “Headhunters” and “Thrust” is where he really laid the foundation for much of what followed (lots and lots of great stuff). Have you listened to the last two albums that I’ve mentioned?
100% agree. I’m reluctant to make similar (but different context) criticism of the genius Oscar Peterson – because anything he did in the 50s ,60s 70s and probably still in the last decade of his life I would pay big money to see ……..but I would remark that I also think his playing in the 50’s and early 60’s to be his best musically – even though in the further decades his playing may classify to most people as achieving total technical perfection
No I have not, but many thanks for the link. I will listen to it.
Ironic, because the last composition of Corea’s that I listened to on Youtube was Stevie Wonder’s live version of “Spain”. Brilliant …..and with solos from about 20 different instruments!
I’m unable to find any concrete data regarding Kyiv’s language usage and patterns. Since you’ve been back more recently that I, I’ll defer to your better judgement.
Based on the comparative sizes, populations, and locations of the territory that changed hands, it would seemingly be more accurate to say that imperialists want their empires to grow at the expense of other empires.
Anyway, the foreign minister of Austria approached Wilson’s government in 1917, before the US entered, with an offer of status quo ante as the basis for peace negotiations. And the US did not acquire any new territories. Perhaps, territorial acquisition was just a post hoc justification for the war.
The newspapers were censored and full of propaganda. They were elite-driven.
The European continental powers had conscript armies. Trench warfare would have been impossible without them. Strictly speaking, many of the men in these armies did not chose war. Those in France had their terms of service extended, even before the war began. Deserters were executed as an example to others.
In the case of Britain, they had a relatively small volunteer army. By 1916, even with drawing volunteers from overseas territories, and even with the most vile propaganda, and even though they were not bearing the brunt of the fighting, they found the model was unsustainable. In the US, Wilson asked for the Army to increase to a force of one million. But by six weeks after war was declared, only 73,000 men had volunteered for service.
The end of the war was forced by the mutiny of enlisted men in the German navy and army. They chose peace. It was not the elite.
The owners were businessmen who emerged from the masses. Again, the monarchs were opposed to the war.
Are you suggesting that conscription was proof that the war was unpopular in the beginning? You deny that there was a rush to join, parades, vilification of anti?
Sure. And murderers are executed in America, But the presence of neither type of execution proves that most people would would murder or desert.
They chose peace after the voluntary slaughter had run its course. Mutinies would have meant something in 1914, when it mattered. But the masses driven mad by nationalism wanted war, and got it.
Well, he thinks DPRK is a subcolonial tributary state of China.
That tells you everything you need to know regarding his opinion on this. Utterly worthless imo.
Theres nothing edgy in Scientific Materialism, but to claim that majority of historical humanity suffered schizophrenia, thats quite edgy. Or do you claim that it wasnt common for people to proscribe magical properties to their idols or fetishes? Many people still do so outside of first world countries.
We deny the existence of soul, there is nothing separate, fixed or having its own essence in nature by our reasoning.
As I have stated before, most Buddhists dont believe that mental factors, matter or energy will ever perish, they just change form, as we deny permanence of phenomena so do we deny the possible permanent annihilation of phenomena. All changes, nothing disappears.
You are probably the first one in my life who takes “ten handed” beings literally
https://previews.123rf.com/images/dymov/dymov1611/dymov161100027/68692877-with-thousand-arms-a-bodkhisattva-of-an-avalokiteshvara-the-statue-made-of-bronze-.jpg
Here is the Thousand armed Avalokiteshvara, he also has eyes in his every hand. Now do we take this depiction literally? Hell No! Avalokiteshvaras hands symbolises his immense compassion, that he will strive to help every being by every possible way, eyes in hands symbolises that his actions are always vigilant and conscious, that he sees the suffering of all beings and understands the chains of causality which have led being to a such suffering state of existence. That he always sees the best ways to help beings. Now do we claim that Avalokiteshvara is his own independent being? Of course not! By meditating on him and his good qualities, by giving respect to those immensely good attributes of his we try to awaken our own compassion, our own mirror like nature that reflects everything in universe. In other words depends on a Buddhist, you can take him more literally (especially if you are a poor farmer or a nomad, but even they dont take literally his depictions) or you can take him as a meditational deity, a goal to attain. By doing Avalokiteshvara practices and by meditating on him, we can gradually change ourselves to resemble him. But taking him absolutely or very literally and thinking that somewhere there is a guy with thousand hands and eyes is just silly!
Same with the third eye, no learned Buddhist takes it literally, it just means that our mind also has a way to see and discern things.
The question of different possible realities? This only good argument that you have. Yes I have no first hand knowledge about them. I simply put my trust in Buddha, everything that he has told amd taught oncerning the nature of mundane existence and nature of our mind has been personally true for me, so I have myself seen and experienced his wisdom regarding those before mentioned things, I simply believe him to be a trustworthy person. He taught that there are causes and conditions for our current state of existence, and if there are such causes and conditions they can be discerned and analyzed. Changed and transformed, bychanging them we change ourselves and the reality. Its simple as that. Actually there are very well done instructions how one can themselves perceive those other states or modes of existence, but one needs years of practice for that.
Maybe unstable universes are not very good for sustaining life? Simple as that. I dont understand why you bring miracles to this discussion? There is nothing miraculous in the Buddhas power, he is an object of mind for us, his power does not manifest miraculously, but by our own deeds and thoughts.
I checked some Youtube clips of him, my cursory impression of his piano works is that he seems interesting, thank you.
Definitely.
The potential strongly exists there on the Serb side.
Albanians also fudge their demographic statistics to a ridiculous degree by claiming that 1.8 million people live in Kosovo (LOL). Just one of many examples.
You seem to be some sort of tourism expert. I’m clearly not.
I think a part of the reason why Serbia has low tourism numbers is, apart from the fact that it’s landlocked, it also has a “bad” or “pariah” country reputation because of the wars of the 1990’s and breakup of Yugoslavia.
Although many Serbs are a bunch of cucks that are desperate not to be judged and disliked by foreigners (pretending not to be Serbs, saying they’re something else besides Serbs or complementary or just giving up being Serbs all together etc.) because of garbage like “Srebrenica Genocide”, “Bosnian Genocide”, “Kosovo oppression” etc. I think this is sort of a good thing personally because income from tourism is overrated (especially now with lockdowns and corona).
Half-truth.
It was an empire based on the property rights or “crown lands” of the Habsburg Dynasty on different nations and territories. It was also a Roman Catholic and oligarchic tyranny that only had any legitimacy among its subject peoples’ during most of its existence because it stood in the way of the Ottoman Empire’s penetration into Europe and conquest of lands in East-Central Europe/Balkans. The weaker and less threatening the Ottoman Empire became, the less legitimacy the Habsburg Empire had to exist in the eyes of most of its subjects.
One of the few good things about the outcome of WW1, despite the wasted opportunity and epic fail by Serbs post-WW1, is that it is permanently gone and it will never make the first system of mass concentration camps in Europe, for Serbs, ever again (an untold story of horror, suffering, terror and crimes against Serbs that is mostly unknown in the world, even among many Serbs).
Wrong.
Nations, ethnic groups (ethno-religious as well), and nationalism existed way before the 20th century. You would do well to read a bit to educate yourself about the obvious common sense nature of this.
Although I guess this doesn’t exist in your “Ukrainian” worldview because you would have to cope with the fact that there was no such thing as Ukrainians before the 20th century and that Ukrainians are in fact really just Russians of the Roman Catholic Faith that are in deep denial about it.
Before you write bullshit like this again, you should educate yourself about the basic facts of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, who Gavrilo Princip and Young Bosnia really were and what they believed in, the facts of Serbia’s May 1903 coup (it was Serbia’s internal affair of liberals and freemasons taking power, had nothing to do with an anti-Habsburg nature), Serbia’s internal and geopolitical situation from 1903-1914 and etc.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Folly-Malice-Habsburg-Empire-Balkans-ebook/dp/B07K4QB7MG
All your bullshit about the Habsburgs is thoroughly debunked in this book. It’s so worthwhile I’d even recommend it to Karlin to understand a few things about Serbia (one among a few other books).
You can’t be serious. The “role” of women in these “movements” funded by American billionaires and the deep state is to be actors.
Chile will go from a poor country to an even poorer country while it is looted by the West under the cloak of progressivism. Reforming any small, weak country under the era of the American empire since any reform will just be engineered by some American oligarch faction for its own benefit. Chileans will eventually find out that their natural resources and industries belong to American oligarchs and a small set of local collaborators.
Of course there will be a whole bunch of propaganda about it is amazing progress for women or People of Color or whatever that a few of them will get filthy rich while selling out their country and given that people are dumb they will initially be impressed with the hope that they’ll all get wealthy. When that fails to happen, people will get angry over the deception and rebel against the people who got rich out of the previous reform – but the Americans will already have invented some other recipe for “reform” and “progress” and they’ll restart the cycle with a new set of opportunists and a new set of gullible masses.
So the left are now rioting across Europe against the lock down, and the right and the “fascists” are being blamed for the situation. As I suspected would eventually be the case at the start of this pandemic/lock down.
Even in Poland the protests/riots seem to be against the lock down, the new anti-abortion laws has just given them an excuse to riot against what they see as the fascist, right wing government.
England is a bit of a mystery ethnically, some claim the English are basically completely Anglo-Saxon/Germanic with a bit of Norman admixture, while I’ve seen other studies that claim most of the English are indigenous to Britain and the basic ethnic makeup of England has not changed for 8,000 years, and the Anglo-Saxons just imposed their culture and language on the indigenous British.
There’s similar disagreement on the English language too, some claim it shows no evidence of Celtic influence whatsoever, while others claim it shows clear evidence of being based on a Celtic substratum, especially grammatically.
Amusing cope. It’s certainly true that the US deep state has its tentacles all over Latin America, including in NGOs, media houses and so on, but the notion that the current Trump administration would want to boost a bunch of feminists is far-fetched to say the least.
The status quo in Chile suits the US much more, as it composed of a largely pro-American capitalist class exploiting the masses and selling off the family silver (or copper, in this case) to foreign investors. Washington would be nuts to try to disrupt a system that worked very well for them. It just didn’t work well for the people, as the ruling class was forced to acknowledge.
That’s already the case. As I said, the status quo was in the US interest.
The truth is in between. IIRC according to DNA studies, the Anglo-Saxon component of English ancestry varies from 20% to 40% depending on region. So the English are mostly indigenous but also with significant conqueror descent. The ratio is similar to that of Central American mestizos.
More preposterous than pushing for the international legalisation of homosexuality?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-launches-global-effort-end-criminalization-homosexuality-n973081
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/politics/intelligence-sharing-lgbt-laws.html
More preposterous than the black “Platinum Plan”?
http://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Eiy5tE5XcAIRpja.jpg?itok=J9_ODrWv
You are quite behind on your scientific knowledge.
So Conservative and pre-nationalist. When Russia was conservative and pre-nationalist it too protected property rights, even of Polish nobles at the expense of Rus serfs.
Catholic, thus pre-nationalist. “Oligarchic tyranny” is a propaganda phrase.
Serbs certainly paid very very dearly for the evil they brought into the world. I understand they may have been manipulated by the English but evil does have consequences.
The best Serb that ever existed, Tesla, was the product of Austrian schools.
Who said nationalism began in the 20th century? It began perhaps 150 years before that. It is the oldest of the modern -isms.
Feminine has existed forever, communes existed among primitive tribes, nations have always been around (one can call them tribes or whatever) but feminism, communism, and nationalism are modern ideologies, all are in essence post-Christian idolatries.
You manage to be wrong twice, in one sentence.
The rebranding began in the 1860s, not the 20th century. Already by the end of the 19th century there are existed a large political party among eastern Slavs in Galicia with mass following that was called Ukrainian:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Radical_Party
Ukrainian nationalism began amongst Orthodox Ukrainians of the Left Bank and was brought to Galicia, where the native Catholics were initially Russophiles. Ukraine is about 90% Orthodox. It the mid 20th century western Ukrainian Greek Catholics shamefully larped as Balkanoids and slaughtered Roman Catholics.
Ukrainian language is rather far from Russian, like Dutch from German (it is not like Croatian vs. Serbian).
You flatter yourself by comparing yourself to Russians and therefore imagining that Ukrainians are Croats, given that you are basically an Albanian in deep denial.
Your comical ignorance is certainly no recommendation for that book.
It would be folly to circumscribe the word “elite” around kings only. I did not mean to encompass them at all. And it is not tantamount to saying that the war drive came from peasants, to say that it did not come from kings. We have an elite today. In large part, they are not aristocrats, but that is hardly a public endorsement of their policies.
Popularity in wartime is a difficult thing to judge. They didn’t allow anti-war marches, or antiwar propaganda did they? In a nation of many millions, with ubiquitous state propaganda, you will have some volunteers. During the Civil War in Spain, the Republicans received volunteers from many nations, but that is not tantamount to saying communism was popular in those countries.
A lot of the vilification came from people who were not expected to fight (ex: girls giving white feathers), and who were prey to this state propaganda.
In private, to a large degree, not with men in formations ordered to watch.
Anyway, your idea that nationalism is evil is too reductive. At base, even if we attribute WWI to nationalism (I don’t), then there are at least different kinds of nationalism. “Bull-dog nationalism” might be execrable. This is not equivalent to saying all nationalism is evil.
Attributing WWI to nationalism seems to imply that if it triumphs, it will inevitably lead to WW3. That no lessons can be learned, and nationalists are not capable of peace. It also ignores the fact that we have nuclear peace, and other political changes that have taken place, such as having more open markets.
If a thing is labeled “evil” that seems to imply that its opposite is “good.” That it exists in a moral dichotomy. Is anti-nationalism good? Personally, speaking, I don’t think I’ve ever glimpsed anything more evil.
By this point in time, isn’t it clear that constitutions are meaningless?
Or, do you think progressive constitutions offer some unique advantage? A base-level of progressiveness that can be moralistically exceeded, but which will never fall short? That is, that you can guarantee a feminist society, whatever women decide to do legalistically, with their power.
You state this as if it is a “good” thing. It ignores the many downsides of such entities. Also, implying that the Russian Empire was similar in nature to the Habsburg Empire is simply wrong and factually incorrect.
No it’s not. It’s a very real thing and still exists to this very day. The USA is the best example of it in the world right now.
Magyar oligarchs/nobles had a very large degree of power over non-Magyars that they infamously abused and also used to coerce the Habsburg Emperor in the 19th century to bow to their demands/agendas. They literally held the Habsburg Empire hostage on many occasions.
Yes, I’m hoping that you’re enjoying Russia’s ownership and intense control plus deeply intimate bonding with Crimea right now. Also, the Russians in Donbass resisting the Ukraine as well.
Again, Tesla was an ethnic Serb and Serb Orthodox Christian (his father was a Serb Orthodox priest) and would’ve been such regardless of whether he went through some “Austrian schools”. Also, the assumption that he is a “product” of “Austrian schools” is simply wrong because his achievements that made him famous and noteworthy were done in the USA, not the Habsburg Empire, with good reason.
Btw, Tesla never actually finished university (partly because he was obsessively addicted to billiards at this stage of his life) despite strong pressure from his parents and so he never actually completely went through “Austrian schools”, which strongly suggests his achievements/successes are a result of things inherent to Tesla, not “Austrian schools” and the Habsburg Empire. To a large degree, his achievements were actually despite “Austrian schools” and the Habsburg Empire, not because of them.
I believe Epigon also explained that Tesla would’ve flourished with a stipend and subsidies from the Kingdom of Serbia if he went there many threads ago.
Why do you seriously believe the whole “nationalism is a product of the French revolution” and a “creation of West European intellectuals in the 18th century” argument?
Even you clearly acknowledge here that nations existed since before 0 AD and they have been a vital organizing principle of human society and many acted in their “national interests” way before the “modern-era”. Since nations existed way before the “modern-era”, obviously acts and thoughts in the interests of nations, nationalism, has existed way before the “modern-era” although Liberal and anti-nationalist authors are loathe to acknowledge it because they are insincere hypocrites.
Do you have any proof of this “renaming” process occurring?
The problem with this assumption is that it assumes Ukrainians existed in an ethnic and national sense before they were renamed to begin with. The term “Ukraine” means borderland in literal translation implying that anything beyond attributing a limited regional identity has no basis.
Yes, this was when the Habsburg Empire pursued the deliberate ethno-national-religious engineering of this population in its empire in order to crush dissent and sabotage Russia.
Uniates that acknowledge the Pope are not actually Orthodox Christian at all in any meaningful sense. The “Ukrainian Orthodox Church” has also been playing all sorts of dirty tricks with its supposedly “Orthodox” orientation by partaking in religious divisions/schisms between various Orthodox Churches.
The parallels are quite strong in many respects, aren’t they?
Otherwise you would never have stated this.
LOL.
This is probably one of the funniest things I’ve read in the past few days.
I don’t actually care whether you read the book or not.
It’s much easier for me to simply and quickly cite it as a debunking of your statements (instead of taking the time to do so comprehensively and in depth) you make along the lines of “vile crime of Serbian nationalists against Austria-Hungary.” which is factually wrong because it makes the false assumption that Gavrilo Princip and the assassins’ who organized this were Serb nationalists (not that you know what this actually is).
Kings, bishops, upper nobles..
War drive was manufactured by the newly emerged middle-classes (the newspaper editors etc) and spread among newly-literate peasants. Nationalism was a newly emergent idea. Until it’s emergence Europe had had a long period of relative peace after the cessation of the bloody religious wars that were the fruit of the Reformation.
Sure. The USSR also had an elite.
They didn’t allow them in 1918 but looked what happened when the population (in Germany) really turned against the war it had previously supported.
Are you suggesting that in most cases conscription was coercive in nature?
Nationalism is a heresy and it’s fruits have been evil. As I stated, later idolatries are even worse. Nationalism is a lesser evil than the later ideas such as Communism, or hedonistic ultra-consumerism of the modern West, or Nazism. But the idea that brought about the mass self-destruction of Europe in the early 20th century is an evil.
The opposite of nationalism isn’t something called “anti-nationalism.”
The “platinum plan” is just Trump’s election ploy. It’s remninicent of Nixon’s “black capitalism”. Basically a thinly-veiled attempt to boost the financial sector. Come to think of it, that’s an old GOP tradition. Ol’ Dubya did the same in the early 2000s with his push for minority homeownership and as a cover for allowing banks and financial institutions to lower credit standards, which they wanted, to increase profits. We all know what happened next.
As for global effort to de-crimininalise homosexuality, that was mostly driven by the ex-German ambassador whose name now escapes me. Very public LBGTQ+ activist. Sometimes you get one-man jihads on low-stakes issues and that was one.
Either way, you’re dodging the main argument. Namely, the economic one. Why would the Trump admin want to push for political change, even if you buy Jaako’s wacky reasoning about supporting feminists as a front, when the status quo worked so well for them? Are you seriously going to claim that Trump is a late-convert to social democracy? The whole theory is bogus.
Legal documents should be evolving with the times. I’m not an ‘originalist’, simply because it favors old prejudices. I see no reason to worship a document if it no longer fits its purpose.
Chile’s case shows that even if a constitution does fit its purpose – which was to minimise democratic accountability over the economic system – that could paradoxically in of itself be cause for overturning or abolishing a constitution.
The 78% of Chileans who voted to abolish the old constitution have a strong argument: it was imposed by a dictatorship without any consent. Why would anyone carry any attachment to such an abomination? The small minority who support it are largely the wealthy elite and the upper-middle class. The tyranny of the minority is just as big a problem as the tyranny of the majority, though we hear much more of the latter in neoliberal discourse.
I think the real difficulty in comparing England to France is that France is a bridge nation connecting Northern and Southern Europe. If we specify Normandy or even more broadly, Northern France, then there would be no contest. The English would be closer to the French than to Germans.
Quitting China is easier said than done.
https://twitter.com/danwwang/status/1320712487881351168
Damien Ma often points out that FDI into China is increasingly driven to capture the domestic market rather than just using China as an export base for the world. BASF’s €10 billion investment is a case in point. So is Tesla’s factory, which will have a dual-purpose but mostly be geared towards the domestic market.
And even for exports, the combination that China still offers is incredibly hard to beat. In Guangdong you have a small army of suppliers, meaning you can build almost anything without ever crossing the border (thereby drastically cutting down delays and red tape) with high efficiency and fantastic logistics. You’re not just limited to Guangdong’s labour force either, as the rural migrant workforce number in the hundreds of millions and are willing to move. Vietnam’s doing well but they just don’t have the same labour force size to match, so you inevitably have to source from multiple countries for larger projects, with all the headaches that entails.
India does have the size, but India’s productivity/beaurocracy problems are legendary. And India itself has been moving into a protectionist direction. Atmanirbhar Bharat is the slogan these days in New Delhi.
This is actually an interesting statement.
It implies that things like ethnic cleansing (an ambiguous term with many meanings and encompassing many things), atrocities, war crimes and etc are uniquely “Balkanoid” things.
The problem with this assumption is that it assumes those thing are unique to the Balkans which is factually wrong.
By that logic Jews and Palestinians, Armenians and Azeris, Pakistanis and Indians (Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus), Tutsis and Hutus, etc are all Balkanoid or LARPing as such.
I state this not because I’m an absolute fan of “Balkanoidism” (the term ethnic cleansing is a Croat invention) but because it’s obviously non-sensical for many in the world to pretend that they are truly uniquely superior compared to people in the Balkans (sure Albanians, but the others?).
I know many men who were drafted in the ’60s – it was not a formality. Many did not want to go, even if they were stationed in peaceful areas, like West Germany, and didn’t have to do any killing or face death. What young man likes to have his agency and time stolen from him?
Not according to Catholic theology. One’s greatest duty is to those who one knows most deeply. One has a greater duty to one’s family than to strangers. To one’s neighbors and community than to strangers living on the other side of the globe. The Church traditionally (not the Pope now) does not support leap-frogging loyalties.
The end of slavery, serfdom, and internecine feudal warfare were evil? What are the fruits of anti-nationalism?
You’ve completely lost me here. Surely, “anti” means “opposite.” How can something be “opposite” without being “opposed.” You might answer that people don’t call themselves “anti-nationalists.” Well, seems like a meaningless distinction. Clearly, some people subscribe to an ideology which is “anti-nationalist”, whether or not they call themselves by that name.
If you are trying to say that people can lack nationalism (and that is the opposite of nationalism?) without being “anti-nationalist”, seems quite fallacious, as you yourself have been constructing arguments against nationalism, and by definition seem to be “anti-nationalist.”
Well, supposing they can (excepting your case). Supposing they swear a holy vow never to oppose nationalism – to never denounce it – while also opposing the ideology which includes anti-nationalism. How are we to judge them morally? Without nationalism, they are incapable of opposing anti-nationalism. If they are to oppose any ideology which includes antinationalism, then they must do so without the powerful tool of nationalism, and their opposition must necessarily be weaker. More fruit must grow from the tree which includes anti-nationalism. Is that a moral good?
You’re right
You are correct, my comment was more properly directed against Hindus. The Tibetan artworks in the exhibition were not nearly as unpleasant as the Hindu ones.
This assumes Trump is bothering to direct policy on/pay attention to this issue rather than leaving it to autonomous American civil servants and appointees.
And the US has a precedent of throwing their allies/neutrals under the bus when things look bad (for a recent example, see Bulgaria) only to realise their mistake and fix the problem with a new coup/colour revolution a few years later.
There are downsides to all political systems. Overall A-H was a positive force whose former territories are superior to neighbouring ones.
USA has real and significant flaws but referring it to an oligarchic tyranny is indeed silly propaganda.
Loss of these territories has been good for Ukraine and consequences have been fairly mild. OTOH the death of one third of Serbia’s male population during World War I was a very real, very horrible consequence of evil Serb deeds.
Females existed even longer than that – yet feminism is a modern ideology.
Perhaps you are not aware of that either?
.
The same silly argument used by feminists to claim Cleopatra, or Hypatia, or Boadicea were “feminists.”
So the first literary work in the modern Ukrainian language, Kotlyarevsky’s Eneida (1798) was described as having been in the Little Russian language:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Kotliarevsky#/media/File%3AFirst_Eneyida.jpg
The “History of Rus or Little Russia” was written at about the same time and consisted of typical Ukrainian nationalist ideas (Little Russians are true Rus, Muscovites are despotic Mongols, etc.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ruthenians
Often the same people who called themselves Little Russians in the 1840s called themselves Ukrainians in the 1860s.
You are displaying ignorance of basic and non-controversial facts.
Rebranding occurred first in the Russian Empire, ignoramus.
Later on these Ukrainian nationalists came from Russia to Galicia where they rebranded the local Rusyns into Ukrainians.
1.Ukraine is 90% Orthodox and 10% Uniate. In terms of sheer numbers most Ukrainian nationalists are Orthodox by faith.
Not really.
Laughter is a great expression of denial. We have already gone over this; Serbs are basically Slavicized Balkanoids. Some Serb-speaking areas are more Slavic than others but on average Serbs are about as Slav in descent as African-Americans are European in descent (20-25%). Croats are more Slavic than Serbs. Genetic research shatters your cherished myths.
The Trump admin is more than just Trump himself. The notion that the US would promote social democratic economic policies in Latin America is laughable and completely odds with the long history of US imperialist meddling in the continent, regardless which party held the WH.
Weren’t the originators of the US Constitution the progressives of their time? (I think so)
If you ask me, the most interesting and powerful political change which has happened over the past 250 years or so, is the way that progressives have changed their own thinking. How their impulses to universality have had an arc towards increasing universality, encompassing more and more people. IMO, the motive force is not so much them convincing others – though surely the values of the general public have changed. The seed is in the way that they themselves have changed.
James Burnham put this down to the way that the institutions have changed. Essentially, that progressives (a word used some time ago in France) were to a certain extent wary of the state because the Church and aristocrats traditionally had a lot of power in it. As aristocrats and the Church lost their power, progressives (or “liberals”) became more enamored with the state. And, of course, there were manifold other changes, such as the end of slavery, and the Great Migration.
A while back, I listened to an interesting podcast (Event Horizon) with Timothy Ferris (the guy at least partly responsible for the plaque on Voyager.) He is 76 and, of course, having helped design the plaque (which was multicult), a liberal. He mentioned that one of the projects that he is working on now is to write a book about “what liberalism is” (and implicitly what it isn’t). I had a laugh at that – he is 76 – he doesn’t know what it is anymore. It is not the same thing it was in his youth.
I’m incredibly thin in my library of jazz CD’s with respect to Oscar Peterson. No good reason, as I loved listening to him as a kid. You’d have to be a millionaire to buy up his whole backlog of albums, as he was so very prodigious in his output. I’m listening to this right now through Spotify, a compilation that many consider to be among his very, very best. You got any favorites that you might recommend?
https://audiophilestyle.com/uploads/monthly_2013_07/oscar-peterson-exclusively-for-my-friends-.jpg.68c9ca61b4a5066219841919ba66dec6.jpg
https://i.redd.it/vsfn72o9x4t51.png
https://i.redd.it/wmgquzh73wg51.jpg
https://i.redd.it/58mgdd05shf31.jpg
https://emergingmarkets.blog.franklintempleton.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/EM2-Trade-final.jpg
https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RPS_EN-PROD/PROD0000000000505697.ATTACH_PNG(1).PNG
They generally wouldn’t, but this is not the same idea as Raipala’s accusation that this is a preemptive measure that will promote feminism, Amerindian “plurinationalism” and other socially liberal initiatives to deflect anger over the economy.
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Patriarch Shevchuk, makes it clear that he considers his church an Orthodox one, in every respect, in communion with the Church of Rome:
blob:https://www.youtube.com/715d067d-40a0-47f1-a66d-f47f71561980
I refer to him as “Patriarch” as that is how he was referred to at least half a dozen times when he performed Liturgy in front of a crowd of hundreds, including Orthodox and Roman Catholic clergy in Phoenix, AZ a few years back.
Fantastic aggregation. I knew most of these already, but the German auto production statistic still surprised me.
As an aside, I never understood why China has leapt so far ahead of the US in ecommerce penetration. As a share of GDP and/or retail sales it is far higher. Isn’t the US supposed to be a high-tech economy? Of course, the flip side of that would also indicate that Amazon’s crazy bullrun is still far from over…
The promotion of the gender quota was in relation to the draft of a new constitution. Not a stand-alone policy. So you can’t promote one without the other following. And as I’ve made clear, the notion that the US would promote anything but the neoliberal status quo is far-fetched and ahistorical.
By the way, I don’t know why you spent a bizarre amount of time and energy defending an absurd position, one that isn’t your own and that you yourself don’t even seem that convinced of. Let Jaako’s wacko theories be next time. Your comments are typically of much higher quality (I was particularly impressed by your recent one on Turkish demographic trends).
Indeed, but being progressive in the late 1700s mean very different things than it does today. This is also something which US statesmen and women realised early on. It’s not like they have been shy with fixing an imperfect document. So neither should we.
I am not sure I’d put it down to progressivism. If you look at the evolution of nationalism, even far-right nationalism, it has followed the same basic arc. Localism and regionalism had given way to larger meta-organisational systems. This is how I understand the unification of Germany, Italy and even to some extent the creation of the EU.
Not that the EU is nationalist per se, it’s just on the same arc as the others. The world is getting less and less local as time goes on. Nationalism is simply an intermediate step on that path.
Is that due to a political ideology or simply an undercurrent affecting everyone? I’m leaning towards the latter.
We have to distinguish broad social liberalism from the specific US-centric understanding of “liberals”, which is typically social democracy in Europe. I have deep reservations about progressive having any different views because of the state on issues such as women’s right for instance. On more pragmatic political matters such as how to obtain power, that theory makes a lot more sense.
I wouldn’t mock him. Liberalism can mean different things to different people. This is also true across cultures. The French obsession with secularism is not shared in other Western countries, nor are their strict republicanism. Contrast this with the monarchies still present in Europe. I don’t know many Swedes who seriously want to abolish our royal family’s prestige and institution.
More generally, when you’re enmeshed in a dominant ideology for so long, it is easy to become ‘home-blind’. Forcing yourself to think about first principles can help your own intellectual development. Jefferson was right when he noted that learning is a life-long pursuit. Mocking someone for being intellectually curious and willing to learn more, changing his or her position, even at such an advanced age is bizarre to me. He should be lauded. Most at that age at calcified in their old thinking.
The more Russians I meet, the more I find myself thinking people like this make a civilization:
You’re right, I don’t particularly care about Latin American affairs so I shouldn’t bother.
You would like Galician-Ukrainian diaspora culture although here the focus is on the girls:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0O3zpNCEFGk
I’m not an expert in Church doctrines but communion with Rome involves recognition of dogma such as papal infallibility that Orthodox do not follow. However I agree that on matters not related to the Papacy, Greek Catholics are identical to Orthodox. Claim that there are no substantial differences between Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics is absurd.
Nicene creed is the same as Orthodox (no Filioque as in the Roman Catholics, which has implications regarding the role of the Holy Spirit):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Brest
Another bull, Decet Romanum pontificem, dated 23 February 1596, defined the rights of the Ruthenian episcopate and their relations in subjection to the Holy See.[4]
It was agreed that the filioque should not be inserted in the Nicene Creed, and that the Ruthenians
“should remain with that which was handed down to us in the Holy Scriptures, in the Gospel, and in the writings of the holy Greek Doctors, that is, that the Holy Spirit proceeds, not from two sources and not by a double procession, but from one origin, from the Father through the Son.”
Furthermore:
https://jbburnett.com/resources/union-of-brest.html
That the divine worship and all prayers and services of Orthros, Vespers, and the night services shall remain intact (without any change at all) for us according to the ancient custom of the Eastern Church, namely: the Holy Liturgies of which there are three, that of Saint Basil, that of Saint Chrysostom, and that of Epiphanius which is served during the Great Lent with Presanctified Gifts, and all other ceremonies and services of our Church, as we have had them until now, for in Rome these same services are kept within the obedience of the Supreme Pontiff, and that these services should be in our own language.
That the Mysteries of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ should be retained entirely as we have been accustomed until now, under the species of bread and wine; that this should remain among us eternally the same and unchangeable.
That the Mystery of Holy Baptism and its form should remain among us unchanged as we have served it until now, without any addition.
We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.
We will accept the new calendar, if the old one cannot be, but without any violation of the Paschalia [the Easter cycle] and our other feasts as they were in the time of unity, because we have some special feasts which the Romans do not have; on the sixth of January we celebrate the memory of the Baptism of the Lord Christ and the first revelation of the One God in Trinity. We call this feast Theophany, and on this day we have a special service of the Blessing of Waters.
That we should not be compelled to take part in processions on the day of Corpus Christi – that we should not have to make such processions with our Mysteries inasmuch as our use of the Mysteries is different.
Likewise that we should not be compelled to have the blessing of fire, the use of wooden clappers, and similar ceremonies before Easter, for we have not had such ceremonies in our Church until now, but that we should maintain our ceremonies according to the rubrics and the Typicon of our Church.
That the marriages of priests remain intact, except for bigamists.
Within China, development of the internet and smartphones outpaced retail construction. Some places had no malls – no people in the habit of going to malls. They did have smart phones. Older people learned to use them, and Alibaba became like the Sears catalogue. Also, as an export economy, there was a lot of commercial activity, not directly related to the end-consumer.
Perhaps. But it has a global zeitgeist, a mass – it is an object with a momentum. It is like a snowball rolling down a hill – one old man cannot get out in front of it, and roll it back up, unwinding the snow from it. And that is the sense that I get from the context of the interview and of the cultural context of the Anglosphere, where it is commonly said that liberalism was about tolerance and small government and that some people stole it, and are misusing the word for their own ideas. Really, that is just a sort of nostalgia – that is its evolutionary throwback, before a great many social changes, like the invention of social media and mass migration. I don’t see how it is possible to go back.
I don’t know whether it is really true, (I have never been to Russia – still waiting for them to open a nuclear sub museum) but, from the internet, I get the sense that Russia has a stronger musical tradition – for example, people singing traditional songs in the street in their own language – than any country with a bigger nominal GDP, or perhaps, even a higher per capita.
Interesting.
https://reddevol.com/articles/koronavirus_i_mirovoe_pravitelstvo
I agree with the most part. I strongly suggest reading the comment section.
I was discussing the conscription in 1914. Of course the Vietnam war was genuinely unpopular. World War I in contrast enjoyed massive support by feverish European nationalists eager to sacrifice other Europeans and themselves for national glory, national revenge, etc.
Sure. But “community” is not “nation.” None of the traditional Catholic states led by devout Catholic monarchs (i.e., Austria-Hungary, Spain under Hapsburgs, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, pre-Revolutionary France) were monocultural nation-states.
Worshipping a man-made idea of nation (a group of people with a standardized language, territory, history) to the point of killing or dying for its expansion, glory, and honor is idolatry. Idolatry is a sin.
Interesting point about slavery and serfdom. These were not completely snuffed out by nationalism but nationalism did result in the mass slaughter of World War I and concomitant destruction of former Christendom/Europe. The scale of deaths in World War I (total war) exceeded those medieval warfare.
Pre-nationalist Europe, the century before the Great War, was a peaceful idyll and a golden age.
Indifference due to focus on healthier and more moral topics (faith, family, productive work) would be opposite.
LOLOLOLOL!!!! What a sick ( and of course , extremely dumb) freak you truly are
It seems disrespectful to place your post higher in lying , fantasist cretinism more than the other massive load of nonsense you have posted just on this Open Thread alone….but this is truly ridiculous.
A debutante ball clearly plagiarising Soviet débutante balls, Soviet diaspora debutante balls ( they are Russian but of course Baltics , Armenians, Moldovans and all Soviet diaspora types participate in them every year in Berlin, London, New York and wherever around the world), probably only startedto directly copy them out of jealousy ( makes sense for these closed, failure, CIA-smuggled, sadist society), is now referred to as:
WTF?LOL
I would add that the Russian/Sovietness of this western creation derives from the fact that in the west they don’t tend to fully embrace this type of event anymore in the type of groups that enjoy this type of thing – different to Russian world/Soviet diaspora , sort of like how I regard Ballet as Russian
So Johann Strauss Blue Danube Waltzes,those clothes, decorations, everything with absolutely zero connection of any atom in that room in the video to this decrepit , nonexistant “Galician-Ukrainian diaspora culture”
A reminder that your insecure, timewasting idiotic comment was in response to Swedish guy posting a video of something unmistakably, uniquely Russian
This is even more retarded than the digging up the Black Sea fantasies!
Hugely indicative that a tramp as yourself uses the equally self-discrediting phrase
Uh oh, something wrong with your estrogen level?
Sure bud.
Is this why the parts of Italy, Switzerland and Germany that were never ruled by Habsburgs are all clearly doing better than former territories of the Habsburgs?
At any rate, this is becoming more of a moot point as there is more and more mass immigration of non-Europeans into many parts of Europe, both former Habsburg territories and other places.
Really?
It’s harder to imagine a more oligarchic entity to have ever existed in all of recorded world history.
Just take a look at the ridiculous bailouts given to corporations and billionaires in 2008 and now with Corona bailouts. Also the blatant role of oligarchs like Bill Gates (pushes his own vaccine), Jeff Bezos (The Washington Post is literally his mouthpiece), Sheldon Adelson (pushes pro-Israel policies with his wealth) and other types in US politics.
Technically Trump himself is an oligarch whose business exploits are very famous/infamous (although a degree of his popularity comes from him defying and confronting other oligarchs to some extent).
Is this why Mr Hack and so many other Ukrainians whine about this non-stop and every so often on the internet? Also why you have to rationalize and explain this attitude of yours on the subject matter more often than should be necessary if you truly don’t mind this?
If you wish evil upon others, gloat and take pleasure in any past or present evils they have suffered, you should not be surprised when others do the same to you.
At any rate, it’s still very good that the Habsburg Empire is permanently gone and that it’s not coming back ever again. Even if this came at a very high price and Serbs squandered a once in a few centuries chance to come out as true winners from its destruction. There is a strong argument to be made that the Habsburg Empire was ultimately worse for Serbs than the Ottoman Empire in hindsight (both empires were bad, but the only question is which one was worse, definitely Habsburgs after 1878 imo).
I think you forgot about things like the female dominated tribes of the Amazon. Technically past Kingdoms and Empires being ruled by Queens is a form of feminism that existed before the ideology was formally invented. You know, Matriarchy and what not.
So there would have been at least some forms of proto-feminism at least way before feminism was invented as a modern ideology, whether one likes it or not (and I’m really not a fan of feminism).
The parallels between Serbs and Croats with Russians and Ukrainians are very strong, whether you want to admit it or not.
Karlin knows it which is why he frequently mentions Operation Storm as a scenario he would like the Russians in Donbass to be able to avoid experiencing.
Maybe people just take comic pleasure from blatantly dumb and ridiculous statements like claims that I’m an Albanian in denial?
This implies that there is such a thing as “Balkanoid” or “Balkanoid” DNA to begin with (The nations and populations of the Balkans differ far more strongly from each other than many would like to admit). You may perhaps be talking about Illyrian and pre-Slavic DNA in the Balkans which does not really belong to any single group in the Balkans (no matter how hard Albanians falsely try and claim that).
No, it shatters your cherished myths that I’m an Albanian in denial. The genetic code of most Albanians is strongly and markedly extremely different from all their neighbors and literally has more in common with Africa than the rest of the region.
Let me guess…
https://youtu.be/WbYCka89-7I
Black Sea Fantasy (Lesno) – Ivo & the Wave Wranglers
A little weak, I’d say. Reminds me of something that Anthony Bourdain might have lived through after another wicked night of overindulging?. 🙁
Sometimes I forgot what an eccentric, “psychiatric hospital” atmosphere we have in this forum (not intending this in a rude or judgemental way) – i.e. to encounter adult men writing about their belief in demons.
Of course, this is part of the reason it is interesting to talk to you people – I have never met anyone with who believes in demons in real life, and would not likely ever meet them in my daily life. What are your views about Atlantis?
I’ve heard some of this, but I’m not such a fan of it. I’ve enjoyed (when in certain mood) his improvisations in Miles Davis “Second Great Quintet”. His rapport with Tony Williams, large amount of space, and the very formal timekeeping combined with increasing “freedom” of harmonies.
His solo is from 10:00 – he’s playing like a more harmonically experimental version of Wynton Kelly. At the end he goes back to playing “locked hands” of the 1950s.
The Verve CD of “Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson” sounds really nice, to my ears, on good speakers (well, if you like Ben Webster – of course, it’s just “easy listening” or “summer music”, without too much experimentation).
More for fans of slow playing with Ben Webster, than Oscar Peterson though. I think I recommended it to Gerard a few months ago.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ben-Webster-Meets-Oscar-Peterson/dp/B0000047D8
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany. Also former Hapsburg parts of Romania are the best part of that country, and Slovenia and Croatia are better than Serbia.
Are you that ignorant?
.
When you know little about the world (see previous point) imagination must be limited. Review global Goni coefficients and report back with what you find. And learn about this concept “tyranny.”
You are the one who brought it up, and I answered. I wish gangrenous Donbas had been amputated earlier. Disastrous Yanukovich would never have become president.
Projection. Gloating about mass deaths is a Serb thing? My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists. Perhaps you are better at killing than you are at reading?
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
How did that work out for your people?
It is very sad, how much suffering your people’s murderous wishes and actions have wrought.
But you think it was worth it. It is very sad that Serbs like you think so little of the lives of their own people.
Outside the Balkans, people don’t differentiate much between Balkanoids; it’s a bit like the diversity in the Caucuses. Slavic-speaking Balkanoids (Serbs), non-Slavic speaking ones (Albanians), not much different.
I really like the “old school” Miles Davis ouvre and consider it fundamental in understanding and appreciating modern jazz. One of my favorite albums of all time, as for so many jazz aficionados, would be “Kind of Blue”. I recomended it to AP a few months back to listen to, I don’t know if he ever took the time to do so?
Now, ‘Headhunters” is almost as important, IMHO. Hancock has been leading up to this point for several albums now, but here he puts it all together and offers up a synthesis of all that’s gone on before and crystalizes it here. Very cool music, very electronic, very funky, rhythmic all parts working together as one. Notice the real funky change at 7:38 (Chameleon”) starting with the funky bass patterns and then the real cool piano playing that is reminiscent of his past style of playing, but it’s so cool that you can close your eyes and see James Bond emerging on the French Riviera stepping out of his Austin Martin car. Give the whole album a serious listen (or even 2-3 times) until it’s true beauty starts to grow on you. You’ll see why it’s considered a seminal musical journey that set the tone for much of what was to come. Layers upon layers of beautiful funk absorbed in rhythmic and lush synthesized heavenly music. Let the “primitive and positive” within you come out and thrive……above all, just have some fun listening to it!
blob:https://www.youtube.com/e9b3f602-0818-418b-ab83-63686152d561
Psychiatric patients tend to be more concerned about life on/from other planets, government surveillance, and germs than they are about demons.
Do you believe in those things?
How parochial. I suspect a majority of the world’s population is not as blind as your small strange circle of positivists.
https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2013/09/17/half-americans-believe-possession-devil
“The latest YouGov research has found that over half of all Americans believe in possession by evil spirits.”
Rates are higher among Latinos, with obvious implications for Latin America:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/15/latinos-in-the-u-s-have-a-strong-belief-in-the-spirit-world/
“More than half (57%) said that people can be possessed by spirits”
“ Last week, Catholics from 33 countries gathered in Vatican City for a conference on exorcism. The Post estimated the number of “official exorcists” to be between 500 and 600, “the vast majority operating in Latin America and Eastern Europe.”
I have heard a harrowing account of an exorcism in western Ukraine.
And being Russian is no excuse for your ignorance on this particular topic:
https://www.rbth.com/news/2016/04/28/poll-russians-now-hope-for-gods-help-more_589001
“ Forty percent believe in the devil and hell”
You are much too intelligent to really view these phenomena as comparable. That you committed such a silly category error suggests motivated denial.
Wow LOL.
So much butthurt.
I guess that is what it must be like to live your whole life as part of a fake trash and worthless scum nation called Ukrainians huh?
Anyway, nice try though, there’s clearly nothing by now seriously worth responding to for me, as you’ve ran out of arguments and are trying to provoke me to go full Gerard on you.
Hopefully you’ll get whacked by some BLM, Muslims, people of color or Antifa in the liberal multicultural shithole that you live in reality. You’re not worth much more anyway.
You couldn’t address any of the points so you revert to wishing death on someone, as Balkanoids like you inevitably do. 🙂
God made many of the nations. Many are not abstract, man-made constructions. Several are mentioned in the Bible. Jews are given favor in the Old Testament. Jesus never preaches to destroy nations, but says to preach to the nations.
Mark 11:17
And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.”
Psalm 67:4
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
The Victorian-era peace was historically unusual, and it is quite a misconception to call it “pre-nationalist.” It is excessively deconstructionist, to pretend there were no nations or nationalists at that time.
Wealth and modernization (and, yes, even anti-nationalism) damaged Christianity, not WWI, as can be demonstrated by the fact that Sweden was neutral. Populations were much higher after the Columbian exchange and industrialization – the percentage of people who died in WWI was actually much less than conflicts like the 30 Years War. Quite easy to explain – war used to cause mass famine, as there would be widespread scorched earth policies, and not much in the way of front lines.
You do not need to neglect those things to be a nationalist. It is not necessarily a time-intensive hobby, like gaming. Nationalism helps the family. It is better to raise one’s children in an environment will they will not be subjected to economic and social punishments for being who they are. And globalism is avowedly anti-Christian.
As to monarchy, the old kings were all forced out. And let’s not paint too ideal a picture, Charles II, a Hapsburg King of Spain was deformed and more inbred than if his parents had been brother and sister. Such monarchs that survive (without power) are generally a complete disgrace.
As I see it, mobilization was largely defensive in nature. When armies seized territory, the generals wanted to keep it, to justify the expense in men. This is not the same as supposing men went to war specifically to gain new territory, and if so, that would not be a new thing, or something specific to nationalism. The Soviet state was expansionary, but not nationalistic.
You stopped presenting facts and even seriously trying to make any arguments a long time ago.
When you write with insults and provocations wrapped in the most cunning and underhanded way possible, there are no points worth discussing.
You’re the one that couldn’t address any of the points I made so you resorted to insults and provocations as I clearly outlined in comment #350. Why shouldn’t I respond appropriately to that?
Just when my heart started to warm for the Ukrainian nation theres a full artillery barrage of svidomy lies. Uniates are not Orthodox, the Greek old calendarist have a better case for Orthodoxy than Uniates, under Eastern Catholic churches canon law they acknowledge the papal supremacy and infallibility. You can ask patriarch of Cpole himself and he will answer that they are not Orthodox. Their archbishop is not a patriarch, the pope or Roman curia nor the Orthodox bishops recognise him to have such office in the church. Ugh how banal this is, no amount of wishing and self deception will change the matter. I and all my friends can call me pope, if such thing happens do I really become a pope of the Catholic Church? AP you slyly omitted which Orthodox or “orthodox” church you visited? The so called church of the former patriarchate of Kiev, or the Autocephalous church of Ukraine? Latter would be would be quite funny, a church that had as its motto “one language, one people, one church,” very Christian motto indeed…
Austria-Hungary was two separate states in a real union, they only had a common foreign policy and both a common army of Austria and Hungary and their own armies. Hungarian part was a very modern invention, born in the year 1867, when Austrians made a deal with Hungarians and Hungarians got their own country. The kingdom of Hungary was very nationalistic and had an official policy of Magyarization of ethnic minorities, the lands of Austria or so called Cisleithania was a patchwork of different Habsburg crownlands, with very different local legislatures and administrations, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria contained the lands that were gained from the partitions of Poland in the end of the 18th Century, so not a very long time ago. Most of Kingdom of Hungary was gained in the last years of 17th century from the Ottomans, before that the Habsburg controlled only a small western strip of Hungary and Croatia. Upper Hungary and Transylvania were only periodically and loosely affiliated with the Habsburgs before the Great Turkish war. Austria-Hungary wasnt a product of Middle Ages, but a quitr recent political construction, which had gone large secular and anticlerical reforms under the emperor Joseph II.
Very hypocritical of you AP to defend the AH empire with such devotion. The Czechs had ten times stronger nationalist movement before the ww1 than the Ukrainians had, although they were not revolutionary before the war, they truly despised the power of German elites and had struggled very openly for one hundred years for the rights of the Czech culture and language.
Austrians committed great crimes during ww1 and their empire was utterly rotten and in no way carrier of Medieval traditions, the elites in Vienna were already quite modernist and decadent. The Jews were completely integrated to the power structures of the empire, much more than in neighbouring countries.
Songbird of course Austrians tried to have peace status quo ante bellum in 1917, for after the Brusilov offensive they had lost the capability to wage war independently and were in process of becoming a satellite of Germany.
Only Russian empire was the last carrier of the tradition on the European continent, French Republic was born in 1871, as was the German Empire, UK was already a constitutional and liberal monarchy.
And AP first modernist political philosophy was the Classica Liberalism, nationalism came afterwards and had a quite long romance with the liberals of the 19th century.
False. I’ll repost what I wrote so you can try again. I will bold facts or arguments if you have trouble seeing them:
Northern Italy clearly does better than southern Italy and Bavaria and Rhineland do better than other parts of Germany. Also former Hapsburg parts of Romania are the best part of that country, and Slovenia and Croatia are better than Serbia.
Are you that ignorant?
When you know little about the world (see previous point) imagination must be limited. Review global Gini coefficients and report back with what you find. And learn about this concept “tyranny.”
Projection. Gloating about mass deaths is a Serb thing? My use of the word “horrible” indicates that I look negatively at the consequences upon the Serb people of the vile deeds of their nationalists. Perhaps you are better at killing than you are at reading?
It resulted in a vacuum filled eventually by Nazis and (in the Balkans) Ustashi.
How did that work out for your people?
It is very sad, how much suffering your people’s murderous wishes and actions have wrought.
But you think it was worth it. It is very sad that Serbs like you think so little of the lives of their own people.
LOL.
Nice try at provoking me again.
Wrong.
Northwest Italy (Milan and west) was never part of Habsburg Empire and it’s doing just fine.
Berlin and North Germany are doing better than the south.
You’re also ignoring Switzerland because it’s a clear and obvious debunking of your claim.
Although now all the mass migration of non-Europeans is making comparisons of former Habsburg territories to others increasingly moot and irrelevant for the future. No amount of former Habsburg rule can compensate for the fact that a territory is now inhabited by Turkish, Muslim, African and other migrants which reduces nearly every single standard, quality and HDI metric of that place regardless of whether the Habsburgs ruled it before or not.
Maybe Gini coefficients are a bit overrated and not as reliable as they’re made out to be?
After all, remember all the claims and graphics that the USA would handle Coronavirus best because it was a Liberal Democracy LOL?
Why yes, I’m quite sure that you are very sincere in this belief … NOT!
Btw, this is literally the same talking point that Liberal NGO’s, NATO, the EU and criminals like Biden push about Serbs and publicly try to cram down their throats as a result of the 1990’s wars.
You’re not fooling anyone with this.
Austria-Hungary was actually the predecessor from which the Nazis and Ustashe spawned.
Literally.
Many Austrian Nazis and Croat Ustashe (literally the same people and generation) that faithfully served Austria-Hungary in WW1 went on to become prominent Nazis and Ustashe in WW2.
E.g:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_B%C3%B6hme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavko_Kvaternik
Adolf Hitler’s ideas in Mein Kampf are to a large degree influenced by having lived and grown up in such a shitty and pathologically sick empire.
If you’re going to come up with more provocations and insults, don’t even bother.
Milan or Mailand and Lombardy had a very long history with the Habsburgs, but Northern Italy was already the richest region of Europe long before the Habsburgs. Southern Germany is richer than both Northern Germany and Austria by the way.
Of course. That is what I wrote. However I also wrote that it was wrong to state that they are identical to Roman Catholics, because like Orthodox and unlike Roman Catholics they do not include the Filioque in the Nicene Creed and retain Orthodox liturgy, and retained Orthodox baptism and communion.
Why “slyly?” You should work on not assuming the worst in others.
It was an Antiochian Orthodox Church; the priest was Lebanese-American. I went there because it happened to be the only nearby Eastern Christian Church.
It underwent reforms but not Revolution. As did Russia, particularly under Peter and Catherine. But both Russia and Austria were far more traditional than the USA, Republican France, Britain, and probably nationalistic imperial Germany.
Which speaks to the relative mildness of the Hapsburgs. An anti-war Slavophil, married to a Czech (Sofia Chotková), was supposed to ascend the throne before a Serb animal murdered him and his wife.
They were about the same as the others.
One could say the same about the elites in St. Petersburg, but the overall system and society were not so, to the extent of the West (and of what came later).
Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary. The conflict between them was a historical tragedy.
Yes you are correct here, classical liberalism did precede nationalism by a few decades. And because it is older it, like nationalism, is not as bad as later -isms.
My bad, thanks for the correction.
My point was to state west of Milan.
In my opinion it’s a moot point really because of non-European mass immigration by EU dictate anyway. Not to mention that a whole bunch of former Habsburg territories have been under different rule and different things have happened to them since 1918 anyway.
Two false assumptions you make here and are simply treated as mainstream English language WW1 history are worth debunking.
Wrong.
Franz Ferdinand was not anti war at all. He took part in war plans to attack and make a punitive expedition against Serbia for more than a decade in advance. Yes, Austria-Hungary actually pre-meditated war against Serbia for at least more than a decade before 1914. This was clear when it sent an ultimatum to Serbia in 1913 to withdraw from Albania during the 1st Balkan War. Sending an ultimatum is an act of war (even more so than an assassination done by non-state actors).
He was also not a “Slavophile” at all. Stop lying.
He considered Serbs to be “pig farmers”, “scoundrels”, “rogues” etc.
His statements of racial hatred are recorded and existed (they’re especially infamous against Magyars and others).
The myth and lie of his slavophilia simply come from the fact that he contemplated Slavic Trialism of Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims as a strategy against Magyars, but never actually accepted it or seriously pushed for its implementation because he equally despised and hated Magyars and Slavs.
The thing is that Gavrilo Princip did not even conceive of himself as an ethnic Serb and actually considered himself to be Yugoslavian (same for his group of Young Bosnia partners). He explicitly opposed Serb nationalism in his memoirs and statements of his that are recorded (partly from the Habsburg trial of him) instead support Yugoslavia.
If you bothered to take a look at the lengthy free preview of the book I previously recommended earlier you would have never stated such blatant bullshit.
Again, are you that ignorant? Milan was ruled by Hapsburgs from 1556 to 1795.
No, richest and most pleasant parts of Germany are in the South and Rhineland – former Hapsburg lands.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/German_states_by_GRP_in_2018.jpg
Are the parts of Switzerland once ruled by Hapsburgs poorer or worse than other parts of Switzerland?
However in addition you your false claims about Milan and Germany, you ignore that ex-Hapsburg Croatia and Slovenia are better than Serbia, and ex-Hapsburg Romania better than the rest of Romania. Also Galicia under Hapsburgs was richer and more educated than other Eastern Slavic lands, Krakow and ex-Hapsburg Poland best part of Poland.
So in your mind Gini coefficients are wrong because of Covid graphs?
More projection. Unlike you I don’t hold murderous wishes on people, much less masses of people. But you, in true Balkanoid fashion, already wished death on me because of our discussion.
By that logic Romanovs were somehow to blame for Stalin. Nazis sent Hapsburgs into concentration camps, you know.
To review: Serb nationalists committed a vile cold-blooded murder, provoking a war that killed 1/3 of their male population (as well as millions of other Europeans). You, a Serb, say it was all worth it because the Hapsburg monarchy was toppled even though the result of that was a power vacuum eventually filled by Ustashi who again killed lots of Serbs, in gruesome ways. This was followed by Yugoslavia. In your logic was this was all worth it? Better than if the Hapsburgs had simply taken care of you in their benevolence? In that case, maybe instead of millions of dead Serbs there would have been another Tesla?
While I do think the Habsburgs promoted economic development compared to the parts of the Balkans ruled by Ottomans, I think your comments on Germany and Italy are not as convincing.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Growth_of_Habsburg_territories.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/Map_of_the_Holy_Roman_Empire%2C_1789_en.png/1280px-Map_of_the_Holy_Roman_Empire%2C_1789_en.png
For one thing, the Habsburgs never held Bavaria and only held a small part of the Rhineland. In general they held minimal long-term territories with the present BRD borders, so TheTotallyAnonymous’s original inclusion of Germany was also quite erroneous.
For Switzerland, given that they gained independence over half a millenium ago I doubt Habsburg rule led to any specific development demarcation on present borders.
But even if we assume that the evidence is inconclusive with poorer and richer areas together. Any immense disparity between Swiss cantons is more likely to be the effect of Luxembourg-style taxation laws.
http://www.geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Switzerland-Per-Capita-GDP-Map.png
Similarly for Northern Italy, the parts that were once ruled by Habsburgs and those that never were have the same general economic development.
https://i.redd.it/xd52fnstc5s41.png
So while Habsburg rule was not a curse for Western-Central Europe, neither was it any special blessing. Nor, as the Prussian development of what would become the Polish Corridor showed, was the development of the eastern and southeastern territories something that could not have been replicated by another non-Catholic Western-Central European power in a similar territorial position.
Sure. Your word is totally trustworthy …
Most former Austro-Hungarian officers chose to loyally serve the Nazis with absolutely 0 or minimal resistance.
The difference is that the loyalists and followers of the Romanovs fought a bloody civil war against Communists for years and lost. Most of the Tsarist and Royalist officers were executed and killed by Communists and Bolsheviks, both during and after the civil war.
Again, wrong.
Stop claiming that Gavrilo Princip was a Serb nationalist when he wasn’t.
1: The Habsburg plans for Serbs where not very different from the Ustashe ones. For that matter, neither from the current US Liberal-Zionist imperial plans for Serbs (Dismemberment and division of their lands to the maximum extent possible, crushing with overwhelming military force, elimination and relentlessly vicious propaganda and lies etc …).
2: Here’s how the Habsburgs tried to take care of Serbs in their benevolence:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Hungarian_occupation_of_Serbia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_campaign#Attacks_against_ethnic_Serb_civilians
https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/war-crimes-habsburg-army-between-soldateska-and-court-martial
https://archive.org/details/howaustriahungar00reis
“Serbien Muss Sterbien” (Serbia Must Die) yes, Habsburgs taking care of Serbs in their “benevolence” …
Although it is a moot point due to what I pointed out above, due to the distortive effect of the split between the DDR and the BRD it might be better to look at at pre-1939 German regional economic data rather than present day Germany to determine South-North German historical development.
Hopefully this linked image is not broken:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marco_Seeber/publication/310465681/figure/fig2/AS:[email protected]/GDP-per-capita-2011-at-current-prices-in-francs-of-the-Cantons-in-Switzerland-source.png
Meant to add this:
https://vividmaps-com.cdn.ampproject.org/i/s/vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GDP1890.png
Who owns Russian industry?
From the RedDVL telegraph channel (translation through Google with slight modifications):
https://t.me/s/Echtdevol?before=1600
They also did better than the independent Balkan states, and probably Russia:
https://i.imgur.com/5N2SJkF.png
Croatia better than the rest of the non-Turkish Balkans. Bosnia (ruled by Hapsburgs for only about 12 years in 1890) better than Serbia. Galicia much better than Russia, though about the same as Poland (which had a larger city and more industry than Galicia).
Correct, but former Austrian Netherlands was the second richest place in Europe in 1890.
The pocket of greater wealth in Italy’s northeast corresponds to Austria’s “Southern Tyrol” which joined Italy in 1918.
https://i.redd.it/xd52fnstc5s41.png
Overall not a perfect correlation but a fairly strong one.
Additional effects in the South and East:
https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/knowledgecentre/business/economics/empire/
..we looked at people in Poland, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Ukraine. All these five countries historically had some areas that were under Habsburg rule and other areas that were under Prussian, Russian and/or Ottoman rule.
Our main finding is that, on the Habsburg side, still to this day, people have more trust in the courts and the police and that bribing is less common on the Habsburg side.
Good point.
If that is your argument:
Tukhachevsky – former Russian officer
Budyonny in Russian army- “During World War I, Budyonny was the 5th Squadron’s non-commissioned troop officer in the Christian IX of Denmark 18th Seversky Dragoon Regiment, Caucasian Cavalry Division on the Western Front. He became famous for his attack on a German supply column near Brzezina, and was awarded the St. George Cross, 4th Class. ”
Kamenev – Russian Army captain
You probably aren’t aware that Nazis did not overthrow Hapsburgs but a post-Hapsburg government. Nazis did send Hapsburgs into concentration camps, though. Franz Ferdinand’s two sons were the first two Austrians sent to Dachau.
Are Serb revisionists now claiming that Princip and the Black Hand were not Serbian nationalists?
Wartime examples, the result caused by Serb nationalists’ disgusting terrorism.
As I said, the greatest Serb ever was who he was due to having been raised under Hapsburgs. Rather than herding goats and slitting throats:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac[26] to attend high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium where the classes were held in German, as it was usual throughout schools within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier….Tesla later wrote that he became interested in demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor.[28] Tesla noted that these demonstrations of this “mysterious phenomena” made him want “to know more of this wonderful force”.
In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz on a Military Frontier scholarship. During his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams[25][26] (nearly twice as many as required..
All of Tesla’s formal education occurred under Hapsburgs. Coincidence?
Imagine if, rather than killing people and getting yourselves mass slaughtered out of rage and nationalism, your people had decided to live peaceful, educated lives under benevolent Hapsburg supervision and guidance.
You are making a habit of demonstrating your epic level of ignorance.
He opposed war with Serbia, because he predicted it would lead to war with Russia that would result in both monarchies falling. He was thus not only humane but also correct.
Serb nationalists wanted war, of course. He was the most convenient man for them to kill. In Balkanoid fashion, FF’s murderer also killed his wife.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52934/world-war-i-centennial-franz-ferdinand-opposes-war-serbia
“In February 1913 he gave an unusual toast at a public event: “To peace! What would we get out of war with Serbia? We’d lose the lives of young men and we’d spend money better used elsewhere. And what would we gain, for heaven’s sake? Some plum trees and goat pastures full of droppings, and a bunch of rebellious killers. Long live restraint!”
He worked to successfully sideline the pro-war party; this was of course undone after his death – no one could stop them.
Of course he was. Stop lying. He married a Slav, after all, against the wishes of his family and at great personal cost. His Slavophilia was why he disliked the Hungarians.
An ethnic Serb “Yugoslavian” nationalist who wanted rule from Serb Belgrade, working for the Black Hand. Interesting to twist this to mean he wasn’t a Serbian nationalist.
https://www.dw.com/en/gavrilo-princip-assassin-who-sparked-wwi-gets-statue-in-belgrade/a-18546305
“Princip, a Serbian nationalist opposed to the Austrian-Hungarian empire’s occupation”
Princip was trained, armed and sent by the Black Hand. Also not Serbian nationalists?
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Black-Hand-secret-Serbian-society
Black Hand, byname of Ujedinjenje Ili Smrt (Serbo-Croation: Union or Death), secret Serbian society of the early 20th century that used terrorist methods to promote the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia from Habsburg or Ottoman rule and was instrumental in planning the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914), precipitating the outbreak of World War I.
I know but even today there are Little Russian speaking villages in western Saratov. I have been to two. The 1891 census map shows the whole of the western part of Saratov as Little Russian and the centre as a mix of Little Russian and German. Really, there were Ukrainians across the whole Black Earth. Muscovites belong to the forest! 🙂
Lol AP you are writing in an aggressive way today.
You can admit that adult men saying they believe in demons, is “eccentric” – just is That’s not saying you must be wrong and that demons don’t exist, but certainly it is an “eccentric” position. I know a lot of people and I never met anyone in all my life, talking to me about demons.
None of my friends or family, has said I should add “demons” to the list of things I need to worry about in my life. Neither any of people I’ve known. I never saw anyone over beer after work complaining about demons in the pub.
If we should worry about demons, why not include elves, witches and ghosts as well?
(It’s not to relate this word to its origin Ancient Greece – where it referred to your deeper self, or something like Hindu concept of “Atman”).
Do Buddhists deny the eventual thermal death of this Universe?
I understand why people still cling to religious beliefs and, in fact, I have more respect for some oriental religions than for the Abrahamic ones, they are more sophisticated and not so obviously concocted as a means to soothe the human existential fears. But in the end, it looks like there is no escape from the dichotomy between the rational and the mythical approach to explaining things that classical Greeks were already familiar with.
I actually agree with a certain poster above that it is very unlikely that our great ape brains are capable of a full understanding of Nature and the Universe. But we are much better at it when we use the rational approach than when we go back to the mythical one. That is what makes us dominate the rest of the species and control the environment to our advantage much better than them.
Chimpanzees, cats and trees also live in a world where 2+2 always equals 4 and the square root of 9 is always 3. But it is only us that were able to discern these basic facts of reality thanks to our reasoning abilities, as opposed to our mythical/religious beliefs, that previous hominid species also had but didn’t bring them much progress.
From skimming your post, I assume you are giving me a “newage spiritual” (or perhaps, “psychological”) interpretation on “demons”.
This is how we use the word in ordinary speech – to refer to psychological “demons”. “Beethoven had his demons, which led him to drink”.
The word is used metaphorically in the modern speech (even since the 19th century), not literally. The fact the word has automatically a psychological/metaphorical interpretation, is indicative.
Nobody will read this sentence, to mean that Beethoven had some kind of pet demon.
But in the discussion above, people are proposing demons literally, like in the Ancient Semitic religions, in which they are a supernatural entity that can interrupt themselves in the causal processes of the world. Claims about the existence of such demons, is rather different – I would as easily believe in Centaurs and Minotaurs.
The Greek word “Daimon” is – “divine”. If you look at Plato’s dialogues – it’s a question of translator’s subjective choice, whether they choose the word “divine” or “demon”.
For example, if you look at this Greek paragraphy written by Plato, it writes “daimonion” – http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0169%3Atext%3DApol.%3Asection%3D31d
While in the English translation, the translator has written the text as – “divine and spiritual”
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DApol.%3Asection%3D31d
He is writing about the conflict between his soul and his body.
“Boring” in this context, is a compliment. The more boring the claims in epistemology, can be a positive thing – an indication are you are “travelling lighter”. If your beliefs seem “boring”, this could mean you have less “ontological commitments”. If I had to commit to existence of less things you do – it’s flying lighter.
Yes. Wait till you see evidence that elves and dwarves are real. This will blow your scientific materialist brainwashing to pieces.
https://notionclubpapers.blogspot.com/2016/06/are-elves-and-dwarves-really-real.html
https://i.imgur.com/lGJy2ou.jpg
I had “Headhunters” CD for many years, – but I only played it a few times.
I understand that Harvey Mason is playing very well. But I find these compositions – for example the whole of Chameleon’s two chord I/IV vamp – it’s not the kind of complexity I usually go for in jazz.
Yes the fender solo after 7:38 like his 1960s blues solos for Blue Note.(He likes playing on the Db7)
Hancock’s old solos on the Blue Note albums – very simple, but rhythmically confident.
It’s interesting how differently and more experimentally he played on Miles’ Second Great Quintet, compared to his sound for Blue Note. He played two different styles in the 1960s.
This is the kind of question which depends – how stoned are you?
Sorry.
Eccentric implies non-normative. As I have shown, it is a common belief in general society.
I demonstrates the strange and limited nature of circle.
LOL.
Things can exist and also be very rarely or never personally experienced. I don’t think I’ve ever discussed echidnas with any of my friends. This does not mean I doubt their existence.
Witches make good money in Russia. You don’t know anyone who has ever experienced a ghost?
Please stop making big geopolitical inferences from whatever Chileans vote.
I lived almost a dozen years in Chile through 3 different periods of my life and all the Chilean case demonstrates is that democracy doesn’t really work very well when important decisions are made by a lower 90s-upper 80s-IQ population.
In the past 20+ years Chileans have been alternating their presidential preferences in a manic-depressive way between only two candidates: Bachelet and Piñera. At the end of each’s mandate they ended up fed up with the incumbent and elected the other one. They don’t seem to know what they really want.
Essentially, they are more or less trying to become a 1st World country but are deeply sunk in the middle-income trap and unable to accept that economic growth does not translate into a Scandinavian type of social equality. However, equality has never existed in Chile and they will never achieve it, short of another Communist experiment.
For some curious reason, the descendants of impoverished European immigrants that arrived in Chile during the middle of the 20th Century with literally nothing after the wars now belong to the economic and academic elite of the country, much to the resentment of the Mestizo majority.
Still, many poor but down-to-earth people continue supporting dictator Pinochet’s legacy to this day. They just believe what they saw with their own eyes. Conversely, and not unlike what happens in the West, many of those fighting for “equality” are elite Euro-Chileans.
There are very few albums of Herbie Hancock’s that I find to be sub par. On the “Headhunter’s” album, that I listened to again today, it rekindled my fondness for the way he orchestrated vast, lush landscape background borders using his new found abilities using electronic sounds including mellotrons and synthesizers. But the main man on the agenda today was Oscar Peterson. I listened to the “Ben Webster” album that you recommended, and liked it so much it inspired me to listen to another album of his including the great saxman Lester Young. The tempo is up a notch here, and the bebopping interchange between the two of them is incredible. Also listened to the classic albums “Night Train” and his tribute to Duke Ellington too. I’m glad to say that it was an Oscar Peterson sort of day. 🙂
https://dvfnvgxhycwzf.cloudfront.net/media/SharedImage/image600/.fzMIBAIU/SharedImage-2146.jpg?t=6f5f2e3615b4c4fc410b
Correction: after double checking, it was a clavinet and not a mellotron that provided the lush and expansive background palette against which the funky rhythms and cool piano playing were framed.
Also, it looks like the “Headhunters” album was a favorite for fans and critics alike:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Hunters
Chilean ‘exceptionalism’ was essentially built on a gigantic commodity boom. When that boom died (circa 2014), their growth also collapsed. Their so-called free-market system failed to bail them out. Just as Macri in Argentina failed with his neoliberalism and bankrupted the country.
Trying to link the new constitution to higher growth completely misunderstands its purpose and shows your own limited understanding. The goal is to redistribute resources in what is a de facto rich country (by global standards, not Western ones). Nobody is claiming this is going to lead to higher growth. 78% of the people voting for a new constitution tells its own story: your pedestrian anecdotes about low-info plebs pining for Pinochet are irrelevant.
Chile’s human capital is modest, so its growth prospects will naturally be constrained by this fact, but to use that as an excuse for rampant inequality is nonsensical.
Wow, so after the “whites” unified against the Sikh, now they’re arguing whether big Baltic cock or Germanic ballsack is superior.
Even Chechen irredentism is better.
https://youtu.be/kn1ofPOM634
West Ukranian: My grandfather watched my grandmother get fucked by a Hapsburg
Pole: Yea, well mine took BIG BALTIC CAWK!
Mongol-Buryat-Polish Mutt: Yea, well my Grandfather was GHEY!
Russian: tatar noises
Anglo: NPC (jew)
You’re full of shit bud.
Anyone that bothers to look at the free preview, let alone actually buy and read this book will realize you’re writing 110% complete crap.
https://www.amazon.com/Folly-Malice-Habsburg-Empire-Balkans-ebook-dp-B07K4QB7MG/dp/B07K4QB7MG/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
Oh sorry, always expecting worst of others is a sin. I am often too cynical regarding the human nature.
But you are too accusatory towards the Serbian nation and their culpability for starting the ww1. I believe that you know the July ultimatum given to Serbia by AH. That the Austro Hungarian demands were purposefully impossible to fulfill by any independent nation, still Serbs accepted all terms except the one, that concerned of Austrias polices free jurisdiction in Serbia, or something like that, I dont remember the particulars, anyway the ultimatum was made by design to be an impossible and Serbia would had become a vassal state of AH. Therefore Austria was the main culprit for unleashing the world war on European continent.
Is this the book that taught you that Hapsburgs never ruled Milan, Gavril Princip and Black Hand weren’t Serb nationalists, Franz Ferdinand was desperate for war, and other nonsense?
Promoting this book, written by a Serb nationalist/Mladic’s lackey, merely spotlights your ignorance and lack of objectivity:
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/serbia-first-world-war/
Once described by the Belgrade daily Danas as a “man with three faces”, he was born in 1957 in Banjaluka to a Muslim father (who named him Omer); as a teenager he moved with his mother to England, finally studying at Cambridge and then teaching history at Marlborough College. But in the Bosnian Wars he suddenly surfaced as Radovan Karadžić’s spin doctor, going before the cameras in 1995 to explain that “we [Bosnian Serbs] wish to have our own state”. Twenty years later, when he served as a witness for Karadžićat his trial for genocide and war crimes at The Hagu e, he stressed that it had been a defensive and just Serb war. While Zametica makes use of his advocacy skills in Folly and Malice, his own identity crisis may underlie a belief in clear-cut racial divisions for explaining the past. His throw-away line about one historian speaks volumes: “People can get perversely obsessed with the question of how to persuade others to accept a scenario in which they themselves genuinely believe”
:;:::::::::::::::
Yup, totally objective source. Next: Bandera’s objective opinion on interwar Polish policies.
Screech harder.
Like a bible wards off Satanists and garlic wards off vampires, this book wards off obnoxious Galician Ukrop Uniate trash that worships Austria-Hungary like you.
I might just keep spamming it in the future since it triggers and burns you so much.
Btw, the fact that the author’s background is that of a family of genuine Serbs of the Muslim faith, it gives the book more objectivity and value because it gives a partly Muslim perspective on the subject matter. Also, Mladic was a military general, not a political figure, and he always got outplayed by Karadzic and Milosevic in politics, so the notion that Mladic had any PR lackey’s is nonsense.
You use that concept, but I think that you dont understand what it even means?
Remember what I once wrote to you and you never replied for some reason.
The thermal death of the universe does not mean that there will never be any interaction or change in the universe, things just happen very, very slowly.
If you would have read even such elementary and simple books about physics like A brief history of time by Hawking you would know that if there is an infinite amount of time, there can arise a counter reaction and entropy can be reversed, Hawking even made calculations how long that will take.
The termal death or heat death of universe is only possible if our universe is a closed or an isolated system, congratulations Mikel that you definitely know the answer of that.
There are many scientists who believe that one day universe will collapse, so called “Big crunch, ” and then the inflatuon or expansion of our cosmos will begin again.
There are also many physicists who believe in Quantum fluctuations and that our universe can birth new universes
There are many competing theories regarding the fate of our universe, but I have never heard any scientist claiming that the termal death is permanent or that matter or energy will be annihilated.
You are just a simpleton who is self assured of ones nihilistic view of reality.
Now because you are simpleton you think:”why he thinks I am a nihilist, I have not claimed to be a one, nor said anything about such matters.”
The logical conclusion of your worldview is that because there is a heat death of universe all our deeds and thoughts ultimately lack meaning and purpose. That is the very crux of your line of thought.
What rationalism means for you? I dont know about you, but for many it means how to eliminate the sources of suffering and ensure oneselfs or communitys wellbeing and happiness, right? That is the basis of Buddhism. Im not Christian so I cant definitely speak for them but I believe that Christ wanted happiness and well being for all beings.
In Buddhism we believe that negative afflictions are demons, we dont use the word demon but Mara, so we believe them to be Maras and like memes or trends can grow, multiply, spread from one person to another, so too we believe that these afflictions or negative thoughts can infect and stain, affect and warp individuls mind and be spread by that afflicted individual and others can then too be infected. These deluded views are ultimately the demons.
Even the actual demonic entities of our religion are under these demonic afflictions, and cant think straightly. Nihilistic view of reality is clearly a demonic affliction among others by the way. A very strong one indeed…
Whats your opinion regarding elk meat? Last days I have eaten many times elk or what Americans call as moose. You can get surprisingly good bouillon from the elk bones.
Projection. Your screeching came next:
I wouldn’t compare a book whitewashing brutal murdered to the Bible.
It’s clearly a book written by and for ignorant Balkanoids, of little use to anyone else. Enjoy it.
Cope harder.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Folly-Malice-Habsburg-Empire-Balkans/dp/0856835137
I have some pity for them because the culpable parties while within the Serbian government were not its leaders.
Elements of the Serbian government were involved in a murderous terror act on Austrian soil, the assassination of the future head of state. The trail led to Serbia. The contentious point of the ultimatum was for Austrian investigators to go into Serbia, rather than for the (compromised) Serbian government to itself conduct this investigation on its soil.
Imagine if Putin, while visiting Crimea (whose international legal status is less settled than that of Bosnia in 1914), was killed by a gang of Ukrainian nationalists (perhaps Azovites, who are sponsored by interior minister Avakov). The trail led to Ukraine. Would Russia not be justified in demanding that its own investigators rather than Ukrainian government ones follow that trail into Ukraine? This was essentially Austria’s position vis a vis Serbia. So Austria was justified in its ultimatum and morally justified in its declaration of war though of course this was a grave mistake given what occurred in the next years. Russia was not justified in supporting the Serbian regime which had blood on its hands.
Fate was cruel to the guilty parties in a collective way. One third of Serbia’s male population was killed in the war that followed. Serbs were furthermore punished in the next world war, by the Croats. The consequences for Russia as a result of it coming the the defense of the Serbs were catastrophic. Nicholas (who wisely personally opposed war but didn’t stop it) whose state came to the defense of the murderous regicidal Serbs himself was murdered. The Russian and Ukrainian people who let the tsar fall, lost millions.*
Franz Ferdinand had wanted to avoid war with Serbia at all costs, predicting it would bring in Russia and that as a result both Hapsburgs and Romanovs would lose their thrones. He was sadly correct. The primary beneficiaries were the Americans. So we can blame Serbs for the problems of the modern Americanized world.
Ironic how America punished Serbia a little more in the 1990s.
Didn’t think you would have anything to say.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Folly-Malice-Habsburg-Empire-Balkans-ebook/dp/B07K4QB7MG
https://youtu.be/e_eNNshGCxg
Dinomys branickii
I should have been more precise. When I claimed that we believe that continuum of phenomena is eternal you brought up the thermal death of universe as a counter argument, right? Because you thought that the “death” in the thermal death means same as annihilation or final end of phenomena.
A gigantic commodity boom that lasted from the mid 80s to 2014? 🙂
Their growth collapsed in the mid 90s and never recovered to anything close to the previous levels. A couple of years earlier Chile was growing faster than China (10%+), economic publications referred to it as the Latin American “jaguar”, lumping it together in international comparisons with the Asian “tigers” (Hong-Kong, Singapore, SK and Taiwan), and their minister of finance Aninat made predictions on TV of how soon Chile would surpass Spain in per capita GDP. I remember all of this well, I was there.
I never made any such link at all. 95%+ of the people who voted the other day would not be able to express in any meaningful way what economic growth is and comports.
The story is very simple: Mestizo Chileans regularly take to the streets to loot and destroy. It happens every time there is a vacuum of power like earthquakes, floods or other disasters. But there are also days of the year, typically associated to some leftist celebration, when everybody knows that you must stay at home, especially at night, because no amount of police presence is capable of containing the violence of the mobs.
A year ago, shortly after Chileans had elected a right-wing president in deep disgust with the previous leftist administration, there was the customary outbreak of looting and violence after a new price hike in the disastrous public transportation system of Santiago (that substituted a very efficient private one). The violence suddenly grew up inflamed by the leftists who had recently lost power and reached uncontainable levels. The destruction of private and public property was unprecedented. Some 30 people died, a good number of them looters burnt alive by other looters.
Your new shiny constitution is a simple attempt by the political elites to placate the ever more violent mobs and avoid an economic catastrophe after the Chilean peso reached historical lows and production in many sectors was paralyzed by the violence. That’s all. Exactly no_thing will change with the new law about the underlying causes of inequality in Chile.
These poor people that I know personally do not appreciate Pinochet too much for the economic growth that barely reached them. What they really appreciated was the law and order atmosphere that enabled them to live without the constant fear of being robbed and assaulted. You don’t seem to have the slightest clue of what it is like to live all your life in a very low-trust, immoral and violent society.
Yes, the average is modest but it follows the same unequal distribution among different ethnic groups as everywhere else. Which is why it is naïve in the extreme to expect an end to inequality in Chile by decree.
https://studybuddhism.com/en/advanced-studies/abhidharma-tenet-systems/time-the-universe/the-fourteen-questions-to-which-buddha-remained-silent
Both Pali and Sanskrit traditions have these unanswered questions of Buddha. From point of view of Mahayana they are not useless itself, but those who ask such things are so entangled with the dualistic thinking that it was better for Buddha to remain silent.
I despise HHGTTG and always have, even when I was a teenager I thought that what a dumb book. Truly it was the harbinger of the modern shitty “lol so random”-humour. One of the most overrated books ever.
I am not a great fan of HHGTTG either. In a similar humorous SciFi literature vein, I prefer the adventures of Jon Tichy or the Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem (of whom I am a great fan). But each time I hear someone discussing Great and Absolute matters or asking Great and Absolute questions, number 42 always comes to my mind.
I dont understand this, I know that HBD crowd says that its because of low IQ or something, leftists will claim that its because of social inequality or opression but I have been everywhere in India and Nepal, night and day, by car and walking and never have I feared any robbery or mugging etc.
Never heard of Tichy, but Lem is funny, but its been a while when I last time read his books.
In 2018 Chile’s homicide rate was 4.4, lower than that of the USA’s 4.96.
In India it was 3.08 and in Nepal 2.16.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
The HBD crowd is wrong on many things, and Indian IQ “supposedly” being in the low 80s is one of them. I wrote about it in previous comments.
Closely related is supposed propensity to violence, but there’s no evidence to back that up either.
Homicide rates do no show the whole picture, only an idiot thief would kill his victim, when beating or threatening with violence is enough.
Chile didn’t start to take off until 1990.
https://i.imgur.com/MFIHKmq.png
Pinochet executed his US-sponsored coup in 1973. Ten years later, Chile was hardly much better off. And if you read about that period, what happened was that the worst excessess of neoliberal “shock therapy” began to be tapered, which allowed the country to breathe normally again. In other words, Chile had a period of moderation in the mid-to-late 1980s rather than an intensification of neoliberalism.
From 1990 until 2014 you had the rise of China which was starting to make itself felt and Chile benefitted from that more than most. We should also give some credence to their political class’ savvy, they had more domestic stability than most, in large part because they were loyal dogs of the US geopolitically. This meant that they did not have to worry about coups or subterfuge, unlike other LatAm countries that foolishly belaboured under the delusion of sovereignity.
Remember: in international politics, real sovereignity is reserved for only a handful of powerful nations. Rest are subcolonial entities, to be bargained with, bullied and ordered around. Chilean leaders understood this and acted accordingly. The only reason they are changing now is because the economic debate has shifted in the West, allowing them to make tactical compromises with the people’s demands. Austerity and neoliberalism are being openly called into question even by Bretton Woods institutions like the IMF. So the price of breaking with past taboos has fallen precipitously.
The rest of your comment is just blatant racial scaremongering about “mestizos” and bickering about the plebs getting a few scraps off the table. This is a very familliar pattern to those who have debated and discussed with right-wing Latin Americans. Many have a thinly-disguised racial disdain for the ‘brown hordes’ and are obsessed with keeping the stratospheric inequality intact at almost any cost.
Correct, but it’s the best fairly objective measure we have to compare dangerousness. Reporting of theft or assault may vary due to police competence, attitudes towards complaining to the cops, etc. but bodies are harder to ignore.
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/11/20/archives/notes-on-people.html
I don’t know all of the details of this incident, but I do know that he did eventually give a great concert in Moscow in 1974, that was very well received by the locals:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41tmnru4nzL._SX425_.jpg
Based on the chart you provided, it looks like the growth began in 1975 after a decline right after the overthrow, with an interruption from 1981-1983 when it declined, before resuming its growth on a greater trajectory than had been the case before Pinochet.
Prior to the overthrow Chile had slight growth, it wasn’t declining overall but was rather stagnant.
https://www.amazon.ca/Star-Diaries-Further-Reminiscences-Tichy/dp/0156849054
All white Latin Americans, not many, but all that I have met, have been insufferable color blind leftists. That kind of people who believe that socialism would magically solve all their problems.
You evidently have far lower standards than I do. Taking off is a sustained process that is fundamentally and qualitatively different from what came before. It’s not bouncing around within a narrow band. Prior to 1990, Chile was a mediocre also-ran.
Now when we are speaking of Latin America and he is mentioned in your book cover, have you read any books by Borges. I havent yet but I have planned to read some day, but for for some reasont I havent found time yet. If you have read are they any good? He inspired greatly Umberto Eco, whose novels Name of the Rose and Baudolino I very much adore.
You have met the better minority then. The ones I’ve met have been a mix, but have tended to be more right-wing. One factor may be that they were typically from places like Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia. Not the best success stories, with lots of violent upheavals (and sudden reversals). That historical baggage gives birth to entrenched resentment and often more extreme rhetoric and ideology.
That’s funny, because my interaction with LatAm rightoids has been the mirror equivalent. If only this or that tax reform was implemented, LatAm would suddenly regain its lost glory.
I mostly agree, but sometimes there comes moments in history when one must seize the initiative and do drastic changes. Like Japan in the 1860s, they could have continued on the feudal path and ended up like China and Korea. There was no guarantee that by starting revolution and civil war against the Shogunate amidst predatory foreign powers, that things would have ended so well. But yes 95% of time you are correct and even when such critical moments of history appear, one should be calm and calculating.
Since you like Pelevin, you would like Cortazar’s short stories.
Sure, but there may be fluctuations during the process of taking off.
The chart shows sustained high rate of growth starting in 1975 and ending in 2013, with a 2 year fluctuation 1981-1983 and one year fluctuations in 1999 and 2009.
Oh yes Pendulum is also quite good.
Chan is Chan, too far from the source, we who follow the masters of Nalanda have a totally different view regarding the Sutras. Or maybe you have just misunderstood and the original saying was motivated by desire to have balance a between book knowledge and empirical knowledge. I just cant believe that any true Buddhist would disparage Buddhavacana, Buddhas words crucial importance on the path to the Buddhahood. I never can emphasis too much how dangerous is trying to learn Dharma alone, especially when reading advanced topics. Four noble(Aryan) truths, 12 causal links of existence, eightfold path, four seals of Dharma, three marks of existence, non self/anatman etc are already quite heavy stuff, but still elementary, compared to advanced Sutrayana like Chan or Cittamantra, all the masters have had their roots in the foundations before going forward on the path. I have understood that you live in France, if Im correct then you are lucky, they probably have the largest Buddhist community in Europe after Russia. Many Buddhist centers and even couple monasteries.
Alone its too easy to develop subtle wrong views that will just grow and grow. I speak from personal experience, some periods of my life I have met rarely with Buddhist masters and every time my mind has quickly developed deluded and dangerous views regarding emptiness or other matters regarding Buddhist philosophy, but after a good talk with a Lama, many delusions and deceptions are cleared away, and mind truly feels purified and one feels genuinely be on path towards the Buddhahood.
If you ever find a time, try to read Shantidevas way of the Boddhisattva, Bohisattvacharyavatara. Reading it will never do any harm.
Hi Altan,
I apologize for having formulated my question and thoughts in a way that somehow led you to attack me personally.
I understand that religious beliefs are delicate matters for some people and maybe I should have left any appearances of snark apart. My question was well-meaning, I was trying to see how a Buddhist would approach the science-religion conflict.
And yes, you are right in comment 396 about what prompted me to ask you that question. Unfortunately, the thermal death of the Universe means that the phenomenon we call Life is condemned to extinguish itself, along with any of its manifestation, such as the brain processes of the particular species we belong to.
Like I said myself, we cannot be sure that thermal death is the fate of the Universe or even that we are able to ask ourselves, let alone answer, the right questions about these matters but thanks to science we now have incomparably more information about the Universe than ever before. The scientific evidence at hand right now indicates that thermal death is the most likely outcome so I think that it makes sense to contrast it to mythical beliefs that were formulated before we even knew of that possible outcome.
If you liked The History of Time, I found The Great Design even more fascinating. But, as you know, there is little comfort to be found for a religious person in the masterpieces of a declared atheist like Hawkins.
I also apologize for not having followed up in earlier exchanges with you. It’s just lack of time.
PS- I don’t know about Buddhism but I had ten years of Catholic education at school and I didn’t find that they were teaching us to be happy at all. In a very superficial way, yes, they did try to cheer us up through the message that God is so good and that his promise of salvation if (and only if) we accepted their dogmas was fantastic news (but beware if weren’t able to believe them!).
However, deep inside there was a very disquieting message of a cruel God that had purposefully made us imperfect so He was constantly angry at us because of the imperfections He had imposed on us Himself. To make matters worse, He lost patience with us and decided to send his own son to be tortured and killed so that we finally started heeding his advice (not that it makes sense, but that’s literally what they taught us). Why would a benevolent god do such a silly thing? Only a few humans in the Middle East would be aware about this human sacrifice, they wouldn’t understand its meaning and the rest of humans around the planet would continue sinning and condemning themselves through no fault of their own because they had no means of knowing what the hell was going on in that particular part of the world where God decided to interact with humans of a specific tribe. Insane.
This is our traditional view, the bare state of universe or what you call as thermal death of universe is one phase in the cycle.
I just explained in my old comment that there is no consensus regarding the matter, so you truly know that our universe is a closed system? Just wow, I dont know what to say. I am bored to remind you that Hawking himself believed that entropy can be reversed if there is infinitely time, isnt there infinitely time in the universe?
As i know what, you silly cow? His book was for me quite comfortable, actually I loaned that book from my Tibetan monk friend.
For me they are not delicate matters, well established arguments against Buddhism make me happy. There is no science religion conflict with Buddhism and science. Buddhism tries to eliminate the suffering, we believe that the ultimate cause for our suffering are afflictive emotions and cognitive obscurations that deny the possibility of true happiness. Man can be rich, have power and women, but still not truly happy or happy but only momentarily, and when old age or disease comes the suffering will return in more horrible form. So ours is the science of suffering and how to truly find a well established and permanent state of happiness for us and others. The science on the other hand examines the the attributes of quantifiable phenomena. Even if brain chemistry is the reason for our diferent emotional states, it cant explain why some thing feels like it feels. Like the famous “what it feels to be a bat”-example. We can completely understand and know the anatomy and configuration of the animal called bat, but still we wouldn’t know how it feels to be a bat, whats its like when ones a bat. As I have mentioned to you and Dmitry before, we Buddhists believe like the physicist Freeman Dyson believed, that the mind is as much part of the reality as the matter. Actually it seems very probable that quantum physics cant be explained without the participation of the mind, subatomic particles behave differently depending on that if they are observed or not. The mental factors and aggregates change, grow and decay like material things, and they are dependent on material reality as material reality is dependent on mental factors. All concepts exist only in the mind, like big, or small, like beauty and uglyness, like numbers, like many or few, they do not have independent existence from our mind, they only exist in relation to each other. Matter or mind are not permanent, but they have a continuum, like a river has continuum and has nothing fixed in it.
Yes Buddhism does believe that the life on earth will one day disappear, Buddha explained that in the sermon of the seven suns, that one day sun will scorch the earth and life becomes an impossibility on the earth. But we believe that subtle mental continuum of beings mindtream will continue, maybe on different worlds. Did you know that its the consensus of the scientific community that vast majority of the universe is dark matter and energy, and again dont take it as literally as you took the death in the thermal death, its dark because we just dont know what it is, it shows in calculatjons and observations of lights path and in gravity wells in space, but no one knows what it is, and like 90% of our universe is that stuff. We dont even know such things yet, how many things there are that we know nothing of?
I dont claim that Buddhism is a definitive truth for those who are non Buddhists but you scientific materialists just love to proclaim that you have found the ultimate truth regarding the nature of existence, in that you are epecially dangerous religious cult, that your nihilistic truth is truth for all men, now and always, but no wonder you were born from the writings of the Marx and his materialistic dialectic. You are that one shard of Communistic thought that still prospers, maybe even the most dangerous part?
May the demons who lead you to insult an unknown person who is just trying to have a conversation with you stop torturing you. You look very far away from any state of happiness or piece of mind.
As for the demons who, against my will, make me unable to believe in religious explanations of my existence, if they one day stop torturing me, now I know through your example that I am very unlikely to find comfort in Buddhism. Thanks for that.
I dont know many Catholics, but this seems quite common with Catholics, at least if you believe depictions in literature. That Catholic schools are opressive and dogmatic. I cant help you with this, sad that your view of religion was born from such circumstances. I am not myself a fan of Catholic Church, but they have at least also done lots of good in history. I am little tired of being the apologist for the apostolic Christianity here on this site, but know this that the Orthodox Church does not believe in Original sin, they do not believe that babies are by nature sinful, like Catholics do, but they believe in ancestral sin, because of the sins committed by our ancestors we suffer the results of those sins and often arr afflicted by those sins made by our ancestors or parents, or close ones. The Orthodox church believes that all men are images of God, but this tainted and broken world has made the image dirty and muddied, but under all that dirt there is our good and Christlike nature.
But, but dont think that I say thtat its better for you to be religious, you have valid points from your point of view. There are often things in philosophies and religions that dont make sense for everybody, as there will be if one decides to walk ones own path, our mind is frail, under decay, under emotional changes etc. But if religion didnt work in your case it doesnt meant that it doesnt work for others.
Here is by the way what Freeman Dyson said regarding religion and science:
Oh and I specifically chose the silly cow, because I thought that it was playful and non offensive, except if you are discussing with a woman and I thought that Mikel is a mans name, like the archangel. If people knew how much I self censor myself…. What a silly barking dog( and a cawing crow) I have been. Oh well good riddance then. A little bit thick skin on the road to the Nirvana is sadly necessary…
AP and especially AaronB are quite far on that road. Arent you AP you Jesuit bastard child of the Catholic Church? Or Mr. Hack who is the literal Judas Iscariot of the Rus. Actually I must admit that I probably am quite badly behaving….
How I wish everything you say was correct.
I own real state in Chile. I really wish I could rent it and get an income from it but I’ve tried too many times with always the same result: they stop paying the rent and leave a big mess of unpaid utility bills and destroyed property that I need to clean up afterwards.
And I’ve been very lucky that I didn’t have to evict anyone. It takes years of litigation. So I’ve given up, I prefer to keep my houses vacant and pay for property taxes and minimum utility bills. Now the only thing that I need to worry about is the periodic notices of people having looted the interior of my properties or just vandalized them for no purpose at all. It’s not so bad, you get used to it. They can’t possibly take away the land with them and it’s rather unlikely that they will completely destroy the walls and the roofs.
But most of all, I wish Chile would become a stable and very prosperous country. That would increase the value of my properties instead of seeing it go down as time goes by. If writing a new constitution that provides equality to womxn, original tribes, poor and rich, etc makes them stop looting, stealing and vandalizing, by all means, bring it on.
Unfortunately, it is what it is. I do not expect to see any such changes whatsoever.
The reason why I decided to live in Chile is quite similar to what brought me to the US West. I wanted to enjoy the mountains and virgin landscapes of the New World. So I lived on the outskirts of Santiago, where I could enjoy an unimpeded view of the majestic Andes. This means that I spent many years surrounded by ordinary Chileans. I know how they live, how they speak, what they eat, what they watch on TV, what they tend to think about different issues,… The only thing I will never understand is why they behave the way they do under certain circumstances. But it doesn’t matter, I know what to expect, even if it doesn’t make sense to me, and that is what counts.
The idea that a person living in Sweden with no more information about Chile than what he reads on the internet knows about the Chilean society better than me is very entertaining, thanks for the laughs.
Isn’t it about that time that you take a powder, take another bad turn towards emptying yourself of all that hostile puffery that you’ve developed over the years, hurling empty epithets towards other sentient beings? Just asking? 🙂
aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency
Catholics don’t believe that, Calvinists do. Catholicism:
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1C.HTM
Although it is proper to each individual,295 original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted..
Detailed discussion here by an Eastern Catholic (not all of his points on this link are correct but his description of Original Sin seems solid:
One of the most common Orthodox arguments these days is that one of the chief heresies of Rome is original sin. Orthodox supposedly do not believe in original sin, but ancestral sin. Augustine supposedly corrupted the faith using a mistranslation of Romans 5:12.
Anyone who makes this argument however is a heretic by Orthodox standards. One of the chief heresies of Pelagius is his denial of original sin. This is why the Council of Carthage placed an anathema against anyone who denies original sin, and this canon was accepted ecumenically by the seventh ecumenical council. Canon 110 of Carthage states that,
whosoever denies that infants newly from their mother’s wombs should be baptized, or says that baptism is for remission of sins, but that they derive from Adam no original sin, which needs to be removed by the laver of regeneration, from whence the conclusion follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins, is to be understood as false and not true, let him be anathema.
Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain included this canon in the Rudder and added commentary stating that,
This view too was a product of the heretical insanity of the Pelagians: this refers to their saying that newly begotten infants are not baptized for the remission of sins, as the Orthodox Church believes and maintains, but, instead… the infants themselves have not incurred any taint from the original sin of Adam.
St. Augustine was also declared as a father of the Church at the fifth ecumenical council, while Pelagius is universally recognized as a heretic. The idea that original sin is passed down from one generation to the next is also present in St. Maximus the Confessor and in St. Gregory Palamas (as part of his defense of the immaculate conception).
The idea that St. Augustine’s doctrine of original sin is heretical is in part due to a misunderstanding of the doctrine. St. Augustine’s theology is not that infants are personally guilty of the sin of Adam, but that they receive the effects of it. Sin is not merely about guilt but is about an ontological reality like a disease. This stain of original sin prevents us from seeing God. This is why St. Gregory the Theologian says that,
those who fail to receive the gift [of baptism]…perhaps on account of infancy, or some perfectly involuntary circumstance through which they are prevented from receiving it, even if they wish…will be neither glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge, as unsealed [by baptism] and yet not wicked, but persons who have suffered rather than done wrong. For not everyone who is not bad enough to be punished is good enough to be honored; just as not everyone who is not good enough to be honored is bad enough to be punished.
This is what the West would later come to call limbo, but it is clearly here taught by one of the greatest Eastern saints. It is also taught at the Synod of Jerusalem in response to Protestant missionaries in the Ottoman Empire.
This theological heresy is quite new in Orthodoxy, having been invented by Fr. John Romanides in the 20th century. It is also considered heresy by many Orthodox Christians as well but is now accepted by most Orthodox Christians.
If I recall you said “boring positivist”.
I could not use those words to describe myself, sadly, but such a person would be closer to Socrates’ ideal than most.
“Boring” – implies also someone who is a little slow to believe, steady, calm.
“Positivist” – someone who only believes what they have evidence for, or that was derived from logic.
“Boring positivist” – such people (if they existed) would be somewhere closer to Socratic wisdom, by assenting to less, and knowing less, than an “excitable non-positivist”.
You are giving the “psychological” interpretation of demons, which is the normal view in our culture, so I don’t see where you disagreed – i.e. “Beethoven had his demons” (we don’t imagine from reading this, that Beethoven had a magical cage in his apartment, with pet flying demons inside – but rather that he was under influence of destructive emotions and fixations).
This word “demonic” from Ancient Greek, is often translated in modern texts (for example if we compare Plato’s Greek with English translation): “divine”, “relating to the gods”, “inner genius”.
Such kind of influence would for Greeks describe the sense of strong passions coming from outside person, as if from the gods – lust (from Aphrodite, Eros), rage and anger (from Aries), anxiety (from Phobos , Deimos), madness and ecstatic states (from Dionysus).
Similarly, outside influence would also include positive passions like wisdom and calm (from Athena), logic and rationality (from Apollo).
This matches our sense that these moods feel like they “hijack” our mind. It’s a description of the experience, rather than of an external causal process. Of course, lust is essential to man’s reproduction, and hardly requires the interference of gods – but lust subjectively feels like it “hijacks” your mind, as if from outside ourselves, and it has a divine quality (in both the positive and negative senses).
A criticism of the Semitic (or post-monotheistic Semitic) division between angels (good)/demons (evil), is that these strong emotional states can sometimes sublimate into good results (as the Plato argues in “Symposium” that Eros and lust, leads to art and philosophy), and other times apparently “good impulses” degenerate into evil results.
In the Greek mythology, there is emphasis on intrigues between the gods, that result in good leading to evil, and evil leading to good.
In the Semitic religion, there is sometimes problem in relation to the passions, which Nietzsche used the metaphor of dentistry to describe: “We no longer admire those dentists who extract teeth simply in order that they may not ache again… The Church combats passion by means of excision… . It never inquires “how can a desire be spiritualised, beautified, deified?”—In all ages it has laid the weight of discipline in the process of extirpation (the extirpation of sensuality, pride, lust of dominion, lust of property, and revenge). ”
For example, lust – which could usually be viewed as a “demonic” and negative – was also the fuel of an artist like Raphael, who sublimated it into beauty.
The phenomenal world exists within sentient beings’ consciousness. This is especially obvious with the secondary qualities – (e.g. colours, which are arbitrary markers used by our consciousness), but even the primary ones (e.g. electromagnetic spectrum) cannot be fully separated from the observer. But that doesn’t mean there is not a “noumenal world”, which exists independently of perception, and that idealism is correct.
We cannot access the noumenal world, independently of our perception, but that doesn’t imply necessarily that it doesn’t exist. Here is some sense of hubris in the arguments for idealism – “I can’t access this locked room, so there must be nothing inside it”.
I used to think you were a more serious thinker when you first came to comment here. 😐
I find romantic this idea of a “circle of positivists” – it makes me imagine that I am in the coffeehouses of 1920s Vienna, discussing verification principles with Rudolf Carnap, Frank Ramsey and Ludwig Wittgenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Circle
Sadly, I don’t live in such a “circle of heroic positivists”, but just in a normal environment.
So we meet someone new for the job interview (let’s say in the typical office), and we ask them as the first question: “how was your week so far?”
And they answer “Week was good. I had some problems with a demon last week . He attacked me when I am having breakfast. But this week I had no problem with the demon and I’ve been working effectively.”
Would such a discussion of demons (used apparently in a non-metaphorical sense of the word), by our applicant, more likely to result in job offer, or phone call from the psychiatric hospital?
If I visited your country house as a guest, and you said to me “There is a choice of two empty rooms you can sleep in. In the front empty bedroom, the previous owner’s child killed herself, and my superstitious wife sometimes thinks she hears a child’s voice at night screaming in that empty room. In the back room, nobody has died, but the bed is uncomfortable.”
I would probably choose the back room (although I have slept without problem in a room with a similar history as in this example). I don’t believe a white apparition will fly through the room (until you present some convincing evidence this can happen), but the belief in ghosts are at least connected to real, creepy events: death and tragedy is no fiction.
If I sleep in the bedroom where the child has died, – the ghost doesn’t need to exist, but there is still something uncanny about the child’s death in the same space I would be occupy (separated only by time).
On the other hand, if you said, “be careful walking in the mountain behind our house, as there are often demons flying there” (like in a story from “Saragossa Manuscript”), then I would be entertained by eccentricity of my hosts, but not avoid mountain. What’s the difference? Concept of the “ghost” is connected to something which has really happened in the house (child has really died) and the death is creepy to us, while the demons flying in the hills, is abstract and requires some metaphysics I and most European men since 19th century do not share.
There are many groups today that really and actually believe in demons as much as the normies believe in viruses and bacteria, and behave accordingly.
See this, from someone who grew in JW community.
https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/i2r8qo/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_august_03_2020/g09mhus/
Something you might not grasp if you just look up ‘what do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe’ is that they really, truly believe in Satan and demons. Not just in a ‘oh Satan is tempting me’ way or even in a ‘yeah demonic possession can happen’ way, but as in they deeply believe there are hordes of evil spirits wandering the earth right now that can and will fuck with you, personally and this is something you, personally, need to be worried about. Even the more religious conservative Christians I’ve known may say things like ‘demons are very real’ or ‘Satan is not a metaphor,’ but by and large (obligatory in my experience) they don’t really act like it. If you tell an evangelical or a traditionalist Catholic that you’re pretty sure you were attacked by a demon last night they’re probably only a little less likely than anyone else to give you a weird look.
JWs absolutely walk the walk in this respect. If you are a JW you almost certainly know someone who claims firsthand experience with demonic possession, cursed dolls, witchcraft, etc. I personally have several family members who will swear they’ve been personally assaulted by the forces of the evil one. My uncle believed he had nearly been killed by a clown doll, and my aunt insisted upon covering up the Catholic iconography in a house we once stayed in for fear it would draw demons to us, something she said had happened to her before. I also knew some people who believed Criss Angel had actual supernatural powers. Go search ‘demons’ or ‘demonic’ on /r/exJW if you want some fun stories.
So, in summation you have highly socially conservative people that also despise patriotism and ethnic and tribal loyalties, consider government and political participation to be literally Satanic by default, and live in a 24/7 Conjuring movie.
https://old.reddit.com/r/TheMotte/comments/i2r8qo/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_august_03_2020/g0dopx1/
How do they describe these experiences?
A few examples off the top of my head: my aunt claimed a demon came at her, as in she saw its glowing shape charge at her out of the darkness, and she managed to drive it off by calling out the name ‘Jehovah’. My uncle claimed he threw away cursed doll only for it to return to his dresser the following day. Someone else also claimed to have seen a tree divest itself of its leaves indoors, absent of any wind or human intervention.
I also know some second and third hand accounts of even more spectacular sights such as an exorcism or levitation, but couldn’t give a lot of details there.
There is this Zen saying about the Zen mind being an ordinary mind. About the whole Enlightenment thing being about chopping wood, washing one’s bowl and carrying water. But it is not at all materialistic. In fact, quite the opposite.
No you didn’t get my point. How to explain it… Do you sometimes dream by night? When you dream, your consciousness fractures or dissolves into separate interacting images among which the part that still identifies as yourself can get easily lost. This is more than just emotions or moods, this is really the field or stream of you mind becoming re-organized into an interacting web of “entities” (information attractors, archetypes in the human subconscious).
Some of these “entities” might be very nasty. Imagine dreaming, but being unable to wake up. When you will die, your sensorium will shut down, but your “dreams ” will not end. Quite the opposite, your stressed neurons will fire neurotransmitters like crazy, which will end up converted to DMT. DMT will make you see a whole Universe. Cut from the sensory inputs, in a state of sensory deprivation you will face these “entities” with no escape in sight. With no referential, there will be no time and no space left. But the “dream ” will go on. You understand?
A materialist will not be ready for that. A religious person would be more prepared. This is one of the good things about the religious and spiritual traditions.
This dichotomy between idealism and materialism is outdated. Noumenal is only cut from the phenomenal in the Western philosophical tradition. But I suspect that this separation is just a matter of point of view. Using a more modern language: mater is energy is information. Information is energy is matter. Energy is information is matter etc. There is no matter without information and energy.
The realm of ideas is not separate from our material being, our material being is not separate from our emotional, cognitive, perceptive states. They are two sides of the same coin. Or rather three sides of the same Triangle: energy, matter and information. Of course these are just human words, semiotic goal posts, signs, ideograms. Question is; is anything out there, something deeper than just our concepts and words? What is in the Middle of the Triangle?
I happen to believe in a Reality that is, while we exist. So I cannot say that there is nothing there. There is Truth. There must be, otherwise, why do we live, die and suffer for? We feel it, we have the intuition that it is here for us. And this Truth is to be experienced into our own consciousness. It cannot be otherwise.
To refuse the potential of this Truth being Real is also a form of hubris. A very sad and nihilistic attitude of those who are afraid of being disappointed. And because of that fear of being misled and disappointed, one would be lost and in a harm’s way. Better believe in elves and pixies instead.
Labyrinths is one of the my favorite fiction books. Sketching out plans for books is so much more efficient than writing long turgid novels.
And I thought that given you currently live in Moscow you would be better informed.
I actually hope that I am wrong in my assessments, but my feeling is that if nothing changes, another collapse is quite possible (probable?) on the territory of former USSR.
I think that the parasitic elites, that have the upper hand in the major part of that territory will end up completely ruining it.
https://www.finanz.ru/novosti/valyuty/iz-rossii-vyveli-eshche-$190-mlrd-pod-razgovory-ob-amnistii-kapitalov-1028923841
Things are already going sideways right now in Russia.
https://www.forbes.ru/finansy-i-investicii/409515-zabytoe-slovo-sekvestr-na-chto-ne-hvatilo-deneg-pravitelstvu
https://expert.ru/2020/10/28/uroven-zhizni-v-rossii-prodolzhaet-padat/
And Putin is not even dead yet. But if things really go sideways, can we be sure that the vertical of power built by Putin will prevail? Perhaps Putin will suddenly “die of COVID-19 ” ?
In 1982 Andropov ruled the USSR with an iron hand, in 1992 there was no USSR left. No one I know expected such a dramatic change. Unfortunately, I think no one can truly guarantee that this will never happen again in Russia.
I hope that I am wrong with my pessimism, but perhaps Sorokin was unfortunately right when asked about what will become of Russia. “Nothing” is what he answered.
Such is the life of a landlord. Tenants are mostly garbage everywhere you go. This is the reason why I have been investing in stocks rather than real estate. I’d rather not deal with the countless ways that plebs can and will fuck everything up.
This is a silly argument. One does not need to live in Chile in order to read basic facts. An overwhelming majority of Chileans voted for a new constitution. That screeching rightoids like you do not like that is neither unexpected or new, nor that you can find anecdotal plebs who are pining for Pinochet. The numbers speak their own language.
It also comports with my observation, namely that the only ones who wanted the old constitution to stay was the landed class, the property owners, the rich and the middle-upper class professionals. These patterns tend to repeat themselves in every LatAm country. Chile is no exception.
Russia has been the perennial laggard for all its history. That will continue given the outlook for oil exporters. Putin failed to build a vibrant non-oil economy during the oil boom. That failure will become painfully obvious to even the most obsequious observer.
We won’t see a 1990s-style collapse, however. Russians have learned their lesson.
Yes, it doesn’t matter in the slightest if you own properties in Chile, Iceland, Guatemala or Switzerland. You will be notified with the very same regularity that vandals smashed your windows, stole your doors or blocked the toilets with trash just for the fun of it. You definitely sound like a well traveled person.
Correct again. I have never been to Sweden (although I did once get a distant glimpse of the Swedish side of the mountains from Trysil in Norway) but I can read all the “basic facts” about Sweden on the internet so I am as perfectly informed as you to express sound judgements about social phenomena in Sweden and the deep reasons behind them.
We are in full agreement. And those numbers, based on the electoral results of the last couple of decades, clearly show that it is very likely that in a few years time another overwhelming majority of Chileans will oppose the constitution that that they are about to vote for. All it will take is the realization that their new constitution has not brought about equality, along with some agitation from the usual TV talking heads.
This is what you don’t seem to get. I personally couldn’t care less about that old constitution that was approved in the times of Pinocho but has been amended multiple times in democracy with some of those amendments even being voted for in referendum. If Chileans themselves have forgotten these basic facts, why should I give a hoot about them?
At this point I wonder what we are even arguing about. I couldn’t agree more with that sentence of yours. In spite of all the myths about the never quite fulfilled Chilean “miracle”, Chile is just another LatAm country. It’s been quite close to reaching Southern European levels of prosperity with a solid majority of the population living a middle class life but this cold reality that you have yourself highlighted has put it back in its place by means of a widespread orgy of arson and looting.
By the way, what exactly is wrong with the Mexican, Paraguayan or Honduran constitutions? These countries have similar levels of inequality to Chile and worse growth indicators. Shouldn’t they also rush to change their constitutions and thus achieve equality and prosperity?
Again I try to compliment you but you take it as an offence. Like that time when I wrote that you are a good Devils Advocate. Is my English really so bad?
I tried to praise your patience and thick skin, that even when I hurled such insults, which were much worse than a silly cow, it didnt stop you or make you feel defeated etc. I wrote that you guys are quite far on the road to the Nirvana, how any one can take that as an insult? Oh maybe Americans are used to only superlative or extremely clear and expressive ways of praising. Is this cultural barrier or what? I even disparaged myself on that same comment and you take it as an insult!
Are you implying that I get drunk easily. Now thats an offence and insult. I rarely drink anymore, but Slavic capacity for alcohol is greatly over estimated. No Mongol or Buryat suffers from dehydrogenace deficiency, my great grandmother literally could drink more than any Russian man and very rarely I have met Russians in my life who can drink as much as I can. Its not a virtue or thing one should brag of, and one should remember that Russians of the Moscow and the west drink laughbly little in comparison to most Siberians.
I even despise beer, that horribly sour and watery bread, which only makes one feel bloated. If one drinks, and if ones a man, then one drinks only hard liquor and only neat, without any ice and juice bullshit. Vodka, whisky(irish and scotch, single malt and blended, but not American corn stuff), calvados, armagnac, cognac, brandy, brannvin, schnapps, herbal liquors, tsang, grappa, slivovica, airag are okay, oh sherry is also okay, but all the rest of alcoholic drinks are just gutter trash and waste, yes Rum too, both white and dark, and absinth who the hell spoils a good liquor with too many spices? But yes my drinking years are thankfully behind now.
But I must admit that there are couple good beers but they are all Belgian. Leffe Blond and especially the Chimay Blue, which is still made by Catholic monks.
I dont know, its your faith, as an external observer I dont trust the Catholic Church and their legalistic way to interprete canons and theology. But i know that Augustine is also saint of the Orthodox Church but that doesnt presuppose any infallibility on his part and Orthodox Christians often criticise him. Sad that we dont seem to have any defenders of Orthodoxy here on this site.
I don’t see how hurling baseless and unprovoked insults at anybody will somehow put them “on the road to nirvana”? Also, I don’t understand why you feel the need to try and toughen up somebody’s skin during a friendly give and take discussion within this blogsite? I buy Anon4’s defense on your part, explaining it all away on a little bit too much alcohol. I enjoy reading most of your comments and hope that you can refrain from trying to insult your fellow commenters here. Especially, if there’s really no need to do so.
It doesnt put them on the road to the Nirvana, but thick skin is necessary if one wants to go forward on that road. Thick skin is a sign of patience and patience is a virtue right?
But yes its not proper for me to insult others. Once again Im sorry, but I really and truly thought that a silly cow is a mildly offensive and even playful way to call someone.
Anybody who appreciates Belgian trappist ales can’t be all bad. 🙂
Stephen Batchelor is not a Buddhist. He is just a proponent of secular humanism and materialism, but because he craftily knew that those dont sell, as something called Batchelorism would also not sell, he cunningly branded his philosophy as Buddhism.
Buddha directly stated that such opinions are wrong views, that itself would not be so bad, but that he sells his thoughts by the name of the Buddhism or Dharma, that is utterly evil deed.
His thought is not Dharma but actually extremely dangerous form of nihilism, without rebirth our philosophy will not make any sense, then the death would be the liberation from Dukkha and Samsara.
Batchelor is one of the rare human individuals, one who truly is heretic and an open enemy of Dharma. Even his books name is chosen because of marketing reasons. All Buddhists are atheists from the Theist point of view. But he knew his audience, as a shrewd businessman.
I am not inflating the problem, the so called secular Buddhism is a real heretical movement, which has nothing in common with the Dharma.
And yes I have read his book, he showed no understanding of Dharma, Vinaya or Sunyata, even though he was a monk for mamy years, and he builds a huge case based on couple fragments of Tripitaka. Once again a proof of why conversion to a new religion is a very serious matter and why it should not be done lightly.
In a better world we would have an emperor of China, or some Indian Raja or Chakravartin who would deal with the people like Batchelor, its for their own good….
.
Your grandmother must have been what is called in French une force de la nature.
Agree with your comment about hard liquor, but disagree about your written off most of beers and bourbon and American whiskey as unpalatable. There are many excellent and tasty beers around the world that go down well and smooth, while some American whiskey and bourbon are also very comforting. A good wine during a meal is also something to enjoy.
One has to always choose quality and practice moderation in chosing and ingesting one’s poison. But we have to remember that even with the highest quality it is still poisonous stuff that should be taken in a manner that increases our average wellbeing.
Not being preachy here, just stating the obvious truth. Binge drinking is an immature take on alcohol that doesn’t belong among grown men.
I hope that you will be proven correct. But it would not be beyond Russian regional elites to take an attempt at decentralization as the financial pie shrinks. The majority of non-Moscovite Russians are fed up with the relative opulence of the capital. Even in Saint Petersburg you feel some resentment, something I never felt in Soviet times. Also Russian glubinka (deep province) is emptying up and some regions of inner Russia are truly dilapidated.
Another matter to keep in mind is Slavs are notoriously good at breaking apart and starting vile and annoying squabbles, while conversely they are also very difficult to unite and rule. And Russia is not just a Slav country, although of course Slavs are an overwhelming majority. So there’s also the ethnic factor to keep in mind.
Finally you are unfortunately right about the technological gap that is widening in many sectors between Russia and China and the West. Without high tech of their own, Russians are at the mercy of the exporters who might stop their trade with Russia any time.
I am quite worried about the future of all the Eastern Slavs. I wish them all the best, but I sometimes have a feeling that they perhaps have a tendency towards acting in a self destructive manner.
He is from Minnesota, where people are known for being extremely interpersonally mild and aggression is passive in nature (rioters are not real Minnesotans). Your joking tone may not have registered.
In matters of faith we Greek Catholics are closer to Orthodox than to Catholics. We simply recognize the Pope but are not obligated to follow most other aspects of Catholicism. This of course makes us not Orthodox but still…. For example my priest recommended the Orthodox Study Bible, we venerate Orthodox saints who became saints even after the schism and Brest Union, same Liturgy, etc.
I wish I was as knowledgeable about my faith as you are about yours. From my understanding (and I have heard this from priests also), which may be mistaken, only the stipulations made explicit in the Union of Brest are required of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This is largely limited to recognition of the Pope; there were also references to obligations to and by the king that were then transferred to the emperor but these are all moot after 1918.
As an aside to my other post to you -there is even a Wikipedia page about “Minnesota nice”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_nice
Minnesota nice is a cultural stereotype applied to the behavior of people from Minnesota implying residents are unusually courteous, reserved, mild-mannered and passive-aggressive. The phrase also implies polite friendliness, an aversion to open confrontation, a tendency toward understatement, a disinclination to make a direct fuss or stand out, apparent emotional restraint, and self-deprecation.
You’re a typical emigre who’s stuck in the era at which he left.
Edit: This happens to be a case in point.
This was long accurate, but is rapidly ceasing to be so precisely in the past 5 years. As actually traveling about provincial Russian towns will rapidly show.
Even some Western media have noted that: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-04/vladimir-putin-s-plan-to-make-russian-cities-worth-living-in
It’s an interesting perception, but what you deem normal is actually quite strange. Most people in the world (and even in Western countries such as the USA) do believe in the devil. If your environment does not include such people at all, it is an abnormal one by definition.
You are being facetious but the scenario would be impossible, as someone struggling with an attempted demonic possession would not be going to a job interview. Also, such cases are generally perceived as extremely rare. Much rarer than, say, ghost hauntings.
Why must one be superstitious in this case? I have never experienced a ghost but in the spirit of Halloween I will share my brother-in-law’s one. When he was a student at MGU he stayed in a dorm that had previously been an apartment. There were footsteps there regularly, left-right, as if someone was walking across the room. He invited others, who also heard them. He was not frightened at all but his roommate refused to sleep alone there and actually stayed at my in-laws when my brother-law went on holiday. I history of mental illness or significant substance abuse by either person. These people were not religious at all, but eventually they called a priest. It turned out that a girl living there a few decades earlier had killed herself.
I have known an American with a similar experience (this one involved not footsteps but lights being turned on and off). In either case, there is no implication of insanity concerning the person who admits to such experiences.
So they are like Swedes then, with their obsession with the consensus?
Who by the way have a very different national character than Ukrainians.
I sadly agree. Many Russians in the west feel ashamed, when the media and vast majority of well to do classes believe Putin to be a crook, mafia boss and dictator at the same time, so openly praising or supporting Putin is often even more damaging to ones image that supporting of Trump. Therefore many emigres want to look cool and criticise him. Especially if they are well integrated and have lived for a long time outside of Russia. It can be said that they have subconsciously internalised many western attitudes. But that problem is almost non existent with working class emigrants.
Just for the record: regardless of the silly cow and other dissonant adjectives that I’ve seen you throw at me and other commenters in your heated way of arguing, I still think that you are an endearing character. Thanks for taking the time to address my comments as you saw fit at the moment.
And I am in no position to object to drunk-posting either. We have all done it. The road to our own personal nirvanas is hard enough, let’s not make it harder.
Yes, and Minnesota was very heavily settled by Swedes (Germans may slightly outnumber them there but the Swedes set the tone, and Germans are also somewhat conformists within their community). Mr. Hack nay have been influenced by having grown up there.
https://www.manglacharan.com/post/out-of-all-drugs-cannabis-is-the-best-guru-gobind-singh
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_atpdcl8et/
https://www.manglacharan.com/post/guru-gobind-singh-on-alcohol-krishnavtar
Russia isn’t doing bad this year. GDP drop of 4.1% with a 5.3% budget deficit as a percent of GDP. For example, UK, USA and Canada all have larger GDP decline but on top of that they all have a basket case budget deficit: UK 17%, USA, 18%, Canada 20%. Russia is also doing better than EU as a whole and better than almost every individual EU country. IMF numbers.
That prediction was made in August. In October Worldbank estimated 5% drop in GDP for Russia in 2020, which still isn’t bad:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/russia/overview
Interestingly, Worldbank predicts only 2.8% drop in GDP for Belarus, despite Covid and protests:
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/belarus/overview
According to Worldbank, for Ukraine, 5.5% drop (August estimate I think), and Poland .4% growth, though this estimate was from April. In October, S & P estimated Polish GDP decline of 3.4 % for 2020:
https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/sp-upgrades-polands-2020-gdp-growth-forecast-16263
So Russia while doing well by Western standards is typical of Eastern Europe.
Most elites despicably hoard wealth, its not a problem as long as it stays under a control of state and some part of the surplus is left for the common people. Unlike in the 90s Russia and Ukraine. You are stuck in time, the situation in Russia is not ideal, but still much better than before the Putin or during his early rule.
Ideally speaking of course every billionaire should be dealt by ……………. No man can earn so much money by honest means, except by inheritance. Rich are not the problem, but the superrich and the divide between millionaires and billionaires can be larger in many countries than its between millionaires and common people. Only a sick maniac could be obsessed so much with the wealth making.
Its stupid that we only talk about the rich as one group and not treat them in the same way as middle class, which is divided into two parts, the upper and lower, when we should also divide the rich into two classes like the ancients did, with their high and petty nobility. After all there was a huge difference between a knight and count, or a gentleman and duke.
So rich and the superrich? Sounds quite unimaginative, I think? Patricians and Magnates, too old fashioned perhaps?
Well, everything’s fine then.
Except that:
https://www.oilexp.ru/news/economy/glavnyj-nalog-podvel-byudzhet-rossii-sbory-rukhnuli-na-chetvert/219804/
So let’s discuss it again in January 2021.
I agree that I might have been traumatized by the 90ies. Maybe it’s a kind of PTSD.
As the Russian saying goes: “We’ll live, we’ll see “.
Agree with your comment about the super rich.
The 0.1% are the problem. In Russia they happen to be directly connected to and dependent on the good will of VVP’s inner circle. I would like to see Russia having less inequality, to see the earnings and quality of life increasing more or less uniformly across the majority of the population. Not just Moscow, Piter, E-burg, Kazan and other major agglomerations, but in the rural areas as well and in the remote regions.
Do they have Banyas in Minnesota? Actually do Americans ever go to Banya or Sauna? Swedes have their Bastu, maybe some of them build Bastus in Minnesota? Even Germans sometime go to Sauna, it must be hard to live in the North without Banyas.
The mountain near Dyatlov Pass was named “Dead Mountain” or something.
I grew up in a white, blue collar neighborhood that was nice but very ordinary back in the day. A lot of the old large homes (and some were good examples of Victorian type houses) have been bought up and renovated by the increasingly gentrified and new yuppie owners. What is most striking to me when I go back and look at it today is just how gleemingly white the neighborhood was. Here’s a photo of the beautiful Ukrainian Catholic church (noticed the large tiled dome with tryzubs emblazoned within) in the neighborhood. It was originally blessed by Cardinal Slipyj.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/St._Constantine%27s_Minneapolis_1.jpg/220px-St._Constantine%27s_Minneapolis_1.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast,_Minneapolis
When I was a kid growing up there, there were remnants of the original French settlers, folds of German and Scandinavian descent, lots of Poles, Ukrainians and Slavs, and right next door was a small but thriving Italian neighborhood too. My high school sweetheart was of German descent and I met her in my German language class. She was into reading Goethe, Jung and Hesse, while I was mostly interested in her curvaceous figure and her long honey blonde hair. She could have a lot of influence over me. 🙂
IMF October 2020 estimates.
https://i.redd.it/krlv4mwki0t51.png
I did have two good friends growing up that were of Scandinavian descent. One was even nicknamed “The Big Swede” and the other one had a father that had immigrated over from Norway. In this case, I think that it was the Ukrainian community that had the most influence on them and not vice-versa. They both would often show up for the various Ukrainian parties and dances in the neighborhood.
There were certainly some nice old Lutheran churches in the neighborhood, but no real “cultural” organizations that reflected a Scandinavian influence that I can remember.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IeC35VCyGrujZv3h9yROn8YZf9jCKCPbVo6T99aQeJ2i2kv-rQ-NPh-6fjIWYTgxdrxX6QQ=s85
Beautiful St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in N.E. Minneapolis
Mo better:
https://mk0nemaa09ud6bl3eg07.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Person-Nicole___St.-Johns-Outside.jpg
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/upload/file/20150704/1353/dee0c8bb34a7da770b14f5fa9b8442ef_715__2.jpg
Khoshut Khurul Buddhist temple, Astrakhan oblast. It was build by Kalmyk warriors who returned from victorious war against the Napoleon, they had seen the Kazan cathedral in St Petersburg and used it as an inspiration. Bolsheviks destroyed it like they destroyed all the two hundred Buddhist temples of Kalmyks.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/Kalmyk_Khurul_Tsagan_Aman_%28restored_photo%29.jpg/1024px-Kalmyk_Khurul_Tsagan_Aman_%28restored_photo%29.jpg?1604086531121
Khurul Tsagan Aman Buddhist temple, also destroyed…