America and Russia are a single meta-nation
Evgenia and I were talking a bit and I was taking some notes for our event tonight in NYC and I ended up typing up a very basic outline of something we’ve been thinking about lately — the connection between the USA and the USSR.
Americans think they won the Cold War, and that they defeated communism. That’s true. But it’s not clear that Americans have come out as on top of that conflict as they were led to believe. See the truth is that the USA and the USSR were connected — and the USSR and its people propped up America in ways that Americans did not understand.1 Now that the USSR has been replaced by a pre-revolutionary Russian society, both the former USSR and the USA have going through similar reversions to the 19th century. The processes are linked…they’re mutually reinforcing.
That’s why Evgenia keeps talking about how she and other Russians and really all former Soviet people are from America’s future. They’ve been going through this reversion process for more than thirty years now — a process that America is just starting go through now. Maybe Americans will one day realize what they lost and debt they owed to Soviet people.
In fighting the USSR, Americans were told they were going up against their mortal enemy. But turned out Americans were warring against the only thing that was keeping their modern quasi-socialist state afloat. In defeating the USSR, Americans defeated their greatest friend and ally. And only now is this becoming clear.
Here the outline:
—Yasha
PS: For all who can make it, see you tonite at the KGB Bar.
Just wandering around the site - free range Monday. I have often thought of this from the American perspective. There were even writers who observed that one reason Leftism never caught on big in the US was because Corporate America honoured the social contract to stave this off. After the Soviet Union collapsed, there was talk of a Peace Dividend, but obviously those people lost the political power struggled that ensued. Cultural Centers closed and this kind of programming was scaled back. Before I left the States, I saw the game clearly when HR called these group meetings and bounced in the room to tell us we now would have choice and control of our healthcare - we also got to cost share on, that is some ownership, LOL. All presented by bouncy, obnoxious people. Chickens, Roosting, Home.
"Americans think they won the Cold War, and that they defeated communism. That’s true."
Nope. Big difference between defeating a state and "defeating" an ideology (or, in this particular case, a caricature of an ideology). The spectre of communism is still abroad (though much diminished at the moment).
"she and other Russians and really all former Soviet people are from America’s future"
Sort of. I'd say they're more like little Ghosts-of-Christmas-Yet-to-Come: there to warn workers of What-Might-Be:
"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?"
Still, the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me."
The Spirit was immovable as ever.