The Emerging Multipolar World with Saker Now Public!

4 Comments

1. In May, 2001, The Atlantic (when it used to host mature, conservative voices) published a cover story called “Russia is Finished.” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/05/russia-is-finished/302220/ The article included the rise of Putin as successor to “the hated” Yeltsin, but acknowledged that the former KGB man was committed to the restoration of the Russian state, even as the wasting war of Chechnya had staggered to a halt. Quoting “…the ruin that Russian forces have wrought on Chechnya has shown what Moscow is willing to do to keep Russia intact.” Now let’s compare this to the rise of Trump and MAGA. Many are leery of him, and in the (less-repressive) American forum, the forces in earnest to keep the world’s Great Beacon of Hope in decline, they have unleashed a war of hatred and contumely against the president that has few analogues in recorded history. The famously assassinated Julius Caesar and John F. Kennedy were afforded public courtesies even as the forces coalesced to destroy them. In America, there is no statement against Donald Trump too invidious or indecent to warrant its self-suppression by a would-be speaker.

   In the interview, The Saker, whose analysis I appreciate, has forecast what is, in effect, “America is Finished.” I would say “reports of the death of America are greatly exaggerated.” In February, 2018, the selfsame Atlantic (to which I no longer subscribe) published an article called “Russia Is a Great Power Once Again.” Most in my age cohort have been thoroughly invested with a suspicion of Russia, but even as a child, in the same sort of innocent analysis as I used on Santa Claus’s practical existence, I wondered how we might feel such vehemence towards these 200 million souls we’d never met and who were allies against the common foe, Nazi Germany. In 2018, we may look at the revival of Russia prominence and more or less rehabilitated public image as the success of Putin, even against the oft-referenced Rape of Russia. Again quoting, “But since the Gorbachev years Russians have taken steps toward reassessing their history and government, have followed politics and voted in the most-open elections they have known, and have enjoyed newfound freedoms of expression, assembly, comportment, and travel. Nevertheless, history suggests that a powerful state, of the sort that Russians have built in the past, would put an end to all that and guarantee corruption.” The Atlantic proved wrong in this conclusion and whatever people have not liked about the bare-chested politics of Vladimir Putin, he has turned things around fairly well. Perhaps tomorrow, the Triumph of Trump will put our current ebb of national self-respect into the greater context of his government having borne us back from the precipice.

   1. I agree – the reports of the death of America are exaggerated. If the MAGA plan is successfully executed, America will be in better shape than almost anyone. That said, many people in America will fail or be composted. America making a successful turn does not mean the American people will successfully make the turn. Commentators tend to get the two confused.

      1. Yes, I understand. The “Who makes it Line” is not a corral, it’s a statistic taken when the results are in. As always.

         1. If there is anyone who understands this, I know it is you!

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