I think you are on-target about the pre-corporate rape of Russia. Reminds me of the questionable thinking I encountered in Iraq in setting up a government structure so culturally discordant that it was bound to fail. When other suggestions, more in line with Middle Eastern history (e.g., bringing the sixty largest tribes into a House of …
I think you are on-target about the pre-corporate rape of Russia. Reminds me of the questionable thinking I encountered in Iraq in setting up a government structure so culturally discordant that it was bound to fail. When other suggestions, more in line with Middle Eastern history (e.g., bringing the sixty largest tribes into a House of Lords proposed by a colleague) these highly educated dummasses laughed and said, "It's just not the way we do it." Unfortunately, the Russian culture of authoritarian belligerence dates back to three centuries of Mongol rule. That is hard to fathom and nullify.
David Halberstam recorded some of its chapters in "The Best and the Brightest."
Mark Twain got more in "Innocents Abroad."
Is it a side-show of democracy -- that we have to accept that rubes, ridge-runners, barbarians, yahoos, flim-flam artists, and fictional families Amberson, Snopes, Hubbard, Kane, Stark and more will also run with their freedom?
I think you are on-target about the pre-corporate rape of Russia. Reminds me of the questionable thinking I encountered in Iraq in setting up a government structure so culturally discordant that it was bound to fail. When other suggestions, more in line with Middle Eastern history (e.g., bringing the sixty largest tribes into a House of Lords proposed by a colleague) these highly educated dummasses laughed and said, "It's just not the way we do it." Unfortunately, the Russian culture of authoritarian belligerence dates back to three centuries of Mongol rule. That is hard to fathom and nullify.
It's an old history, Ned.
David Halberstam recorded some of its chapters in "The Best and the Brightest."
Mark Twain got more in "Innocents Abroad."
Is it a side-show of democracy -- that we have to accept that rubes, ridge-runners, barbarians, yahoos, flim-flam artists, and fictional families Amberson, Snopes, Hubbard, Kane, Stark and more will also run with their freedom?