Actually, the reason I wrote the Lexicon is because of an interview with Pipes on the article in Foreign Affairs. His political vocabulary struck me as amazing. All the terms he used to describe the empty shell of western liberalism (as a development model) have completely different meanings among Russians.
However, the Pipes piece is worth reading. It is a testament to Western failure in the post-Soviet era. It was supposed to be the end of history, wasn't it? The American telos was the fate of mankind.
Pipes can't accept "our" failure in Russia. Western liberalism can't be made responsible for the oligarchs, gross - truly gross! - income differences, and the ordinary hope for economic stability.
When reading Pipes piece, I could not but think of the phrase I always associated with Reagan - "he may be right, but for the wrong reasons."
Simon Huxtable <jetfromgladiators at yahoo.com> wrote: Richard Pipes has an article in the new Foreign Affairs. It's a startlingly wrong-headed affair that does the usual conservative hand-wringing dance about how Russia is descending into authoritarianism. ("Western commentators watch with dismay as Putin slowly and deliberately transforms Russia into a one-party state.") I'm commenting on it because, although Pipes advised the Reagan administation, he appears to share the assumptions of many liberals.
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