[lbo-talk] Gulag thing - Chris is on to something (if by accident)

[Chris Doss]

Well, what does "Western liberalism" mean? Some kind
of mimicry of Western European/US systems of
government? Russia's not a nation-state and it's not a
settler-colony (with the indigenous population
exterminated, like in the US or Australia). So no in
that sense, that just won't work. If by "Western
liberalism" one means being tolerant and allowing the
desire of the people to influence things, sure. I find
it funny when people talk about a "rollback of
democracy in Russia" when in fact the Putin gov is far
more responsive to the people's needs that the Yeltsin
gov was. If you have media outlets controlled by the
mafia, that's democracy!

--- Peter Lavelle <untimely_thoughts at yahoo.com> wrote:


> Chris, I think you broach an accidental breakthrough
> of sorts: 
> 
> "Solzhenitsyn is a Russian nationalist and a
> Slavophile (in addition to being a great man
> although
> I
> disagree with him 75% of the time). I doubt he
> thinks
> of himself as a "Western thinker.""
> 
> Ditto, ditto and ditto.
> 
> However, is it possible that there a different
> paradigm
> in play? Instead of accepting the Western experience
> lock-stock-and barrel, shouldn't we be hoping and
> expecting for (finally) a contemporary Russian
> version
> of Western liberalism? Clearly Solzhenitsyn is a
> strange midwife for this (ref to Joanna's recent
> post), but....
> 
> I think, and call me crazy on this list, this is
> what
> Putin and Putinism is all about. 
>  
> 
> --- Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  
> > 
> > Solzhenitsyn is a Russian nationalist and a
> > Slavophile
> > (in addition to being a great man although I
> > disagree
> > with him 75% of the time). I doubt he thinks of
> > himself as a "Western thinker."
> > 
> > Nu, zayats, pogodi!
> > 
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Nu, zayats, pogodi!

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