[lbo-talk] Russians, was Bakumin on Marx

[cgrimes at rawbw.COM]

If you may note, Russian history is mainly a swinging back and forth
between the two poles of authoritarian "vlast" and anarchic "volya,"
or rather usually a thin veneer of authoritarianism over a deep
boiling sea of "vlast." Russian daily existence is chaotic and has
always been chaotic. The vlast exists as a reaction to it and to keep
it under control. The trick is to achieve some kind of balance between
the two (something Putin has done remarkably well BTW). You can
probably see something of this in the Soviet harnessing of peasant
messianism to its modernization product.

(By the way, failing to notice this is part of what dooms something
like 90% of Western commentary on Russia to irrelevancy. E.g. Putin is
supposed to establish something called "rule of law." How exactly is
he supposed to do this? Change the entire society?  "Rule of law" has
never existed in Russia. Russians do not obey laws; Russians do not
enforce laws, unless the Vlast really starts yelling at them...  Chris
Doss

-------------

This is pretty fascinating stuff. Particularly the idea that `free
will' is a contradiction in Russian. I think I sort of get it. What it
reminds me of our own mythological wild west or at the least some of
the internal conflicts portrayed in some western movie
characters. Well, not quite that but something like it.

Anyway as a daily fact of life about only place I see much like what
you describe is in some of the wilder, poorer, and mostly black and
hispanic neighborhoods in SF and O-town---where there is a deep sort
of dismissle of all authority, especially white political-police
authority. This authority is seen as completely irrelevant
bullshit---created mainly to hassel people.

Maybe the similarities are a matter of a similarily of living in
chaos, because that is what poverty or at least desparate economic
circumstances look like from the outside. Chaos. Because money is
always low and irregular everything in life is thrown into
uncertainty---work, bills, rent, food, transportation. It is almost
impossible to plan anything because you never know what's going to
happen between now and then. Toss a wheelchair and/or a couple of kids
in the mix and you have a real mess on your hands.

CG

(I am going to continue this post on another thread about healthcare...)