----------
One thing that struck me hard was the first time I really met some Russians and hung just a short while, a climbing weekend with them.
Now it certainly could have been an accident of individuals, but these guys were crazy. They would do almost anything, if they got themselves in the mood. Their own sense of personal liberation was so strong, it actually scared me a little. And the way they climbed was kind of unbelievable. They were big lanky guys, younger than me and they literally attacked the rock like monkeys, climbing fast, moving hand over hand if they needed to, not too worried about the delicacies of footwork, and very causal about rope handling. These are all no-nos from the old Yosemite climber's ethic.
I've often reflected about that brief experience and another much more recent one climbing behind a group of three Russians, a brother-sister and friend. The girl looked like a super-model and swore in English and Russian, alternating like she was tutoring herself in just the right tone of filth. Motherfucker cocksocker rock...bastard... Really funny to listen to, but I had to keep my smiles and laughter down or she would have gone after me. She was very nervous about the route and was definitely insecure, so she swore at her brother who was belaying as if it was his fault she was having a hard time. The two guys were rolling their eyes behind her back. I was almost too busy looking up her butt to see it... God she had a beautiful butt.
The point is I got the impression that Russians are a head strong and a very, as the OT says of the Jews, stiff necked people. In other words something about the naive Russian character, if there is such a thing, demands strong arm leadership, so that things don't get out of hand. Russian kids must be outrageous brats.
Now Americans used to pride themselves on these qualities, but I've never seen the sort of interior defiance burn quite so brightly in any USer---as I saw in these Russian climbers. I mean I honestly thought, with some vodka and the right kind of speech you could get these guys into a revolution in a heartbeat. It was the early days of the Gorbachev and peristroyka.
If I believe what I've seen on COPS in Russia, which I do sort of, there is a reason the Russian police routinely beat up a suspect in the street and soften him up on the way downtown. They couldn't get the bastard in the car if they didn't.
I was in awe. Shit, if we only had that kind of defiance built into us, we wouldn't be suffering the shit we do.
I snicker, when I think of idiots like Bush trying to square off on Putin. Bush has no idea what power and rule are about. What a sniveling little jerk.
Of course I am talking in stereotypes, but if even half of it is true, no wonder Chris Doss loves Russia. He must feel ten times as free there as any of us do here.
I don't know the history, but the first anarchists must have been Russians.
CG