In this interview, recorded late last year, I discuss the differences in orientation between Russia, which is changing perhaps too swiftly, and the US, which remains stuck in the past. I also talk about community, and about lack of it, and what it means to live among people who insist on their right to remain strangers and who expect nothing from each other or their public officials. I also mention the force behind American political and social stasis: the desperate wish for a future that resembles the past—the American equivalent of Soviet nostalgia.
3 comments:
What a great pair of interviews. Optimism is hard to come by these days, and both Catherine and yourself brought me a rare measure of it here.
Thank you!
Excellent interview Dmitri, as always. Very insightful. Would that we had officials with as much insight.
I am not a bit surprise myself at what is going on in this country.
You have the poor - latinos, blacks Native Americans and poor whites etc. - who have had to "make do" with what ever came along. And who's numbers a growing actually.
And the well off and rich who have been pretty much getting their little hearts desire for a long time. Generations in fact.
It's the second group that the government is putting all it's energies into to making sure their situation does not change. This will of course fail at some point.
But one of the reasons for the government polices to protect this second group to my mind is because they - more than the first - are the ones who would go postal if and when this changes.
The first groups already has little or nothing. For them it would be situation normal.
For the second it would be a disaster to their minds.
Which is also why when ever a member of the first group becomes a member of the second group they will of course support only those policies that insure that they never become a member of the first group again.
Post a Comment