[Aaus-list] NY Review of Books - Crimea: Putin vs. Reality by Timothy Snyder
Max Pyziur
pyz at brama.com
Fri Mar 7 16:33:02 EST 2014
NY Review of Books - Crimea: Putin vs. Reality by Timothy Snyder
This is the third installment in Timothy Snyder’s series on Russian
ideology and the Ukrainian revolution. Earlier articles examined the
Kremlin’s Eurasian ideology and its propaganda about the Kiev uprising.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/mar/07/crimea-putin-vs-reality/
" ... In view of its patent absurdity, why is this propaganda so important
to Putin’s regime? Most obviously, propaganda serves the technical purpose
of preparing the way for war. ..."
" ... But propaganda has a deeper and more important function. Propaganda,
at least in the old Soviet Union, was not an edited version of reality,
but rather a crucial part of the endeavor to create a different reality.
..."
" ... Soviet propaganda was not a version of the world in which we live
but rather a representation of the world to come. ..."
"The costs of what Russia has done are very real, for Europe, for Ukraine,
and for Russia itself. Russian propaganda has elegantly provided a
rationale for Russian tactics and articulately defined a Russian dream for
Ukraine. But in the end propaganda is all that unites the tactics and the
dream, and that unity turns out to be wishful. There is no actual policy,
no strategy, just a talented and tortured tyrant oscillating between
mental worlds that are connected only by a tissue of lies. Putin faces a
choice: use far more violence, in the hope that another surge will finally
make the dream come true, or seek an exit in which he can claim some
victory—which would be wise but deflating. He appears to feel the weight
of this choice."
Reads like Tony Montana near his delusional end: "Say 'hello' to my little
friend."
This all may just lead to somebody "playing rough."
MP
pyz at brama.com
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