Scott Ritter has published a long and somewhat rambling substack about the Prigozhin farce: Wagner, I hardly Knew Ye The main portion doesn’t add all that much to our understanding of the situation, although it’s useful for its portrayal of Russian psychology. However, I’ll quote the concluding paragraphs because in those paragraps Ritter eloquently highlights the recklessness of the Neocons running this crazy war:
The point is that, if the Western secret services were involved, THEY certainly saw P as an existential threat to Putin. You have to wonder how many insults the Russians are going to take before they go big.
I’ve always harbored suspicions that the people running this Ukrainian misadventure were just incredibly incompetent, but with this unhinged endeavor I think I was wrong, they are absolutely insane. As you point out, who in their right mind would attempt to interfere in the internal politics of a sovereign nation that is also a nuclear power? These people have a death wish and if someone with common sense doesn’t stop them pretty soon, we may all be unwillingly involved in the fulfillment of that wish.
That the halls of Congress are not able to display any righteous ire or even discuss/examine this issue objectively? Did they do away with courses in critical thinking & philosophy when they bombarded our inatitutions of higher ed w/DEI?
Yes, you nailed it. These people have no concept of reality (or shame or moral compass) because life is all a question of getting along, and they only get along with people who can advance their interests. I know a number of people who have academic credentials, who have their doctorates. They got them by pleasing their mentor, and that involved having all the right opinions on everything. Then they get on by knowing the right people, by joining the club. Do they ever buy groceries? Have they ever fixed a car, a bicycle or the plumbing? Others do it for them. I have had discussions with these 'experts' in their own field, and when I mention something that contradicts their preconceptions, they in their superiority dismiss anything I say. I am curious and will consult their authorities, which they rarely mention. They can't be bothered to check out my sources. The denizens of Washington live in political reality, a type of virtual reality, and anything that might defy their expectations is a 'black swan', a one-time inexpl;icable deviation from the norm.
You are touching on something of importance to our present situation. People with survival skills, those capable of adapting to reality, survive. One other point is that the 'intelligentsia' does not always include the really smart and creative people. During the 'Dark Ages' there was scholarship on a level we have difficulty comprehending, and the great cathedrals were constructed. Much of this was of a religious bent, so our modern 'intellectuals' downgrade it.
Never confuse "intellectual" with "intelligent". People like Noam Chomsky, Jean Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida are/were intellectuals. I rest my case.
Try reading some medieval Scholasticism, for example Aquinas, or Maimonides or Averroes. Too much for our pampered minds. Although it was much better in my youth, nobody trains us in syllogisms or abstract thinking.
The point is that, if the Western secret services were involved, THEY certainly saw P as an existential threat to Putin. You have to wonder how many insults the Russians are going to take before they go big.
I’ve always harbored suspicions that the people running this Ukrainian misadventure were just incredibly incompetent, but with this unhinged endeavor I think I was wrong, they are absolutely insane. As you point out, who in their right mind would attempt to interfere in the internal politics of a sovereign nation that is also a nuclear power? These people have a death wish and if someone with common sense doesn’t stop them pretty soon, we may all be unwillingly involved in the fulfillment of that wish.
They are not incompetent, on the contrary. All is gong their way, which is:
a) creation of New Israel with reduced population of Slavic slaves. They know that Israel in Palestine will not last.
b) having a state from which they would be able to undermine Putin's Russia and turn its military against XI's China.
Yep, sorta like Mark Twain once remarked, like the difference between lightning bolt and lightning bug. :-)
That the halls of Congress are not able to display any righteous ire or even discuss/examine this issue objectively? Did they do away with courses in critical thinking & philosophy when they bombarded our inatitutions of higher ed w/DEI?
Stolen elections have consequences. None of them good.
As for our own addled regime: “Sanity begins with the admission of reality into the mind.”
Yes, you nailed it. These people have no concept of reality (or shame or moral compass) because life is all a question of getting along, and they only get along with people who can advance their interests. I know a number of people who have academic credentials, who have their doctorates. They got them by pleasing their mentor, and that involved having all the right opinions on everything. Then they get on by knowing the right people, by joining the club. Do they ever buy groceries? Have they ever fixed a car, a bicycle or the plumbing? Others do it for them. I have had discussions with these 'experts' in their own field, and when I mention something that contradicts their preconceptions, they in their superiority dismiss anything I say. I am curious and will consult their authorities, which they rarely mention. They can't be bothered to check out my sources. The denizens of Washington live in political reality, a type of virtual reality, and anything that might defy their expectations is a 'black swan', a one-time inexpl;icable deviation from the norm.
I call them the Smirkocracy. They all give that sneering little smirk when any of us peasants dare to contradict them.
You are touching on something of importance to our present situation. People with survival skills, those capable of adapting to reality, survive. One other point is that the 'intelligentsia' does not always include the really smart and creative people. During the 'Dark Ages' there was scholarship on a level we have difficulty comprehending, and the great cathedrals were constructed. Much of this was of a religious bent, so our modern 'intellectuals' downgrade it.
Never confuse "intellectual" with "intelligent". People like Noam Chomsky, Jean Paul Sartre and Jacques Derrida are/were intellectuals. I rest my case.
Exactly. That is why I wrote 'intelligentsia' and 'intellectuals'. not intelligentsia and intellectuals.
Try reading some medieval Scholasticism, for example Aquinas, or Maimonides or Averroes. Too much for our pampered minds. Although it was much better in my youth, nobody trains us in syllogisms or abstract thinking.