Thursday, March 28, 2024

The world needs another Russian Revolution

Posted

About 100 years ago the Czar of Russia (is there any other kind?) and his entire family was murdered by a firing squad by the new boys on the block - the Communists as led by Lenin. The era of brutal Communistic rule and rulers had begun - worldwide.
He was founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and first head of the Soviet state and the Soviet Union. Ironically, Lenin's first name was also Vladimir. He was succeeded by the murderous Joseph Stalin, who killed more of his own people in purges and pogroms and prison camps than the Nazis.
Now we have Vladimir Putin, also murderous and also the leader of the former Soviet Union (now Russia) and he doesn't like that one bit. He wants to gather the old puzzle pieces back together and re-establish the glorious empire as it once was.
He is well on the way to anointing himself for life as the latest incarnation of the Russian Czar just like Stalin and Lenin before him. The ultimate and unquestionable ruler of all he surveys and much, much more.
Putin is not your grandma's dictator. He is thoroughly modern in the guille-lish arts he learned and perfected during the Cold War of his youth.  
There's only one problem with that scene, the young people of Russia will eventually rebel against the old guard as the status quo is just that, old,  immutable relics of a bygone era. Strong-arm and strongman tactics can only last so long before the "young and the restless" get tired of being that way.
They will soon become the wiser and the politically savvy and will start raining on Putin's parade with new ideas and rebellious actions against the Soviet state.
Throwing rocks at tanks isn't the wisest thing one can do to make a point neither is merely standing in front of them. Unfortunately the ballot box is just as impractical in Communist countries and there's the rub. How does a nation of people yearning to be free get rid of tyrants when those tyrants control the military and indeed have created a police state upon those they rule?
Violence through armed insurgence worked 100 years ago, but now there's a better answer - cyber-warfare. The Russians have been monkeying around with various countries and the election process with some success. Putin was in the secret police and has learned to be a master manipulator on a world stage.
American spies are not chopped liver either. Give the Russians, Cubans and Chinese some interesting quirks in their internet and other state controlled services and watch the fireworks happen when the central authority can no longer push a button to control the outskirts of town or the countryside far, far away.
The repressed peoples of the world need a spark of hope to get the party started and an occasional flash mob would certainly shake the status quo.     When Putin comes up for the inevitable reelection and is mysteriously and unexpectantly in second place all hell will break loose. As much as some Republicans may hate Democrats, the losing party and its minions didn't riot when Trump beat Clinton.
Putin and his cronies won't be as chivalrous. I have hoped most of my adult my life for several things on the world stage: A free Russia is one of them. What I am describing above is the opportunity of a lifetime. America must be careful because the Russians could go in the other direction and, after Putin, choose an even more dictatorial tyrant who fancies outright kinetic action (physical warfare) even more so than Putin.
Let's put American computer ingenuity to work doing more besides inventing silly and frivolous games that retard the social development of our youth (ages 4-40).
In the days of WWI and WWII the entire nation banded together to defeat the enemy. The computer industry of today ought to join the cause of chasing the Russian Communists into extinction so that the dreams of all Russians can be realized.
I do fear my idea of Silicon Valley, et al, joining the cause for a free Russia may fall on deaf, overly-Liberal ears. Our PC environment is likely to negate reality in favor of naiveté, but I hope not.
As a staunch fiscal and patriotic Conservative, I know in my heart a free Russia will lead to untold billions more in profits that, I am sure, Liberals and Conservatives alike will be happy to spend, invest and trickle down funds the world over. That new found fortune would include the chance for "feed the world" programs as well as 50 new ships for the Navy meant to protect American interests well into the new century and maybe even a new interstate system for our grandchildren.
Despite the current extreme polarization of American politics, a free Russia will benefit from both sides of the same coin we call Democracy. We should all work towards that end.
 

Apples to Apples, Opinion, column, Gary Begin

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