What is the ultimate motivator

But hope?

What is all that remains in descent

But hope?

In what can we find solace

But in that on the horizon?

What can push even Sisyphus

But the view of the cliff’s edge?

1

Hear ye, hear ye! I bring ye tidings of great joy! As the Pontifex Doriticus, I do hereby introduce a grand announcement of my grand return by providing an illustrious quotation. As the resurrection is described in the Gospel of Jon Arbuckle, “Garfie’s Herald is not here entombed, but he is risen Among Us (sus): remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Gamers must be delivered into the hands of Cringe Weeders, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’” (Jon Arbuckle 24;6-7, Grand Garf Version)

«Говорят, что в конце концов правда восторжествует, но это неправда.» – А.П. Чехов [2]

• The Russian Soul [3]

In Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president discusses the Russian soul in contrast with the Western soul. As he puts it, the Russian soul is concerned with matters of Truth and eternity while the Western soul is concerned with matters of practicality and the here-and-now. As the interview continues, it becomes clear that, if this is really the core of the Russian soul, an obsession with eternal Truth, Vladimir Vladimirich Putin is most certainly not a true representative of the Russian soul. Almost without skipping a beat, he goes on to talk about why he would never invade a NATO country such as Latvia, and he presents his reasoning in terms of the practical ‘national’ interests of today rather than eternal Truth. Now, it is far from clear whether Putin is being entirely honest here, but either way, the point is moot. If Putin is being honest, his actions on the world stage are motivated by cynical calculations of national interest rather than by any sort of Truth. If he is lying, he quite clearly has very little regard for the Truth. Either way, it is clear enough that Putin is a piss-poor representation of the Russian soul as he describes it. A much better representation of the Russian soul and of the moral complexities found therein can be seen in the opposition leader whom Putin recently murdered, Aleksei Navalny.

Think about the word meaning. What the fuck does it even mean to mean anyway?

The English verb to mean is weird, even for an English word. In a sense, this verb is ambiguous.

Its ambiguity comes down to the fact that, being used in broadly the same grammatical context, there are two distinct but seldom differentiated meanings of the verb to mean.

Let’s think about a scenario when you, an American, are interacting with an Anglo named Archibald within a friend group.

Свободен кто-нибудь?

Когда люди же рабы

Рабы государств

террористов

Свободен кто-нибудь?

Когда есть такие случаи

В нашем ужасном мире

Нет знака света

Не утомляйтесь

Скоро посмотрим солнце

Всё из моих братьев

Помогает друг другу

Всё из моих сестёр

Ходит вместе

Здесь нет незнакомых

Мы все голубчики

Сбрайте в дорогу

Чтобы принять закон

Против жизни

Этих террористов

Мы ходим дальше

Нужно заплатить цену

Мы ощущаем

Большую боль победу

Не утомляйтесь

Скоро посмотрим солнце

Тело Джона Брауна лежит в могиле

Тело Джона Брауна лежит в могиле

Тело Джона Брауна лежит в могиле

Душа ходит дальше

Звезды выше на небе ласково смотрят вниз

Звезды выше на небе ласково смотрят вниз

Звезды выше на небе ласково смотрят вниз

На могилу Джона Брауна

Слава, слава, Галлеюля

Слава, слава Галлеюля

Слава, слава, Галлеюля

Душа ходит дальше

Он покорил Гарперс Ферри девятнадцатами мужчинами

Тем он пугал мужчин и женщин виргинии

Расцветали поля Украины

Обстреляли российские черти

Выходила на берег Юленька

На широкий берег у Крыма

Выходила на берег Юленька

На широкий берег у Крыма

Выходила, песню Заводила

Про свободного соловья

Про того, которого любила

Про того, чьи письма берегла

Про того, которого любила

Про того, чьи письма берегла

Ой, ты, песня, песенка юноши

Ты лети за ясным солнцем вслед

И бойцу на самом сердце страны

От Юленьки передай привет

И бойцу на самом сердце страны

In 1986, Victor Tsoi, the frontman of a Russian band called Kino, declared that, “We await change!” Within just 6 years, the people of the Soviet Union would receive that long-awaited change when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, but it was a change which many of them would live to regret ever having taken place.

Across the eastern block, the transition from the command economy which the Soviets implemented at home and advocated abroad towards the market economy was a tough process involving the effective ‘thievery’ of the party’s capital (the results of the labor of the people, most basically) by a handful of oligarchs who could set the prices of the products of this capital (or degrade the capital itself), constrained by nothing but the imprecise and untrained hand of the market. This produced unprecedented inflation and impoverishment. Throughout, they faced the choice between a path of freedom (further change, further reform, and further Democracy) and one of falling back into despotism.

In Russian-occupied Ukraine, there is currently this private terrorist group which was recently fighting with its Russian-state-led terrorist comrades. They are called the Vogner Private Military Company, or simply the Vogner Group. Even if you’ve been following the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine quite closely, you might be confused right now. After all, in English media, we spell it like this, so Anglo-Americans often will call it “Wagner” while Anglo-Brits call it “Wogner,” because people naturally sound out the letters and pronounce the word how their accent dictates. You see, the group was named after a German composer called Wilhelm Richard Wagner, appropriately, one of Hitler’s favorite composers. You’ve certainly heard his music at one point or another. In Russian, the name is appropriately transliterated as «Вагнер,» but because it is a proper German noun and German ostensibly uses the same Latin alphabet as us, we use the German spelling, “Wagner,” even though it inevitably produces improper pronunciation.

“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying ‘this is mine,’ and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not anyone have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: ‘beware of listening to this imposter; you were undone if you want forget the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the Earth itself to nobody.’”