Tuesday, 2 June 2020

Quarantine entry #73 - June 2


Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. At least the protests are dying down, at last.

Why? Because their initial reason – the death of Mr. Floyd – were only partially powering the entire process and the rest of it was inflamed by aggravation of self-isolation; plus, the various politicians and who else have you that’ve tried to benefit from this.

Let me elaborate. Just as in case of COVID-19, the protests of Mr. Floyd’s deaths sparked numerous opportunities for all sorts of things aimed at benefits. I.e., some people benefitted from toning the protests down, while some others – from inflaming them instead. The result? About a week long mess from Miami to Seattle of lockdowns, public apologies and humiliation, of various statements, crimes, and what else have you – but primarily on chaos. Chaos is USA’s trademark statement, after all.

Let me see if I can elaborate further. For comparison, the Russian Federation is still largely an Asiatic country, especially politics-wise, and as such, its’ politics are marked by ‘stability’, (if positive), and ‘stagnation’, (if negative). Here the problem is that the RF really should rebrand its’ politics are ‘enduring’ and/or other words derived from ‘endurance’, (well, from its’ Russian analogue). Unfortunately, its’ politics are really resistant to change – hence the various problems that arose in Russian history since this state appeared on the map about twelve hundred years ago or so, whereas the U.S. …

…Whereas the U.S. has the opposite problem – yes, it thrives on change, but…

…But it is still country in the old-fashioned political meaning of the world, though since the end of the Cold War, even D.C. itself became increasingly chaotic and unstable. That is not too bad, save that if D.C. goes, who has to say that U.S. will remain as a country? The concept of a ‘Balkanized’ North America had been a dystopian sci-fi/AH trope for a long time now, especially in the West, and even in the East the RF isn’t too enthusiastic about it, (or at least it wasn’t in the recent past).

Can the ‘Balkanization’ of the North American continent occur in the immediate future? Frankly, I have no idea, but as for the non-immediate future? Well, yes. Anything can be taken to the extreme by humans – communism, monarchism, tyranny, democracy, and so on. The Ancient Greeks invented the modern western politics, the very first prototype, which included democracy, but unlike the modern West, they did not consider democracy to be honestly superior to monarchy, or aristocracy, (think the Roman republic, as we know it). Hence, once the barbarian Macedonians came from the North (of the Balkans, but still) and conquered Greece before proceeding to do the same with Egypt, Middle East and Central Asia, (to a lesser extent), the Greeks adapted to this situation just as easily as the Egyptians or the Persians did.

The modern U.S., of course, is a very different country from the ancient Greece with its’ numerous city-states… right? Maybe, but that is not to say that if the Washington D.C. were to implode, the rest of the U.S. would endure, especially in the incarnation that we knew it as. What is next?

…I have no idea, actually. Canada is trying to distance itself from the U.S., at least politically, (cough, Justin Trudeau’s poignant pause, cough), but in real life? USA is Canada’s only neighbour, both geopolitical and otherwise, and if the former begins to fall apart, it is anyone’s guess as to how Canada will endure. Ditto for Mexico, of course, at least to a point, but that is another story.

…Well, this is it for now, and boy, was not that depressing. See you all soon on a less pessimistic note, I hope! Cheers!

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