To paraphrase Voltaire, no mean anti-Semite (avant la lettre) himself, if the Jews did not exist, the Tsars would have had to invent us. I mean, we were perfect bogeymen for them—I would like to avoid the notion that Official Nationality was tailored to us, though I think it unlikely that its development wasn't to a small extent conditioned by our presence as A Problem.
Sadly, Dostoyevsky also became a mouthpiece for Russian “official nationality”, after being psychologically broken by a mock execution and Siberian exile for political activity.
Putin’s version of it is actually a pretty good instance of the Marxist concept of ideology - i.e. a set of ideas for making sense of the world whose function is to mask and obscure social and economic realities. Given the cosmopolitan, kleptocratic and gangster-capitalist governance of modern Russia, an inward-looking, ethno-nationalistic appeal to tradition and Christianity could not be a more fitting illustration of how ideology works.
Mar 24, 2022·edited Mar 24, 2022Liked by John Ganz
"Decadence" is a concept with a history; and it's good to see this part of that history laid out so well. The Russian imperialists seem unaware that there's more decadence in their own leadership than there is in the West's--so far. My own concept of decadence goes back to the Western European and American popular take on the history of the late Roman Republic and early Empire. The nutshell comparison occurs to me as I juxtapose the New York Times "Style" section (formerly the "Living" section that my father dubbed the "Having" section) with the front pages since February 24 on the war in Ukraine. (Who cares if others lack food, water and shelter, so long as you can have a Rolex?) As my New England ancestors might have characterized the pre-decadent ethic: "Use up. Wear Out. Make Do. Do Without." An epitome for our current ethic of waste, trivial ambitions, and moral indifference has not occurred to me yet, but I'm working on it. One possibility is the line Tom Lehrer sang about the American South, "Be it ever so decadent, there's no place like home."
I'll note that Imperial Japan's official justification for conquering China was that it was (as I recall one writer of the time saying) 'decadent, like an elder brother who has fallen into drunkenness and frequenting brothels'.
There, extirpating decadence had to be invoked against the feeling of cultural inferiority felt by many Japanese men in the upper classes only one generation removed from writing exclusively in their version of Classical Chinese; when Russians and American Rightists invoke it, it must be against the material superiority of the West, cultural trends they hate and all. (As I write this, Republican senators are grasping for excuses to vote against a black woman that don't include 'black' or 'woman' in their wording….)
To paraphrase Voltaire, no mean anti-Semite (avant la lettre) himself, if the Jews did not exist, the Tsars would have had to invent us. I mean, we were perfect bogeymen for them—I would like to avoid the notion that Official Nationality was tailored to us, though I think it unlikely that its development wasn't to a small extent conditioned by our presence as A Problem.
Sadly, Dostoyevsky also became a mouthpiece for Russian “official nationality”, after being psychologically broken by a mock execution and Siberian exile for political activity.
Putin’s version of it is actually a pretty good instance of the Marxist concept of ideology - i.e. a set of ideas for making sense of the world whose function is to mask and obscure social and economic realities. Given the cosmopolitan, kleptocratic and gangster-capitalist governance of modern Russia, an inward-looking, ethno-nationalistic appeal to tradition and Christianity could not be a more fitting illustration of how ideology works.
"Decadence" is a concept with a history; and it's good to see this part of that history laid out so well. The Russian imperialists seem unaware that there's more decadence in their own leadership than there is in the West's--so far. My own concept of decadence goes back to the Western European and American popular take on the history of the late Roman Republic and early Empire. The nutshell comparison occurs to me as I juxtapose the New York Times "Style" section (formerly the "Living" section that my father dubbed the "Having" section) with the front pages since February 24 on the war in Ukraine. (Who cares if others lack food, water and shelter, so long as you can have a Rolex?) As my New England ancestors might have characterized the pre-decadent ethic: "Use up. Wear Out. Make Do. Do Without." An epitome for our current ethic of waste, trivial ambitions, and moral indifference has not occurred to me yet, but I'm working on it. One possibility is the line Tom Lehrer sang about the American South, "Be it ever so decadent, there's no place like home."
I'll note that Imperial Japan's official justification for conquering China was that it was (as I recall one writer of the time saying) 'decadent, like an elder brother who has fallen into drunkenness and frequenting brothels'.
There, extirpating decadence had to be invoked against the feeling of cultural inferiority felt by many Japanese men in the upper classes only one generation removed from writing exclusively in their version of Classical Chinese; when Russians and American Rightists invoke it, it must be against the material superiority of the West, cultural trends they hate and all. (As I write this, Republican senators are grasping for excuses to vote against a black woman that don't include 'black' or 'woman' in their wording….)
I love the classics, perhaps we could even describe the west as Decadent.