Cat Show 10/16/2020
VG: Ever since everyone’s life had moved into Internet, this institution became of paramount importance. People meet through Internet, argue, fight, fall in love, and occasionally learn something new. Whether we like it or not, that’s the new normal. Therefore, the attempts of the masters of internet, be it Google, FB, or Twitter to control it and turn themselves into benevolent guardians – known through Dostoevsky as Grand Inquisitors – is particularly egregious.
HOBBS: Indeed, the arrogance of these new editors of the public life challenges anything imagined by the authors of all sort of anti-Utopian novels. Out of the blue, these Guardians pretend to know what truth, goodness, or beauty is. What had preoccupied the great minds for centuries, what drove John Milton to write Aeropagitica, and Dostoevsky – the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor – had been settled with cavalier ease by a couple of American smart alecs with the access to computer algorithms.
ALICE: Yes, we do know that power corrupts and these guys, like th Twitter boss, seem to master an absolute monopolist power. A bit more than hundred years ago, great American president, Theodore Roosevelt, managed to smash the unbridled power of monopolies. Furthermore, it was during his time, that the so called muck-raking journalism, the one that exposed the most blatant abuses of public and business life, had been born. But that was Roosevelt. And now we have Trump, who is more interested in twitting his own horn than in anything else.
VG: Trump might be chaotic and disorganized, but no one since the muckrakers and Roosevelt has dared to call the mass media – fake news, or tried to challenge some major institutions of his day. I am talking about challenging from the top, of course. And sadly, why should those on top bother, when they so clearly benefit form status quo?
ALICE: Are you kidding me? Trump never challenged any corporation, he never challenged anyone from whom he can benefit. He is corrupt to the core. How naïve of you to think otherwise. You, Vladimir, still approach history through the Russian lenses, hoping to see Peter the Great everywhere. We can’t rely on Peter the Great. That’s why we have division of powers, and only those ultimate insiders, like Biden, a person with a giant network of friends, ranging from Kiev to Berlin, and from Washington to Beijing, can work within the system and make the system work. Nobody needs disruptions and crazy oscillations, when a simple call to and from the Ukrainian leader will do. And lo and behold, Biden’s illustrious and experienced son leads a backward Ukrainian energy company from darkness to light. That’s how it is done.
HOBBS: These new Grand Inquisitors with their provincial and myopic morality are the ones that eventually burn people at the stake. Dostoevsky understood it well. They all starts alike with the burning desire to help people, but ends with cynical and desperate demand to destroy them. Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor is a colossal modern type, a person who embodies all sorts of so called humanity benefactors. What they all share is arrogance, power, dislike of people, impatience, and most importantly – a strong believe in evil combined with skepticism about good. Reminds me of Alice, except, thank God, she does not have much power. But other than that, all she expects from the world is an attack and abuse, and therefore she spends all her time fighting imaginary enemies. How many heretics, witches, or plain strangers do these Inquisitors burned? How many witch-hunts organized? Wasting so much of theirs and other people’s productive energies on sniffing out danger or snuffing out dissent.
VG: Interesting point about rejection of good. Dostoevsky always talked about people who are agnostics about God, but are strong believers in Devil. That seems to be the case. That’s why his Grand Inquisitor rejects Christ who was arrested and brought to him. Love and trust and faith in people are all heretical and dangerous categories for Grand Inquisitor. Even though we know from concrete studies, that the better you treat people the better they act. Wasn’t there a study done that plain-clothed policemen have much better effect on any community than heavily armed vicious and trigger happy thugs? That the teachers who encourage their pupils and have faith in them, get better results than those who penalize.
ALICE: I can’t believe you both persist in these dangerous and criminal convictions. The world had changed to the worst, and therefore its inhabitants have to be controlled. Any man is a danger to a woman and only a fool can’t see it. Straight people are a clear danger to gays. Everyone is a menace to trans. The world is full of white supremacists, racists, sexual predators, macro and micro aggressors, let alone nasty dogs, vicious black cats, and Trump who is a danger to everyone. I wish we had a bunch of cops in this house, to save me from all sorts of abuses that unfold here, both mental and physical. I need a safe space from both of you for at least 23 hours, 55 min a day.
HOBBS: That’s the attitude: censor, sanction, ban, forbid. Clear case of anxiety connected with losing grounds. Spain was losing its status as superpower, so it established its Grand Inquisitors to hunt down Jews and Muslims and everyone else who can be exiled or burned. In exactly the same way, the Aztecs were butchering their victims, when Conquistadors put an end to their supremacy. Witch hunting and losing ground have to go hand in hand. No wonder, Vladimir throws his slippers at us, when his work is not going right. All of the sudden he wants to police our peaceful and innocent clawing of furniture or throwing up on the rugs.
VG: OK, guys, don’t push it. You want a safe space in some god-forsaken animal shelter, you’ll get it. In the meantime, no more “meowing” because loud sounds spread viruses. So keep you mouth shut, face muzzled, and your paws to yourself, because the danger is lurking everywhere, from you two in particular.
