Cat Show 9/11/2020

VG. Loaded day today. September is forever marked, unfortunately. But it has always been somewhat bitter sweet. Going to school every First of September back in Russia. Kids with flowers, new festive outfits, everyone is smiling, congratulating. Excitement of seeing old friends and new cute girls. But deep inside you know it is a big hoax. They captured the summer and locked it up in a dungeon. No more fun and games and books and far niente. And just as you forget the traumas of school years, you have the 9/11 and Beslan, and blatant brutality of the Chilean Coup.

HOBBS: But what would we be without the bitter sweet memories? Just a mindless Alice who remembers only what NPR told her about the latest Trump outrage? What is it now, Alice? Insults to the vets or the Woodward revelations, which he wanted to release as October surprise, but decided to do it in September, because anti-Trumpists have another one stashed up for October already?

ALICE: Trump’s goose is cooked. Rather than jumping on the mask bandwagon, and putting muzzles on people as they do on the dangerous aggressive dogs, and should put on the dangerous and aggressive cats like you, Hobbs – Trump was dragging his feat. He failed to sacrifice on the altar of Covid. That’s called sacrilege. And we, the zealots of the new cult, we will never forgive him that.
And by the way, both Azarenka and Williams were amazing yesterday. Except Azarenka was more amazing. And they are not like these brute men, who can only hit the innocent ball-girls.

VG: What I see happening all the way from Chile to Trump is a complex pattern, that goes to the heart of historical process. Someone does something: a coup, a plane attack, a school capture. But then there are forces that are ready to benefit from it. They have all the mechanisms prepared and deployed: propaganda, PR, spinning, violence. As the result – the original action and its perpetrators fade into oblivion, while the smart alecs who had their powder dry, reap the rewards. Look at the Russian Revolution. There was ocean of tears shed by Russia’s unfortunates before the damn thing exploded. But Bolsheviks rode the wave, and managed to reap all the rewards as they seized the power. Adding another ocean of tears in the process.

ALICE: Are you trying to say, that “who benefits” does not always initiate the process? I agree with you. We, the democrats, didn’t commit all the stupid and nasty acts that Trump did. But we surely stand to benefit. And yes, there is nothing wrong in airing Trump’s misdeeds all over the world. People should learn about them and make their own conclusions.

HOBBS: That’s an interesting argument, Vladimir. So you are trying to say, that equating the perpetrators with those who benefits, short-circuits the historical explanation; simplifies it. If Cheneys and Rumsfelds of this world stand to benefit, didn’t mean they pulled the trigger. If Putin stands to benefit from the anger at Chechens, does not mean he organized the attack on school. If the west stands to benefit from Navalny’s poisoning, doesn’t mean, the British agents are behind it.

VG: Yes, that’s what I am trying to say. Even paranoid man has enemies. Nemtsov, Navalny or US policy in the Middle East had a lot of enemies. So did Aliende in Chili. So did tsarist regime in Russia. Ultimately, conspiracy theory is the theory that fails to incorporate tragic coincidences, human errors, passions, ambitions, and other things that make history complex, fascinating, and unpredictable. In the affairs of this world, we see through the glass darkly. Only arrogant fools arrogate to themselves this divine view of knowing all the causes and actors.

ALICE: I see where you are going. You are trying to whitewash Russia’s hacking of Hillary emails, their interference in western democratic process, their aggression against domestic and foreign enemies. It is not going to work. I would agree that human errors or passions or tragic coincidence occur in Europe and Asia. That’s what these continents are made of. But not in the US. They pick up the best and the brightest from the best schools in the country and fill with them State Department, and Pentagon, and seventeen agencies, and Democratic Party. These are the guys who are not driven by passions or ambitions. These are the guys who have only the interests of their exceptional country in mind. And if something goes wrong, it has to be Russians. That’s a simple law of deduction, the intellectual process, of which you two are woefully unaware.

HOBBS: Poor Alice. I just deduce from that outburst that you have a clear case of NYT poisoning. Nobody sane or healthy can deliver this nonsense with a straight face. Unless they are the NYT readers, of course. Those guys would believe anything the paper would want them to belief. Believing dozens of contradictory things used to be a sign of mental illness. Not anymore. NYT readers believe that Obama is right to bomb and destroy countries and yet he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for that; the are convinced that questioning Holocaust is a crime, yet, when the Ukrainian fascists who perpetuated numerous nazi crimes are glorified and commemorated, this is normal process of democracy building; they believe that the main sponsors of Democratic Party – Wall Street and MIC have the interests of both shareholders and common people in mind; they believe that all the enemies of Western Establishment are both incompetent fools, and arch devious and unstoppable villains. But returning to your theory, Vladimir. Yes, there are passions, and ambitions, and human anger. But there is also money, and logistics, and all sorts of support. The protesters in Ukraine an Belarus might be driven by their misguided passions. But somebody has to give them their white dresses, pink pussy hats, and talking points.

VG: Indeed. When do the sins of omission end and the sins of commission begin, is the question. That’s why we need serious historians to sort things out, and not the maniacs of “deduction” – in the manner of Alice, who think they can figure it all out by asking triumphantly, Qui Bono?