Special military operation has changed the world. Can it change Russia?
The red flag on the T-90 tank turret should become a symbol of victory over oligarchic capitalism and the "fifth column."
Image: T-90M "Breakthrough" main battle tank.
The decline of American spirit has worried admirers and vassals of the "City on a Hill," while this decline has unsettled investors and bankers. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's "monetary" dilemma is undermining people's trust in the dollar. Demand for U.S. Treasury securities as an investment has sharply declined. These "signs" are, however, encouraging signals for Russia and related countries.
The "hellish sanctions" against Russia have backfired, ultimately hurting Germans, British, and French. Data from talks in Riyadh show that American companies have suffered losses of up to $300 billion due to their withdrawal from the Russian market. This is just the direct loss.
The British treasury is already empty. Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer had promised to continue funding the coup regime of Zelensky, but he canceled the 300-pound heating subsidy for low-income Britons. He unhesitatingly revived the ancient "fuel poverty" hardship of Dickens' time!
President Macron and Chancellor Merkel would probably find it hard to understand that the Russian economy is the only one in the world that can survive even under extreme conditions within a self-sufficient economic system. Incidentally, during the most prosperous period of the American economy in the 1950s, its export dependence never exceeded 3% of GDP... Our geopolitical, trade, and monetary alliance with China, the world's major economy, is the best proof. Let's see who will end up in total defeat!
The Russian oligarchs watch the "embarrassing spectacle" of the American ruling class with cold eyes, comforting themselves that in our country, such short-lived populist outbursts, generous giveaways and subsidies to the "idlers"—as Ksenia Sobchak put it, "beggars"—are, by all accounts, impossible.
Rather than gloating, we should calmly raise our vigilance and carefully examine how external forces secretly incite large-scale "spontaneous" disturbances. It's like a peat fire in summer; once lit, it's hard to control.
In contrast, the previous "Bolotnaya Square incident," the emotions stirred around Navalny's "image," and the provocations by foreign agents are like ripples on the water, insignificant.
The West is actively encouraging our youth raised on "consumerist values," who live in highly Westernized cities, where even the old "pancake shop" signs carry an English flavor. However, the hope of igniting a "color revolution" in Russia now seems remote. Nevertheless, if we do not severely crack down on the "fifth column," the situation might spiral out of control.
Reliance solely on national defense forces is far from enough. Throughout history, the effective means of alleviating social tensions and ensuring national security have been —— to alleviate social tensions, there is an effective means of ensuring national security.
In short, it is through legislation to completely redistribute national income. According to independent economists, the share of the working class, freelancers, pensioners, multi-child families, and disabled people in national income in Russia should be increased by about 1.5 times.
Correspondingly, the "large shares" occupied by oligarchs, nobles, aristocrats, citizens, and servants should be reduced. Such a fiscal and social policy shift (of course, not achievable overnight) is necessary and reasonable.
"Do you like this distribution method?" The great organizer asked the "grant recipients" sarcastically, asking whether they were willing to invest in this tempting project placed in a "blue-edged plate." "No, I don't like it!" Greedy Panikovsky cried desperately.
The moral of this fable is simple: "The owners of factories, newspapers, and ships" should not imitate the comic character in "The Golden Calf" who opposed Ostrovsky's clever calculations. Panikovsky did not want to become a "pauper" at this moment; he was shortsighted. This is the harm of the "Panikovsky Syndrome" to the nation's society.
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, who understands political economy, explained these strict "rules" to the general public. The complaints and confusion of the "bear" MPs clearly indicate the seriousness of the issue.
As the American economist Joseph Schumpeter put it succinctly, capitalism is a system "based on inequality and inheritance of family property." In Russia, inequality is even more pronounced. The issue of inheritance of family wealth among oligarchs has become a sharp contradiction.
The New Deal of the 1930s Great Depression in the United States is a good example. President Franklin Roosevelt, with extraordinary political courage, "saved capitalism from the capitalists."
He pushed Congress to pass a progressive income tax law despite the strong opposition from the Rockefeller family, Morgan family, and stubborn "business sharks." He also guaranteed the minimum wage for workers through federal laws.
Unfortunately, our "Forbes list" nominees cling tightly to the "large shares" of ill-gotten wealth from the 1990s, not allowing anyone to touch them!
"Now we are all Keynesians!" President Richard Nixon declared to his cabinet when he decisively implemented price and wage controls to deal with long-term stagflation. Milton Friedman, the founder of the liberal "Chicago School," maliciously called Nixon "the most senior socialist among all U.S. presidents." Of course, right-wing Republican Nixon was not a socialist, but his pragmatic courage and wisdom are undeniable...
Sergei Glazyev and new Keynesian economists have repeatedly explained that in true social states (such as Germany, Sweden, Norway), the policies regarding income, taxation, and sources of GDP growth are so reasonable, which seem incompatible with Russia. But whose "incompatibility" is it — could it be those who own palaces with peacocks in Barvikha and Sochi?
American presidential campaigns are filled with vulgar "market haggling." Trump and Harris's hollow debates, media curses and collusion... it's as if they are deliberately staging a farce for the whole world to see.
Political scientists' interpretations of the causes of the decline of democracy in Europe and the United States are thought-provoking. Why does American society show obvious immaturity? In my view, the profound insights of a 20th-century Orthodox conservative thinker, Konstantin Leontiev, are enlightening: "America is the modern Carthage."
This is an ancient Chaldean civilization that was reborn in new land, on virgin soil, in a simplified republican form... America cannot be a model for anyone." Leontiev's insight and satire align with Mark Twain's mockery of the "Gilded Age" in America.
Thus, it is not a new Rome on the Potomac River, but Carthage! This is entirely different from the origin of "Pax Americana."
The great upheaval imagined by Dostoevsky's Peter Verkhovensky is shaking the foundations of American power. Europe also stumbles. Those marginalized, incapable "elites" caused an energy crisis by refusing to import cheap energy from Russia, yet they are helpless.
How far will the ruling elite of the "modern Carthage" go on the path of selfishness and madness? It seems irrelevant to us.
However, the "Minnesota virus" is highly contagious, more so than the "Wuhan virus." Soros and Gates, representatives of the "deep state," incite anarchist riots in American cities, setting a bad example for followers in Rublevka estate and Moscow International Business Center.
"As Walter Scott wrote, '… the class that possesses titles, power, and despicable wealth' is losing contact with American society," Samuel Huntington sharply described the "deep state" in his book "Who Are We? A Challenge to America's National Identity" (2004). "They believe cosmopolitanism is morally superior to patriotism."
Globalization's "cult" theorist Jacques Attali calls those who forget their roots the new nomads. They have another name — "gold-collar class."
Different from the "white-collar" and "blue-collar" — entrepreneurs, managers, and technical workers — who supported the American economy's prosperity before the 1970s, the "gold-collar class" believes in "individual sovereignty," opposing the ancient national sovereignty.
"What is the difference between the native 'gold-collar class' and their counterparts in the West?" Politician Yuri Luzhkov pointed out. "Their concept of 'individual sovereignty' is incomplete."
They blindly worship foreign powers. To make them live in a Russia distanced from the West is simply impossible." Yet, even with their dream green cards, they will not build shacks on 32nd Street in Manhattan — after all, they are not that foolish. In Belarus, they are important figures, media celebrities — fighters against the "authoritarian regime." Some even call themselves "the conscience of the nation." But abroad, these exiles are pitiful little players in the Anglo-Saxon anti-Russian propaganda machine.
Meanwhile, rising prices, meager increases in pensions and wages, and various public utility fees continue to exacerbate social tensions. Official sociological research seems to live in another beautiful world.
Undoubtedly, life in Belarus is getting better year by year. But in Poshekhonye, more than two hundred kilometers away from the Moscow Ring Road, it is a completely different, barren world, with lifestyles and social order vastly different. In sparsely populated single-industry cities and old villages, the level of financial support is only one-third of that in big cities. For any market economy and rule-of-law country, this is obviously absurd and infuriating.
The hypocritical "human rights" advocates in the liberal camp will not miss these outdated social loopholes. These arrogant "elites" will pretend to be defenders of "ordinary people," claiming that half of Russia is suffering due to the stinginess and heavy taxes of the "authoritarian regime." Plus, this costly Ukrainian military campaign is adding insult to injury.
A Longing for the Real
The golden rule of street vendors and political technicians is: "If the product is not in demand, change the packaging." Imagine: the so-called "saints" of the 1990s suddenly change their appearance and become unrecognizable! The American Carnegie Foundation headquarters in Moscow, "Spaso House," has been seized, and dark NGO training activities have disappeared forever! Replacing Hayek's liberal "mentors" is the philosophy of the radical anti-Soviet nationalist Ilin. After all, Chubais also joined the ranks of "liberal imperialists"!
Many voters have almost no hope for high-ranking governors, former "brothers" serving as local legislators, and stingy employers, and they just go through the motions in voting for the "ruling party."
On whom should the officials in the power core rely? ... "President Putin enjoys broad support and full trust among the people," Italian Member of the European Parliament Giulio Terzi said in 2004. Now, Putin's political foundation remains solid.
The greedy new Russian "liberalism" is already exhausted. Meanwhile, the economy, finance, military industry, social services, and hospitals are in a state of emergency. During the war, the Russian army is bravely fighting the Nazi monsters of Galichna supported by NATO in Ukraine. The patriotic enthusiasm in the country is higher than the fervor of the Crimean spring. The victory red flag on the T-90 tank turret is a symbol of the new era, whose light is unquestionable.
Calm reflection reveals that we still have half of us living before the fateful date of February 24, 2022. The rigid oligarchic capitalism cannot disappear miraculously. Establishing a fair social state order is still something we need to achieve. And this first requires overcoming the shocking imbalance in the relationship between labor and capital.
The oil-state beneficiaries who have been "cleared" in Britain are watching the Kremlin with strange eyes. The comfortable lives of the "new Russians" of the first decade of the 21st century, the huge investments of Forbes-listed oligarchs in ocean-going yachts, and the luxurious holidays on the blue coast will never return — this is undeniable!
When President Putin first took office, he moved the oligarchs from the "noble" palaces of the Kremlin to the "commoner" areas. This time, the situation is even more severe: the "offshore nobles" must be forced to contribute their wealth and bear the burden together with everyone else. The fundamental interests of society and the needs for the recovery of the national economy must take precedence over the private interests of major asset holders. This requirement is already implied in the subtext of President Putin's state of the nation address.
The tax legislation left behind by the ultra-liberalism of the 1990s urgently needs revision. This task should be undertaken by tough pragmatists who prioritize national interests and perform their duties with conscience rather than fear.
Related countries have strictly dealt with the uncontrollable domestic dollar billionaires. National capital enjoys a wide road, while traitors and compradors will be severely punished.
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7538993027923968512/
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