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Despre cauze și vinovați

March 9, 2022 //
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Discută unii pe net.
‘Putin a reușit să întoarcă Rusia cu 32 de ani înapoi.
McDonald a deschis primul restaurant din lanțul rusesc în 1990 și închide acum 850 de locații în întreaga Rusie.’

‘Păi da bă, da’ ăștia nu pleacă pentru că au ceva cu Putin… Pur și simplu și-au dat seama că rușii n-or să mai aibe bani să dea pe chestii din astea. Că economia Rusiei o să se ducă de râpă! Ăsta fiind motivul pentru care au plecat și celelalte multinaționale…’

După o scurtă căutare pe net, aflu că McDonald va continua să-și plătească angjații din Rusia și din Ucraina.

Acuma că ne-am liniștit, relativ, cu privire la cei 62 000 de angajați McDonald din Rusia, hai să gândim un pic mai adânc.

McDonald e un operator economic. Prima lui responsabilitate este față de proprietarii săi. Față de acționari.
Treaba lui McDonald este să facă profit. Și să-l facă în așa fel încât tot procesul să fie sustenabil!
Adică treaba lui McDonald este să se asigure că va putea face profit și peste 100 ani. Nu doar în Rusia ci și în restul lumii!

Acum am să fac o pauză și am să vă spun o poveste.

Sunt suficient de bătrân să-mi aduc aminte discursul lui Ceașcă din ’68. Nu atât discursul în sine, aveam doar 7 ani, cât sentimentul de mândrie pe care îl aveau părinții mei. Sentiment împărtășit de aproape toți cei din jurul nostru.

Ceașcă tocmai se opusese, vehement, intervenției sovietice împotriva Primăverii de la Praga.

„Pătrunderea trupelor celor 5 țări socialiste în Cehoslovacia constituie o mare greșeală și o primejdie gravă pentru pacea în Europa, pentru soarta socialismului în lume! Nu există nici o justificare și nu poate fi acceptat nici un motiv pentru a admite numai o clipă ideea intervenției militare în treburile unui stat socialist frățesc!”
Uraaaa!

România era pe val. Recunoscută de toate puterile vremii. Magazinele erau pline. Pușcăriile politice tocmai fusesera golite. Trai pe vătrai…

Singura chestie nasoală era decretul cu interzicerea avortului. Și faptul că nu puteai călători liber. De vorbit… încă mai puteai vorbi, cu anumite limite.

În doar 20 de ani, toate chestiile bune au dispărut. Fără să fi plecat nici o multinațională din țară!

Doar datorită stilului din ce în ce mai dictatorial adoptat de ‘conducerea de partid și de stat’.
Din cauza cărui stil, din ce în ce mai mulți dintre cei care știau despre ce era vorba au fost marginalizați.
Din cauza cărui stil, ‘factorii de decizie’ – din ce în ce mai puțini, au rămas înconjurați de sfătuitori din ce în ce mai nepricepuți. Și mai proști.

Da, socialismul în general, și cel românesc în particular, s-a prăbușit din cauză că decidenții – adică și Ceaușescu, practic nu mai știau pe ce lume trăiau. Adică din ‘cauza’ ‘consilierilor’ lor.

Doar că vina le aparține decidenților! Adică lui Ceaușecu.

Decidenții au fost cei care au dat tonul!
Decidenții au creat ‘stilul’. Dictatura a fost instaurată de dictatori!
Într-adevăr, cu concursul ‘cozilor de topor’ și cu acceptul, tacit – și de cele mai multe ori inconștient, al populației.
Dar la inițiativa și datorită ‘eforturilor neprecupețite’ ale dictatorilor înșiși!

Să revenim la subiect.
La hamburgherii de la care am plecat.

Indiferent de calculele făcute de multinaționale, cauza plecării lor e aceiași.
Indiferent de moțivația fiecăruia dintre decidenți care au ales ‘închiderea prăvăliei’, fie ea și temporară, vinovatul este unul singur.

Putin a fost cel care ales să invadeze Ucraina!

Și, de fapt, ‘Putin’ a fost cel care a ales sa guverneze într-un mod din ce în ce mai dictatorial.

Chiar dacă nu invada Ucraina, în cele din urmă Putin tot ar fi reușit – într-un fel sau altul, să ducă Rusia de râpă.

Iar toate astea s-au întâmplat la doar 30 de ani de la căderea întregului lagăr socialist.
Din motivele pe care le-am explicat mai sus.

Dacă eu am înțeles toate astea, Putin de ce le ignoră?
Avem aproape aceiași vârstă iar el are o experiență de viață mult mai vastă…

Să trecem peste acest moment poate prea personal!

Ca lucrurile să fie cât se poate de clare – adică mură-n gură, pe mine nu mă interesează pedepsirea vinovaților.
Asta e o activitate de care ne vom ocupa după aceea.
Adică după ce oamenii vor înceta să mai moară mult prea devreme.

Iar pentru asta, trebuie să ne concentrăm pe cauze!
Pe locul unde putem rupe cercul vicios.

Ceaușescu a căzut abia după ce oamenii rămași în jurul lui – așa prost aleși cum erau, și-au depășit condiția de yes-meni.
După ce oamenii rămași în jurul lui au realizat către ce dezastru erau conduși. Împreună cu restul țării!

Oamenii aflați în acest gen de poziții trebuie ajutați.
Întâi să înțeleagă.
Și apoi să facă.

Din momentul acesta, rolul lui ‘Putin’ practic a încetat.
Rămâne cu vinovăția acumulată până acum, bineînțeles, doar că de acum încolo vinovăția pentru cele ce se vor întâmpla în viitor se va acumula în contul celor care continuă să-l ajute.
Pentru simplul motiv că a continua să ajuți personaje de tip ‘Putin’, după ce aceștia și-au dat arama pe față, este o formă de sinucidere.
Nu doar de crimă!

Vorbeam mai devreme despre datoria decidenților McDonald față de acționarii lor.
Despre nevoia lui McDonald ca afacerea să fie condusă într-un mod sustenabil.
Ca afacerea să fie în stare să genereze profit pe termen nederminat. Adică cât mai lung….

Oare când or să înțeleagă dictatorii că modelul lor de business nu e sustenabil?
Și, poate chiar mai important, când or să înțeleagă cozile de topor că modelul lor de business este sinucigaș?

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Categories 1989, alegerile pe care le facem, autoritarism, Ce tara lasam copiilor nostri?, colaborare, comunicare efectiva, constiinta de sine, Cu pielea la bataie, evolutie, identitate colectiva, In limba Romana, Intentie, Omul ca masura a tuturor lucrurilor, psihologie, Respect Mutual.

Enough already

March 6, 2022 //
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Ever since Putin had ordered his army to invade Ukraine, I keep hearing about what drove Putin to do it.
About his dreams of rebuilding the old Russian Glory. About his drive to become the most important Russian personality. About NATO ‘pushing itself’ closer and closer to Russia’s borders. About…

The map above is the last argument I came by. And the last straw…
The person who posted the map doesn’t agree with Putin. Not at all.
But cannot ‘forget’ the fact that at one time Kiev did belong to Russia.

Well… I’ll be blunt about it!

This person, along with many others, tries to explain what is going on in a rational manner. They attempt to find an objective reason for a subjective decision.

Putin is flattening out Ukraine because he is afraid.

The Soviet Union had survived 1956 Hungary, 1968 Prague, and 1980 Solidarnosc. All of these ‘movements’ had been, somehow, quashed. Dealt with.

The Soviet Union had, finally, crumbled under its own weight after Afghanistan. After a people didn’t cave in. After a people, an entire people, found it in themselves how to resist. How to say no!

Putin had successfully quashed Yeltsin’s oligarchs, the Chechen rebellion, the first Orange revolution, dealt with Saakashvili, helped Lukashenko save his throne and put a lid upon the recent Kazahstani attempt at making a small step towards democracy.
And was contemplating the Western Europe planing to give up burning gas and oil.

‘His’ gas and oil…

He had to do something. Otherwise ‘his’ people were going to throw him out.

If Ukraine was allowed to continue on the self determination path, who was going to stop the Russians from following suit?

So yes, the circumstances described by that map are valid.
But it is Putin who bears the entire responsibility for what’s going on.
And for creating the circumstances in which ‘next’ is going to happen.

Can you imagine what’s going on in these children’s souls?

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, authoritarianism, awareness, Choices we make, collective identity, effective communication, evolution, In English, man as a measure for all things, Mutual Respect, Psychology, The kind of world we are building for our children, Trust

‘Hiccups’ in time

March 4, 2022 //
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Circa 840, “three noble brothers” of Viking origin – Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, established “what came to be called Kievan Rus”.

“Rus,” which is where the name “Russia” comes from, purportedly derives from an old Nordic word for “men who row.”

882. Oleg the Prophet captures Kyiv and moves the capital of the Viking kingdom from Novgorod to Kyiv.
Thus the Rus becomes Kievan.

1703. Peter the Great of Rus-sia established Sank Petersburg as a bulwark against the Swedish Kingdom.
The city served as Russia’s capital from 1712 to 1918

1941. Hitler breaks the German Soviet Non Aggression Pact and starts a war against the Soviet Union.
Leningrad – the city formerly known as Sankt Petersburg, had been put under siege from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944

2022. February 24. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the present day ruler of Rus-sia, in complete defiance of the Budapest Memorandum, started a “special military operation” meant to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,”

Kyiv hasn’t been besieged yet but has already been under heavy bombardment.

I’m Romanian.
Romanians don’t have very fond memories of what had happened to their country whenever the Russian soldiers had come by to ‘visit’.
As a teenager I read The 900 Days The Siege of Leningrad, 1968, by Harrison Salisbury

And wept.

Now, an already old man, I check out, on the Internet, what’s going out in Kyiv – the former capital of the Kievan Rus.

And weep.

Homo homini lupus has become a massive understatement.

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, authoritarianism, awareness, Bounded rationality, Choices we make, collective identity, effective communication, evolution, fail better, In English, Intent, man as a measure for all things, Mutual Respect, skin in the game, teleology, Trust

Manipulation. A Crash Course.

March 3, 2022 //
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1. Sow doubt.
2. Drop a loud fact. Or two… This will simultaneously ‘water’ the previously planted seed and act as a ‘foot in the door’ for your next move.
3. ‘Miss-interpret’ another fact.
4. Mention an universal human emotion, inviting your audience to identify itself with the ‘victim’.
5. Squarely state what you want your audience to believe.

1. ‘The Soviet Union didn’t crumple under its own weight. It was dissolved by Yeltsin so that Gorbachev’s position would disappear.
Leaving Yeltsin as the top dog of the day. Even if at the helm of a little smaller empire…’

2. ‘After the Cold War had ended, the West should have treated the ‘defeated’ as Germany, Italy and Japan had been treated after WWII. The West should have helped the Soviet Union to overcome the transition hurdles by extending to it an equivalent of the Marshall Plan.
Instead of that, the Americans had come up with the Wolfowitz – later Bush, Doctrine.’

3. ‘Gorbatchev was told by James Baker that NATO will not move an inch eastward’

4. “…1998, Yeltsin, late Yeltsin: ‘you promised not to do this! So, how do we trust you, if you make a promise?’ “

5.1. Vladimir Putin has been created by the United States.
5.2. The so called free media in general – and New York Times in particular, cannot be trusted to provide honest information.

Pozner’s discourse is far more ‘byzantine’ than the ‘stream-lined’ version I used to illustrate what skillful propaganda looks like. Skillful maskirovka, more likely?

This post has become long enough. Let me wrap it up.

The main question here being ‘did he actually say it? Did Baker actually promised Gorbachev that “NATO will not move an inch eastward” ‘?

“Having met with Genscher on his way into discussions with the Soviets, Baker repeated exactly the Genscher formulation in his meeting with Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze on February 9, 1990, (see Document 4); and even more importantly, face to face with Gorbachev.
Not once, but three times, Baker tried out the “not one inch eastward” formula with Gorbachev in the February 9, 1990, meeting. He agreed with Gorbachev’s statement in response to the assurances that “NATO expansion is unacceptable.” Baker assured Gorbachev that “neither the President nor I intend to extract any unilateral advantages from the processes that are taking place,” and that the Americans understood that “not only for the Soviet Union but for other European countries as well it is important to have guarantees that if the United States keeps its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.”“

‘So he actually said it!’…

“the Americans understood that “not only for the Soviet Union but for other European countries as well it is important to have guarantees that if the United States keeps its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.”“

The Soviet Union is long gone, all the states which have been admitted into NATO are ‘in’ because they had asked themselves to join – and are now extremely glad to be protected by the famous 5th article – … while the only (frustrated) ‘agent’ who ever cried foul was Putin.
Not only cried foul but eventualy acted out his frustrations!

But Putin is not exactly alone…

“Putin’s Munich speech was the first explicit warning of serious trouble if the West did not abandon its increasingly aggressive posture toward Russia; the Kremlin’s latest demands for security guarantees and a NATO military pullback from Russia’s borders may be the last warning. The United States and its allies are backing Russia into a corner, and that is profoundly unwise if the goal is to avoid war with a heavily armed great power.“

Ted Galen Carpenter, Senior Fellow, Cato.org January 24, 2022

Trump: “How smart is that?”
Pompeo: “I have an enormous respect for him!”

Pozner seems to be somewhat right, after all.
His arguments don’t stand – as he had framed them – but he does have an inkling…

And yes, you can – and actually should, analyze my post following the steps I already mentioned.
Then please read this:

Manipulation: useful tool, mortal sin or what?!? April 27, 2015
‘Causing’ Circumstances March 1, 2022

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, arrogance, authoritarianism, awareness, Bounded rationality, Choices we make, collective identity, effective communication, In English, Intent, man as a measure for all things, Mutual Respect, Psychology, skin in the game, Trust

End Game

March 1, 2022 //
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There’s chess and there’s bridge.

There’s managing your resources – on your own, while trying to outsmart – out, in the open, your opponent.

And there’s team-work. An attempt to make the most of what lady-luck had put on the table by exchanging information. With your partner and in the presence of the competing team. This time only the conversation is out in the open, the resources themselves remain hidden. During the initial phase of the competition and, partially, during the end game.

Until WWI, war was more like chess than anything else. Resources were, more or less, out in the open. The soldiers had no other role but to do and die. The whole responsibility belonged to the guys who called the shots. One for each side…

WWI had ended indecisively. Hence WWII.

Each of the winning parties – there had been two victors, had learned something different from the experience.
The Western allies had learned the value of cooperation while the Eastern ‘block’ had reached the conclusion that brute force trumps everything.

The Americans had started playing bridge with the Brits and taught the game to the rest of the world.
The Russians had honed their skills at playing chess. Something they were already very good at.
For a while, the Americans have tried to compete with the Russians. Remember a guy named Fischer? Bobby Fischer?

Soon, too soon, the Americans had given up.
After building a computer smart enough to outsmart all human chess players…

The even worse part was that the Americans had given up bridge too!
And forgot the most important lesson of WWI and WWII. That the victor needs to take care of the vanquished if they want to enjoy peace. To actually win the peace process after they had already won the war.

Which brings us to the end of the Cold War.

Communism – and practically all communist states, had crumpled under its own weight.
The westerners assumed it was something they had done themselves. Declared victory.
And the end of history…

Having already given up bridge, they forgot to take care of the vanquished… and allowed Russia – the party who had taken most of the blame over their shoulders, for reasons to be discussed some other time, to slide down the slope inaugurated by post WWI Germany.
Did I mention that Russia was still fond of chess? Very much in love with brute force? And not very fond of respectful cooperation?

Now, that we all try to peek into the future – attempting to figure out how the current aggression ordered by Putin will end up, we need some people to learn about bridge.

Putin cannot launch by himself the nuclear missiles he had been brandishing lately.

Now, can those around him reset the chess board on which they are but pawns into a bridge table?
And invite the rest of the world into the game?

Will the rest of us understand the invitation?
If, and when, it will come?

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Categories 1989, alternative ways of acquring knowledge, altruism, authoritarianism, awareness, collective identity, cooperation, evolution, In English, Intent, man as a measure for all things, man induced fragility, Mindset, Mutual Respect, Psychology, skin in the game, Trust

De câte ori?

February 28, 2022 //
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Foarte mulții, și din ce în ce mai puțin subtilii, apologeți Putiniști plasați în spațiul virtual de expresie românească îi scot vinovați pe ucraineni. Direct sau indirect.

Unul dintre argumentele folosite pentru a ne convinge pe noi, cititorii, ca Ucraina capătă ceea ce merită este nivelul ridicat de corupție din țara vecină.

Eu nu prea înțeleg cum vine chestia asta!

De ce trebuie distrusă o țară – adică dărâmată cu tunul, doar pentru că unii dintre locuitorii săi sunt corupți? Adică dau și iau șpagă?

Care este legătura dintre corupția din Ucraina și faptul că Putin și-a permis să ordone invadarea unei țări căreia statul Rus i-a garantat securitatea?

Dar să nu lăsăm lipsa mea de viziune să stea în calea lecției pe care o avem de învățat din cele ce se întâmplă în jurul nostru.

Dacă până și apologeții lui Putin au ajuns la concluzia asta, poate ar fi cazul să facem ceva pe chestia asta!

Pănă la urmă, este a doua oară când ‘Corupția Ucide’.

https://romania.europalibera.org/a/politizarea-prin-impostur%C4%83-consiliile-de-administra%C8%9Bie-br%C4%83%C8%9Bar%C4%83-de-aur/31718244.html

https://www.libertatea.ro/stiri/marturia-unei-mame-din-ucraina-care-vine-de-trei-ori-pe-saptamana-in-romania-pentru-dializa-la-vama-pe-partea-noastra-oamenii-platesc-spaga-ca-sa-treaca-4002985

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Categories 1989, aici sunt banii dumneavoastra, alegerile pe care le facem, aroganta, coruptie, Cu pielea la bataie, identitate colectiva, In limba Romana, Omul ca masura a tuturor lucrurilor, respect reciproc

Interpretări alternative ale istoriei

February 27, 2022 //
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Foarte mulți internauți care se folosesc de limba română pentru a-și împărtăși gândurile au început să-și aducă aminte de istorie.
De modul în care a fost răscroită după război geografia Europei de Est, de suprafețele adăugate Ucrainei și de modul în care am fost părăsiți – cu toții, dar în special noi, românii – în brațele comuniștilor moscoviți. Părăsiți de Occident… de Occidentul aflat acum în ‘putrefacție’.
Concluzia?
Ucrainenii și-o merită iar Occidentul este chiar mai vinovat decât Putin pentru ceea ce se întâmplă în Ucraina.
Pentru ce se întâmplă ACUM în Ucraina…

Hai să o luăm un pic altfel.

Chiar de la începutul celui de al doilea război mondial, Stalin – pentru o vreme cel mai bun tovaraș de drum al lui Hitler, a ocupat – de comun acord cu prietenul său mai sus menționat, jumătatea estică a Poloniei. Și o parte din Finlanda, dar aia e altă poveste. De la noi, din România, a ocupat jumătatea estică a Moldovei, Nordul Bucovinei și a dat cadou lui Horthy Ardealul de Nord-Vest.
Stalin împreună cu aliatul său Hitler.
Ucraina nici nu exista pe vremea aia!

La finalul războiului – între timp Hitler îl abandonase pe Stalin, ‘amantul părăsit’ a mai căpătat câteva ciosvârte. Sau, mai corect spus, a mai ocupat, prin rapt, alte câteva crâmpeie de moșie.

Pe care le-a atașat Ucrainei. Pentru că așa era geografia locului… Și Belarusului… dar nu dă bine să vorbim si de bucata aia…


Stalin ar fi putut, cei drept, proceda la fel cum a făcut cu Kaliningradul… doar că ar fi fost prea mare bătaia de cap administrativă… Pe lânga asta, Kaliningradul avea o importanță simbolică mult mai mare decât partea estică a Poloniei, estul Slovaciei, nordul Bucovinei și sudul Basarabiei – adică malul de nord al brațului Chilia… Ca să nu mai vorbim despre faptul că ‘enclava’ Kaliningrad făcuse parte din fostul agresor – Germania, pe când restul teritoriilor fuseseră, cel puțin teoretic, ‘eliberate’… Eliberate dar nu și lăsate să se întoarcă la țările de origine…

Cu alte cuvinte, Ucraina – bunicii celor care se apără acum de agresorii asmuțiți de Putin, s-a trezit cu niște teritorii atașate de ea, fără să fi avut ceva de spus pe tema asta.

O mare parte din populația acelor teritorii a fugit în țările de care aparținuseră până atunci iar o altă parte a fost trimisă în vilegiatura prin Siberia. În locul lor au fost aduși ‘imigranți’ ruși.

Acum, după ce lui Putin i s-a făcut frică – dacă le trece și rușilor prin cap să facă ce au făcut ucrainenii și tocmai erau să facă bielorușii, adică să scape de dictator, admiratorii lui Putin s-au apucat să le scoată pe nas ucrainenilor de astăzi, aflați sub asediu, trăsnăile criminale făcute de Stalin în urmă cu mai bine de 75 de ani.

Chiar n-am învățat nimic din istorie? Plecăm capul chiar înainte să ne fi arătat cineva vreo sabie? Sau ne lăsăm momiți de arginți, precum Iuda Iscariotul?

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Categories 1989, aroganta, comunicare efectiva, constiinta de sine, coruptie, Cu pielea la bataie, In limba Romana, Incredere, Intentie, Nu prostiti poporul cu televizorul!, Omul ca masura a tuturor lucrurilor, psihologie, rationalitate limitata, respect reciproc, Tara din care traim

Geopolitical Whataboutism

February 23, 2022 //
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Now, that Putin had recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states, I keep hearing that ‘if NATO hadn’t integrated the former socialist states in the Eastern Europe, Russia wouldn’t have occupied Crimea nor encouraged the ‘freedom fighters’ in Luhansk and Donetsk’.

NATO, and UE, are not perfect. Far from it.
Yet the former USSR had been even less perfect.

What drove me to this conclusion?
Well, both NATO and the EU are thriving. People and countries flock to join in. The very present conflict in and around Ukraine had been sparked by Putin’s ‘unhappiness’ with the Ukrainian people insisting in joining both NATO and the EU.
Meanwhile, the USSR is no longer with us. Had collapsed, under its own weight, some 30 years ago.

The second difference between these supranational entities – NATO and the EU on one side and USSR on the other, is the ‘small’ matter of how a member got to join the club.

In NATO’s case – valid also for the EU, a prospective member state has to ask for it first and then wait to be accepted.
The USSR had been organized under the ‘invitation only’ principle. If you were invited, you had to join. Regardless…

CSI, the Community of ‘Independent’ States, is organized under the same principle!


Btw 1.
Did I mention that the USSR had crumbled under its own weight?
By allowing self serving callous political operators to grab too much power?
Too much power for their own selves as well for their country’s well being?

Could we attribute the demise of the USSR on the fact that the bolsheviks were ‘house broken’ into ‘toeing the line’ while here, in the West, some people still dare to speak up their minds?

“Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., a Trump critic who he is targeting for defeat this fall, responded Tuesday: “Former President Trump’s adulation of Putin today — including calling him a ‘genius’ — aids our enemies. Trump’s interests don’t seem to align with the interests of the United States of America.”“

Btw 2.

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Categories 1989, authoritarianism, awareness, Bounded rationality, collective identity, cooperation, effective communication, evolution, fail better, In English, man as a measure for all things, Mutual Respect, Psychology, skin in the game, teleology, Trust

Digging our own grave…

November 20, 2020 //
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Just came across this story:

A king had 10 wild ferocious dogs.

He used them to torture and kill any minister that misguided him. A minister once gave an opinion which was wrong and which the king didn’t like at all. So he ordered that the minister to be thrown to the dogs. The minister said “I have served you loyally for 10 years and you do this?”

The king was unrelenting.

Minister pleaded “Please give me 10 days before you throw me to the dogs”.

The king agreed. In those 10 days the minister went to the keeper of the dogs and told him he wanted to serve the dogs for the next 10 days.

The guard was baffled, but he agreed. So the minister started feeding the dogs, caring for them, washing them, providing all sorts of comfort for them.

When the 10 days were up the king ordered that the minister be thrown to the dogs as sentenced. When he was thrown in, everyone was amazed at what they saw. The dogs were wagging their tails playing with the condemned minister, licking his feet.

The king was baffled at what he saw.

“What happened to the dogs?!” he growled.

The minister then said “I served the dogs for only 10 days and they didn’t forget my service. I served you for 10 years and you forgot all at the first mistake!”

The King realised his mistake and replaced the dogs with crocodiles!

As soon as I finished reading, I started to wonder…

Who, in their right minds, would accept to work for such an ’employer’?
After all, sooner rather than later, everybody makes mistakes!
And if the penalty for the slightest mistake is being thrown to a pack of wild dogs…

On the other hand, who – in their right minds, would treat their employees like that?
Given the fact that no right minded people would accept – as per my previous observation, to work under such ‘constraints’.

And, even more interesting, who – as an ‘owner’, would hire such a ‘manager’?

Two Republican senators are criticizing President Donald Trump and his team for their efforts to pressure state and local election officials to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victories in several closely contested states.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics, tweeted Thursday, “It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President.”

Romney accused Trump on resorting to “overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election.”

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., went after Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who held a press conference Thursday presenting a list of far-fetched, thoroughly debunked claims on the 2020 election.

Sasse tweeted: “Rudy and his buddies should not pressure electors to ignore their certification obligations under the statute. We are a nation of laws, not tweets.”

Given what’s currently going on in the most powerful democracy on Earth, it becomes obvious why Putin had helped Trump’s 2016 campaign to become POTUS.
Remember Ulises’s Trojan horse?
OK, it’s impossible to know for sure whether Trump and Putin actually ‘negotiated’ anything.
The point being that for a seasoned judge of people Trump behaving like an elephant in a china shop after being sworn in office was a no-brainer.
Putin could not know exactly what Trump was going to do. But he was certain that it would not end well…. For America!

Now, that Trump is throwing democracy to the dogs simply because the process didn’t end up the way he wanted, Putin must be gloating in front of the biggest mirror in Kremlin!

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Categories arrogance, authoritarianism, Bounded rationality, Choices we make, collective identity, cooperation, effective communication, In English, Intent, limited rationality, man as a measure for all things, Mutual Respect, Politically induced fragility, Psychology, Rule of Law, Trust

Why are so many people so obsessed with Trump?

December 27, 2018 //
2

There is a technical reason. And some subjective ones. Acting in a synergic manner.

Trump had bean the darling of the high ratings/low expectations media for most of his adult life. During this period he had learned how to use it towards his own goal – an ever increasing notoriety, and those involved in the media had learned to love him back for the amount of publicity they had been able to sell on his back.

Now for the subjective ones.
First of all, he is a very ‘penetrant’ person. Like him or not, but you can’t ignore him.
Secondly, he happens to be the most powerful individual on Earth. Simply because he had been elected the President of the United States of America. Which is not only the most potent/civilized/democratic/you name it country, but also the leader of the free world. Meaning that the rest of the planet, democratic or not, sets it’s time after America’s clock. Willingly or unwillingly.
So the rest of world is watching anxiously everything that is going on in Washington. Wondering whether ‘Trump-ism’ will spread around. Or will remain yet another measure of American exceptionalism.

Thirdly, but maybe the most important reason, Trump can be analyzed as a symptom rather than as a cause.
In fact, there are a lot of Trumps scattered around the world.
Basically, there is very little difference between Trump and Putin. Trump and Erdogan. Trump and Bolsonaro. Trump and Dragnea – the most powerful politician in today’s Romania, my country. Even between Trump and Modi. Only none of these countries is similar to the US of A. None of them has such a distinguished democratic tradition.
And this is why so many people try to understand what’s going on.
Is Trump nothing more than an unhappy accident? Or the visible symptom of democracy becoming decrepit?

PS.
Even Abe is showing signs of contagion.
Post WWII Japan had survived by feeding whales to its people.
Now it is going to resume commercial whaling. In spite of all other previously whaling nations asking him to reconsider.
Really Abe? You need whale meat to survive?

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Categories arrogance, authoritarianism, Bounded rationality, Choices we make, collective identity, democracy, effective communication, Food, limited rationality, man induced fragility, Mindset, Mutual Respect, Psychology, The kind of world we are building for our children, The kind of world we live in, Trust, Uncategorized
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