President Putin

A Man More Sinned Against?
[Invasion Of The Body Snatchers*]

It's not easy to know exactly where to place President Putin.

To many in the West he is portrayed as a villain – the epitome of evil, of everything wrong with Russia today. To others he is the savior of Russia, in whose absence it would have been sold, lock, stock and barrel to American multinationals and international banks.

If not ISIL or Al Qaeda, everything bad which befalls the West is the product of this evil genius, Vladimir Putin – no proof required – don't even take time to question nor investigate the circumstances – just rush to judgement and you will have fulfilled the criteria.

A schemer and the ultimate Godfather.  The harbinger of death and destruction – if you are a Western Ukrainian nationalist.   If you are pro-Russian, living in the Crimea or in the East Regions , a reincarnation of Peter the Great.

If you live in Chechnya, President Putin has facilitated stability out of total chaos and anarchy.   Chechnya now, and what it was 20 years ago, are two different countries.   Chechnya today has totally disappeared from the Western media yet it was in daily reportage when Al Qaeda-affiliated groups were butchering local citizens (and foreigners) with frightening regularity.  If you were a Chechen nationalist or pro Western rebel you rue and curse the day Vladimir Putin came to power, nay, the day he was born.

Because of the world economic and the oil crises, the Rouble has collapsed – and for that many Russians curse Putin. But the more pressure and demonization America and the West pile upon their nemesis, the more his own people forgive him for this transgression.

I could quote you eminent scholar after eminent scholar from the most prestigious institutes in the West who will, on the basis of their scholarly analysis, decades of experience and membership of the most prestigious and elite institutions in the world, all tell you why President Putin is an evil, demented, ogre, akin to Adolf Hitler.   In fact many will confirm that he has Asbergers syndrome – and this in part accounts for his dysfunctionalities.  What many of these eminent individuals will not tell you is their own ties to extreme neo-Conservative, neo-Nazi and other extremist organisations.   Is this a lapse of memory which is acceptable in the sense that the end justifies the means?   If so then they are absolved from all blame.

There are so many issues which open chasms and gulfs between Russia and the West with both on different sides of the perceptive divide.    I could mention them all – but that would only provide opportunists to home in on my own prejudices and priorities – which I have no intention of doing: sometimes exasperation, mystery or enigma is not a completely bad thing (!)

Not too long ago I was walking with a friend on Main Street and I said, 'let's just stand still here for a minute and let everyone pass us by.' My colleague was obliging and as we stood still, swarms of robots, outtakes from Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' swarmed yet contoured around us, never colliding, almost unaware of our suspension in time, some expressing a millisecond of surprise or shock that two individuals had actually stopped time itself to witness it's passing.    As they continued to meander their way, I said ''you know, sometimes I feel that I am the odd one left out – like in the film 'Invasion of The Body Snatchers'.'' Everyone else thinks it's perfectly reasonable for NATO to be in the Ukraine and evil Russia is blocking the path to freedom.   Nobody is thinking for themselves nor questioning or asking or 'but wait a minute, what if Russian military forces had bases in Mexico or in Canada or Greenland, Iceland, The Caribbean or South America would this also be OK and reasonable for the United States?  I would think not.   It would certainly not be OK for me.   As a sometime pacifist, which is why I believed in NATO during the days of the Cold War, I would now probably be arming myself to the teeth under such conditions (!)    The issue here for me is that nobody is questioning, nobody is thinking independently, everyone (well, almost everyone) is letting someone or something else do their thinking for them – and shape how they frame their thoughts and opinions.   I have said this a long time ago, perhaps I am just too dumb to program?  (That's a new one!; you've heard of '''too big to fail'' now how about ''too dumb to program?'')  Perhaps you have to be at a certain intellectual level (higher or lower) before the Body Snatchers can capture your mind?   I am still to this day trying to work out what makes me so 'unprogrammable'.   I was always terrible at IQ Tests - failed them all – so that might be some indicator.   I was always terrible at 'Logic Tests' – failed them all.   I hated Crossword Puzzles could never put all the Lego pieces in the right places and had no brain for Jigsaw Puzzles, and it would have taken me centuries to get Rubrik's Cube sorted out (!)   So perhaps these are some of the reasons the Body Snatchers just gave me up as a lost cause and moved on to a more promising trophy – the rest of the world.   In a way I am glad that they did. I am just not 'hard-wired' to appreciate the logic of their arguments. 
Not too long ago I got a look of incredulity from someone on a six figure salary when I said I was happier writing blogs for nothing than being one of the 'herd' and how, unlike Mephisto's Faust, I would feel 'gutted' if I (consciously) took the money and sold my soul.   I can't blame him for walking away, probably shaking his head in despair and with resignation. 

 

As we stood suspended on Main Street I could see that my colleague remembered something....from some distant past existence....which resonated with what I was saying.....but it was so distant.....so far gone.......but strangely so familiar....was it deja vu or something else?.....my colleague seemed to say without a word being spoken.....it was something...something....so.....so.....intangible.....that....in order to believe.....would require a huge leap of faith.....which logic cautioned 'one should never entertain.'

''There's one born every minute'', he probably mused to himself as we recommenced our journey, in a hiatus of silence.

Only time will tell.

©Patrick Emek, 2015


*Don Siegel's 1956 film, in it's fourth remake, in 2007, as 'The Invasion'.
In my opinion, the original still remains the classic.