Wisdom is Depressing but Fortunately, Russian Anecdote Says, Idiocy Leads to Happiness

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 1 – Those who are wise often have reason to be depressed; but those who are idiots – and Russia seems to have more than its share of those -- have discovered the royal road to happiness, according to a new Russian anecdote offered by Moscow journalist Natalya Pushkaryova (publizist.ru/blogs/107374/43319/-).

            Among the best of the rest of her latest assemblage are the following:

·       Columbia, Mexico, Argentina and Afghanistan, following Western sanctions, have declared that they are cutting Russia off from drug traffic.

 ·       Kremlin propaganda has declared the death of Europe six times since 2014. The Putinists believe all this failing to notice that Europe is still very much alive and that bombs there live better than Russians do.

 ·       Gennady Zyuganov apparently will remain head of the KPRF at least until his 80^th birthday in 2024, an example of a disturbing feature of the Putinist state. Even lower ranking bosses have no option but to follow their leader by holding on to power and thus to property until they are taken out feet first.

 ·       A man who complained to Putin about the death of his son in Ukraine has now been left with nothing to show for it: His wife has run off with the seven million rubles that the government gives families of combat victims.

 ·       Putin has achieved so much recently – reviving and enlarging NATO, getting the EU to rely on the US and OPEC for petroleum rather than on Russia, freezing Russian assets abroad, and putting Russia under China’s control – that one can hardly wait to see what he will do in the second half of his reign.

 ·       Moscow plans to spend enormous sums to promote Scottish independence, clearing failing to recognize that it should be putting its own house in order before trying to tear down someone else’s.

 ·       Russians tell pollsters they don’t oppose reviving the monarchy but want the capital in that case to be Yekaterinburg, the site of the execution of Nicholas II. Then, if something goes wrong, they will be able to resolve things on the spot.

 ·       Surveys show that children from rich families want to work in state corporations while children from poor ones want to work in law enforcement agencies. In ten years, they will meet; and it is not that difficult to figure out who will win out.