THE OPIUM OF THE WEST

President Obama outlines his geopolitical vision in an appropriate setting.

by James Harmon

The reality of Russian-American relations is that America has simply bitten off more than it can chew. Whatever criticisms of the Russian president, one simply cannot fault his seizing on the failures of his opponents – like a wolf striking at the neck of a distracted deer.

Strong, decisive and measured, he has systematically shown the West to be foolish, impatient and wobbly; and standing up to Obama is easier in virtually every way, when the idealistic former Western socialist (Obama belonged to a socialist party in his youth) meets a man who actually lived and worked under socialism, and who is no idealistic daydreamer.

This former socialist is a hardened realist. He is decisive, strong, and cunning; unburdened by the immense self-guilt that kneecaps the West in its dealings with other countries. This leader takes pride in his nation, and utilizes the West’s incessant scrutiny to embolden his own position. Where we slice off a piece, out grows a new appendage, and Russia has shown it will weather things we find intolerable, with little burden.

Life in Russia is no picnic. Russians deal with things on a daily basis that an average American would simply be reduced to tears over. Fistfights happen in the streets all over, car accidents, the state takes out terrorists and radicals before they metastasize, women respect strength and power, and people often live in conditions that are unfathomable to a westerner without expecting people to simply give them things. When times are rough a Russian does not go file a complaint to his local appeasement board, he picks up a bottle of vodka or – from time to time – a rifle.

This could be seen in the revolutions in the early 20th century, which were necessary events for working people and peasants, who had virtually no hope of improving their lives until the Reds came along. These days Communists are largely a bunch of social rejects who could not even pass a basic physical, in those days they were hardworking men who saw in Communism a way to make manifest that which could not happen under the Tsarist government.

To an extent, they were right – Stalin modernized and forged a strong world power, helping to crush the spectre of the Third Reich. Stalin also initiated a rightist cultural policy that espoused Russophile ideology and the preservation of Russian culture, contrary to what we may think about all communists being similar to today’s “leftists.” Lenin was not the real architect of what we know as the Soviet state; it was Stalin who took a more conservative, patriarchal line on culture who set the standards for the Soviet Union that existed for over 70 years.

From this backdrop, rose Russia’s current president, a man of such humble origins that only sneering elitists cannot respect his rise. He is a man of the people, and as such Putin spoke to the soul of the Russian people – claiming that a time for harmonizing the Red and White factions of Russia had come, and to pave the way forward they must unite for a stronger vision of Russia.

The ex-KGB man who is a pro at quelling rebellions has built up the Russian army to a force that could definitely give NATO a fight at least, and could foreseeably win. On the border with Norway 60,000 Russian troops face off against a paltry 16,000 NATO coalition troops, as shown in a VICE documentary.

Does the West really think that with its ideology of tolerance and militant humanism that it can win against battle-hardened men who are known to have enthusiastically played by "local rules" in locales like the Middle East, when their own were attacked? In Afghanistan and Lebanon they responded by kidnapping the relatives of offenders, a local custom.

Putin has shown that Russia is now a world player again, a major force to be reckoned with and, unlike other countries who cower frightfully in the shadow of an obese and off-balance America, Russia doesn't fear a fight. Instead of treating the Russians and Russia like some kind of eternal enemy, which America has done since the Russo-Turkish war in the 19th century, it should have pursued sincere diplomacy instead of trying to gamble over the wrong chess pieces due to a childish ideological fixation on “[American/European style] democracy,” something that has become endemic in modern American thought. Jerry Seinfeld revealed this short-sighted attitude best on a recent Bill Maher episode:

“[Democracy] is like exercise; it doesn’t have to work, you just have to do it!”

The American mindset has become so obsessed with “Democracy“ – whatever this even means – that it supports anything that is, in essence, anti-strength, anti-will, and anti-health, in favor of militant secularism, tolerance, ethno-masochism, and degenerate views of human relationships. It drools over anti-authoritarian rebels whether they want to slit Russian or Alawite necks.

I have mixed feelings about Ukraine, because I am a European nationalist, and always will be. But we had utterly no business in Syria and Iraq, and if we want a stable Middle East there needs to be joint help from a strong power. No one in Europe fits that profile anymore, so there is only Russia. America can either keep speaking about Russia the way a confused and scorned woman does about a man she secretly desires, or it can take real steps to make a partner out of a strong and viable country with a strong leader. Putin has already systematically achieved every goal the Russians have set forth to achieve while embarrassing America and exposing its weakness. Obama thinks he can play poker with a man who knows how to play chess, and the Russians knew we were bluffing.

We need him more than he needs us.

We must stop blustering about Russia and its actions, which, it must be said, are to their own interest, and realize we cannot fight a people who are far more united culturally and politically than we are when our own culture is a mishmash of degeneracy and idealism, coupled with a hatred of strength and virility. We should not be lecturing anyone on how to run their affairs. We need a leader who is going to take serious strides to accommodate Russian interests in return for joint support for our policies against common enemies – like ISIS.

Russia also holds strong ties with China, who is a far greater enemy to us than Russia ever would be.

I wrote an article earlier this year for Traditional Right, interviewing Olena Semenyaka, the spokesperson for Right Sector in Ukraine, the nationalist movement that was fighting against a pro-EU and Russian dominated government. In this interview, I implied my condemnation against Russia’s actions and my support for aid from the United States, favoring strong support for the nationalists against the separatists.

However, I took this same stance against American intervention in Syria and Iraq, and I was pro-Serbia and against the independence of Kosovo. I also supported the Russian actions in Chechnya. I viewed the right of the Ukrainians to defend their land as a fundamental right, not as a statement against Russia or Putin.

This stance made me a target for retaliation by pro-Russian activists, and I had notable rifts with the pro-Russian camp over where my support for Russia and Putin ended. I am no starry-eyed “Putriot,” and happy to draw the line when I feel that it has been crossed, but the realities of the situation are for all to see. The Pro-Ukraine camp quickly became virulently anti-Russian, some of their own camp had even fought against Russia on the side of Chechen muhijadeen – something I found repulsive. I was never anti-Russian, I merely questioned blind obedience.

My support was always conditional to both sides of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and the only reason I supported Right Sector is because they are authentic nationalists struggling for a strong conservative state. When Poroshenko got elected, the reality of the Ukrainian revolution and what it spells for Ukraine’s future is plain for us to see – a new oligarch as boss.

We nationalists had hoped to see a nationalist state in Ukraine, and so we supported our brothers. But that did not happen. Simply to be anti-Russian for a spat over a country that is not ours – because we are regionalists and European nationalists – is short sighted.

Russia is a serious world power and deserves the respect and cooperation that it’s position commands. America is on a current downward trajectory – similar to Great Britain’s path last century – and we will soon no longer be a world power if we continue this way.

The opium of the West is the myopic view that all nations should conduct affairs our way. We keep rambling on like an addict that is delusional about a mystical drug that no one else takes – specifically because they see what it does to us. Maybe we should try vodka instead.