Cat Show. 07/09/2021

HOBBS: Vladimir, travels are supposed to be educational. So what have you learned besides the fact that there are a lot of mountains in Colorado and New Mexico?

ALICE: He also learned that there are nice dogs out there. Dogs, not cats, mind you. If that type of enlightenment continues, Vladimir will soon start sniffing people’s butts and peeing on the trees.

VG: Speaking of trees. What I've learned is that there is an amazing power of nature. You hike on rocky soil, you wonder through the desert, and all you see, is tremendous power of green. I’ve never seen so many trees or bushes. Not even the most severe weather, not any animal destroys as much as humans. Left alone, nature flourishes.

ALICE: I knew it all along, that people are the only creatures that are even more destructive than dogs. Left alone, they would destroy everything, like spiders in a jar.

HOBBS: And yet, there are plenty of examples to the opposite. For every destructive person, there is always someone who wants to improve, or exist in harmony with the universe.

VG: Improve and exist in harmony are two different concepts, I am afraid. It is the endless striving for improvement that frequently violates harmony. Like a pendulum, people seem to have this passion to go to the extremes. First acting, then reacting. Tolstoy has this insightful moment in Anna Karenina. The husband, Karenin, discovers that his wife is interested in another man. So rather than dealing with this void that exists between him and her, he got engaged in some obscure legislation concerning the plight of minorities in Russian empire. (He was a big shot in the ministry). In other words, we like to interfere in other people’s lives; we love to improve the plight of others, at the expense of our own self-improvement.

HOBBS: Yes, Dostoevsky was adamant about this too. For him, that was exactly the problem of young people: desire for the quick action, the immediate result, instant victory. Ignoring that for a tree to grow and remain strong, it has to develop an extremely powerful roots: the inner work, not seen by anyone.

ALICE: I’ve never seen any inner work in you two. Always mocking others, always zeroing on other people’s faults. As opposed to me, who always tries to find a kernel of truth be it in NYT, or NPR, or Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

VG: Have to agree with Alice that one can measure self-improvement by the amount of positive thinking about others. But by that criterion, it is exactly here that the impatient do-gooders fail. Just give a free reign to the likes of Hillary or NYT, and there won’t be the end of snobbery and mockery and dismissals of “deplorables” and Russophobia and stuff of that nature. Both Hobbs and I were trying to see something positive and commonsensical in Trump, but liberals don’t want to do that. We might try to find something positive about Israel, or US, Russia, socialism, or capitalism, but a lot of self-righteous intelligentsia would never consider entertaining such a thought. In fact, People like Dostoevsky, always tried to find something positive about radical intelligentsia; intelligentsia, however, preferred to dismiss him as a dangerous retrograde and nationalist.

HOBBS: That’s an excellent point. I keep on wondering about the mainstream press. Any nonsense that occurs in the world: hacking, doping in sports, change in the weather, interference in democratic elections. It is always Russia’s and Putin’s fault. It is as if the whole liberal press has turned Ukrainian. But have anyone tried to do the same with western leaders? Have you seen how English fans mistreated Denmark team during their semifinal game? Pointing a laser beam at Denmark goalie, or booing Danish national anthem. The crimes of that nature could never happen without an explicit order from 10 Downing Street. And why is the final played in Wembley and not Rome? Johnson had to bribe a lot of people to get that.

ALICE: Well, what you are doing, Hobbs, is promoting conspiracy theory. And we all know that any theory promoted by NYT immediately becomes true science, approved by pundits, as opposed to any theory promoted by Pravda or RT, which immediately becomes “state sponsored conspiracy theory.” That’s why enlightened people read NYT, and you’ll never find there a theory that Boris Johnson had ordered the laser beam on Denmark goalie, as opposed to any Russian action, which obviously, can never happened without Putin’s explicit concent. We all know that Russians are inherently passive, forever scared people who lack private initiative. They just sit there in their mud huts waiting for the order from the government. Exactly, like the dogs who wait for the whistle from their owner.

HOBBS: It is nice to know that as opposed to Russians, Anglos always take initiative in their hands, and just like cats, do whatever they please. I read somewhere that there are only 22 countries in the world that British Empire didn’t invade or fought. Of course, not to be missed these 22 countries have invaded or interfered in by Americans, including Belorussia, for example. And there was never an order to do that: just private buccaneers meddling in other people’s lives.

VG: Well, while I agree with Hobbs’ sarcasm, I also have to agree with Alice’s conclusion. Johnson can’t be behind every stupidity that occurs on English soil. To have a European Cup final and Wimbledon final all in one day – even a person with Johnson’s intelligence can’t do. It has to be a random act. Unless it is this British attempt to act dumb while getting what they want. It is not in the British character, though. As opposed to Italians, Brits prefer to act smart, and get nowhere. In short, the final at Wembley would be fun to watch, as opposed to Wimbledon, where Djokovic will easily take it all.