Cat Show. 6/25/2021
VG: Since I’ve been traveling and not paying attention to the news, you’ll have to pick up the slack. What is going on with the Great Britain and their attempt to start the Crimean War all over again? They had their strategic interests in India and Ottoman Empire last time around. What drives the country now?
HOBBS: Remember Churchill calling Poland “a greedy hyena of Europe.” It is sad to observe that once a great empire has become a greedy hyena of the US, and maybe not even of the US, but of Ukraine. Maybe Ukraine promised Brits a piece of Crimea in return for their petty services of scandal mongering, Russophobia, Litvinenko, Skripals, White Helmets, Belingcat, Center for Statecraft, and Economist. There has to be a reason for this barrage.
ALICE: The reason is obvious. Great Britain, from Blair to Boris has known only one thing: “special relationship with United States.” When the US sneezes, GB catches the cold. To outdo United States in its virtue signaling, including Russophobia, has become a national obsession for Brits. American elites mocks Trump, the whole Britain begins to mock Trump. NATO declares Russia a threat, UK has to demonstrate to everyone that Russia is even a greater threat by spinning their Novichok paranoia or by sending the boat loaded with journalists to the Crimean coast. It makes perfect sense. Lenin called Gorky, a petrel of Revolution. GB is a petrel of Pax Americana, and Boris Johnson is a petrel of Britishness.
VG: So you are saying that when US elites whistles, GB begins to act. First its leadership, and then the whole country gets into a belligerent pose: press, TV, politicians – all go out of their way to demonize Russia. Still, what’s there for them, besides getting on the good side of the US elites?
ALICE: Brits did a mistake of organizing Brexit, that wasn’t an American plan. USA wants EU united and obedient. GB was supposed to lead the way and serve as a shepherd for the flock. Of course, Germans proved to be much better shepherds, while Brits rebelled against this role. So now, British leadership is bending over backwards to prove to Americans that “special relationship” means more than following American orders. For the conceited Brits — and I never met one non-conceited one in position of power—it means sharing the leadership, if not leading. Exactly what Churchill did with Roosevelt. That’s Boris Johnson’s clear aspiration.
HOBBS: Good point, Alice. Brits are already proven leaders in creating narratives of Imperial rule, in banking and finance, in legalism and spying, let alone in rock-n-roll and football clubs. They even dominate in fooling Russians into coming to London and investing money into Great Britain. If you can trick Russian oligarchs, you can trick anyone. So I see why they want to play the role of the tail that wags the dog with Americans.
ALICE: I am not sure that further escalation with Russia is in the Biden plan, who seems to grasp, finally, that to follow Trump’s ideas is not such a bad thing after all. From the border control, to taxes, to China, the current focus of State Department. British needs to send their second boat, if they have one, to South China sea or Hong Kong. That would earn them a much higher praise from the US. Someone has to teach the world what Democracy, freedom, liberty and independence from autocratic rule are, and Brits are perfectly suited for the role.
VG: Well, we can dismiss Brits as forever doomed to play a second fiddle, but Russians are not doing that well either, football in particular. The country needed a boost, and all they got are two spectacular losses of their team. And to add insult to injury, Ukraine, with two losses managed to get into the next round, but not Russia.
HOBBS: Sports is a big business and there is too much money in it. Consequently, it is run by rather bad and greedy people. Russians are trying to emulate the western model of sports, as they are trying to emulate the western model of economy and many other fields. Not sure it would work. Or rather, like in the west, it works for some, and leaves others in the dust. Plus, to get the western model working you really need a lot of money to invest. Russia does not really have it. I suspect, this failure at Euro Cup should be a wake up call. Emulating the west, which is heading toward its unraveling is not the smartest thing. Let there be thousands of new clubs with people just enjoying the game. You build them, and champions will come, not “you buy them and champions will come.”
ALICE: I have to agree with Hobbs on this one. I never was a fan of aggressive competitiveness. Some people might need to prove their edge, but that’s what VG wrote to us the other day: if you want to show how tough you are, go to sea or mountains. Push the frontier in science and arts. Push for peace. That’s much better way to prove your worth than trying to humiliate your opponent on the soccer field or battlefield.
VG: Wow, Alice, what’s happen to you. Don’t tell me that all of the sudden you decided to miss me and read my notes? In any case, I miss you guys too, and even if there are plenty of cool things in Colorado, including a most charming and friendly cat that I saw the other day in hot springs of Orvis, I miss you guys too. Let’s hope that next week will be more peaceful. And Brits would refrain from provoking Russians, especially on the day, when the whole country commemorates the beginning of their devastating war with Nazi Germany. Americans don’t give a damn about dates and history, so that’s might be the good role for GB to play, if, indeed, they are ready to lead the world: to remind the world of the follies of the Imperial ambitions, not to generate the new ones.
