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I agree with a slight patch-- the Asian cruel steppe mentality is called "meritocracy" (which the Mongols, or at least Chinggis & his direct successors down thr

I agree with a slight patch-- the Asian cruel steppe mentality is called "meritocracy" (which the Mongols, or at least Chinggis & his direct successors down thru Kublai, iirc, was enamoured of..) Russians, ironically, defeated the tartars when they managed to out-meritocrat the greatkhanless hordes somescore later, -Then they basically reverted to divine right of kings*, aka the mandate of heaven.. -until the time of Lenin, when the cycle began anew.. *Apologies for ignoring the slight detour of Peter the Great** (known to be enlighteningly cruel) whose table of ranks could have been said to have set "his Excellency" (Prevoskhoditel’stvo) Ulyanov up for life **but we should also pay attention to the current phenomenon of lionizing Catherine as a monarch more Christian than Peter [Recall that the christians did not meritocracy until roughly... 1848 (again, ignoring the Glourious Revolution) over thence we had Weber retconning for his tribe] (

082349872349872 2y ago
Note that Catherine gets a late soviet mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_IObE7MIqs#t=143s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_IObE7MIqs#t=143s ...and that Goldstein basically writes about the meritocracy* of the Inner Party, as set out in the non-fictional The Managerial Revolution (1941). * Smith is in the outer party precisely because he did poorly on his A-levels.
- gsf_emergency 2y ago
  First American-Russians got left high & dry.. and meretocrat A2T (TiGR! Revisit the trial of his assassins) ? https://sine-or.livejournal.com/60717.html https://sine-or.livejournal.com/60717.html
  - 082349872349872 2y ago
    To be fair, NVR may have sung the lines and sat in the Duma, but I think (я думаю?) the songwriter (IIM?) was probably more of a thinker than a sitter and knew exactly what they were doing. Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCs_c643qU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCs_c643qU (not sure if the russian fleet really kept the royal navy away during the US Civil War; my impression had been that the Confederacy had waited too long to revolt, and the second-cheapest supplier of cotton [egypt?] for british mills was not much more expensive than the CSA would've been in any case)

082349872349872 2y ago

Note that Catherine gets a late soviet mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_IObE7MIqs#t=143s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_IObE7MIqs#t=143s ...and that Goldstein basically writes about the meritocracy* of the Inner Party, as set out in the non-fictional The Managerial Revolution (1941). * Smith is in the outer party precisely because he did poorly on his A-levels.

gsf_emergency 2y ago
First American-Russians got left high & dry.. and meretocrat A2T (TiGR! Revisit the trial of his assassins) ? https://sine-or.livejournal.com/60717.html https://sine-or.livejournal.com/60717.html
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  To be fair, NVR may have sung the lines and sat in the Duma, but I think (я думаю?) the songwriter (IIM?) was probably more of a thinker than a sitter and knew exactly what they were doing. Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCs_c643qU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUCs_c643qU (not sure if the russian fleet really kept the royal navy away during the US Civil War; my impression had been that the Confederacy had waited too long to revolt, and the second-cheapest supplier of cotton [egypt?] for british mills was not much more expensive than the CSA would've been in any case)