© REUTERS / Brendan McDermid
People rally to protest the Trump administration's reported transgender proposal to narrow the definition of gender to male or female at birth, at City Hall in New York City, US, October 24, 2018.
For centuries, there's been talk of Russia converging on the West, emulating it. Now, though, divergence is the new name of the game, and, as Vladimir Putin said last week,
the West is moving in a direction Moscow won't follow.
The Russian president, it seems, has been working on his own concept of the elusive 'Russian idea' - a concept that has long puzzled philosophers and historians. At its heart, it suggests a nation has to have some unifying purpose or values that set it apart from others. Despite the preoccupation, this isn't a universally accepted truth - it's possible nations could substitute meaning for administrative functions.
However, from 1917 to 1991, the Soviet Union's purpose was clear: building communism. With the collapse of the USSR, this objective disappeared, and the post-Soviet Russian Federation was left struggling for an alternative. In the late 1990s, Boris Yeltsin established a commission to explore the Russian idea, but it failed dismally. Nobody could agree what it should be. The civic idea of nationhood remained supreme. Nevertheless, the search for the Russian idea continues.
Comment: Unlike in the West, it seems there are some benefits to having central planners that aren't yet completely ponerized: In China, back in June, amidst spiking commodity prices, it gave billions to its farmers in an attempt to alleviate the burden during harvest time; more recently it cracked down on internet shopping giant Alibaba over its monopolistic practices. That said, it looks like it may be too late for their largest and most indebted property developer, Evergrande, which, even with the state intervention, is predicted to collapse; albeit in a slow and controlled manner which is hoped to lessen the impact on the economy: China's real estate crisis explained
See also:
- Questions remain over China's education reforms
- China bans exams for six-year-olds stating pressure 'harms health', limits gaming time for under-18s
- China to "promote socialism with Chinese characteristics" in national curriculum
- China to ban karaoke songs with 'illegal content' that endangers national unity
Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Why You Should Question Media Reports About China 'Causing Covid' And 'Invading Taiwan'