The best strategy for dealing with crazies is to keep your distance.
You try to ignore the ravings of the paranoid lunatic on a street corner, but if he’s waving a gun, you can’t. He may kill himself, but he may kill you. Protecting yourself is your first consideration. You want to get as far as possible from him.
As an intellectual exercise, imagine how the Chinese and Russian leadership look at the United States, its government, and those of its allies. It will get you labeled as a “sympathizer” or “agent,” but take the risk and try seeing the world through their eyes:
We hear the Americans raving about the exceptional and indispensable nation, the American imperium, and maintaining world order. What other conclusion can be drawn: like many lunatics, the US suffers from delusions of grandeur. As we know, it’s difficult to maintain order in one country, and the US wants to take on the whole world? They’re having a tough time maintaining order in the US. Half the country hates the other half, and many of their experts warn of civil unrest that could be ignited with the smallest of sparks. Take it from us, spark suppression is a full-time job in big countries with many people and few common interests, even those with powerful, intrusive governments like the US.
How can the US think that it can rule the world when it can’t win wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq? That’s crazy talk! There are smart people in their military. They must recognize that guerrilla warfare, terrorism, knowledge of the people, language, and terrain, and the availability of cheap but effective defensive weapons and munitions give a huge advantage to nationals resisting domination in their own territory. Why hasn’t the US learned anything from their disastrous wars, or the Soviet fiasco in Afghanistan?
INSANITY MAKES FOR GREAT SATIRE!
We in Russia are not altogether comfortable with our Syrian involvement and know it poses substantial risks. However, Syria is in the same neighborhood, is a long-time Russian ally, and hosts Russia’s only Mediterranean port. The US has no such compelling interests and is apparently there at the behest of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Turkey, and Israel. (How do these nations get the US to fight its wars? It must be baksheesh.) It pretends to fight Islamic terrorists while aiding them in another idiotic, and so far futile, attempt at regime change. The biggest danger for us in Syria isn’t the rebels, it’s those crazy Yanks.
The US and its allies’ (what curious allies—the US defends them and picks up most of the tab while they fund cradle-to-grave welfare states) interventions have created refugees—some innocent victims, some potential terrorists—who have fled en masse to Europe and trickled into the US. More intervention will create more refugees, yet that is their policy. Russia and China both have problems with native Muslim populations; it’s pure lunacy to import them. Yet, the American and European intelligentsia condemn not the proponents but the detractors of military intervention and refugee creation and admittance.
If those are supposed to be the smart people, it’s no wonder those countries are in such poor shape. A country is only as good as its people. The Americans and Europeans have voted themselves benefits from their governments that can only be paid for with debt. How long can that last? What will beneficiaries do when the well runs dry? The US used to be one of the most industrious countries on the planet. Now most of its people are fat, lazy, and soft, with no idea how to provide for themselves. The so-called smart people worry if transgenders can enter the bathroom of their choice, and cheer a great Olympic decathlon champion who turned himself into an approximation of a woman. These idiots are not useful to anybody.
The only rational policy is to keep our distance from the US, while trying to protect ourselves from its depredations, and concentrate on jointly developing the immense potential of Eurasia. In other words, to continue doing what we’ve been doing. Our primary economic initiatives, One Belt One Road and the Maritime Silk Road, under the auspices of the Eurasian Economic Union, are going well. We will develop extensive commercial and transportation links among nations stretching from China to Europe, an area which encompasses over half the world’s population and natural resources. China will providing much of the infrastructure investment through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Russia will spearhead security arrangements, particularly against Islamic extremists, through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China and central Asian nations that were formerly part of the USSR, and will soon admit India, Pakistan, and Iran.
Financially, self-protection means moving away from fiat dollars and euros and stockpiling real money—gold. China is reducing its vast pile of US treasury securities, and Russia its much smaller pile. We will continue to advocate for replacement of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, preferably with the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights. The Chinese yuan recently became part of that currency basket. We have also taken steps to develop an alternative to the SWIFT system, the US’s monopoly on international bank clearing.
Militarily, some of the bluster coming out of the US is insanity: the possibility of “winning” a nuclear war. No matter what their computer simulations might suggest, there is no way that a US first strike would wipe out our means and will to retaliate, regardless of their anti-ballistic missile systems in Eastern Europe and South Korea. Sometimes it is an advantage to be underestimated by one’s enemy, but in this case, US underestimation could lead to extinction of the human race. Our nuclear weaponry, military strategies, and defense systems must continue to be state of the art, to assure that destruction in the event of a US attack is mutual.
Keeping our distance from the US certainly does not entail getting involved in their elections. Donald Trump didn’t have a positive thing to say about China during his campaign. Although he made noises about reducing America’s foreign interventions, we heard the same from George W. Bush and Barack Obama and look how that turned out. Trump also made noises about rapprochement with Russia, but it was clear that he’d be fighting his own Deep State if he won, which we did not expect. Why would we poison relations with Hillary Clinton, who we and most experts did expect to win, before she even took office? It’s a further sign of rampant delusion, a complete unwillingness to deal with reality, that Clinton’s Democrats are blaming Russia for problems they brought upon themselves.
Why bother manipulating an election when America seems so bent on self-destruction? It would be like trying to leash a rabid dog.
GREAT WRITING MAKES FOR GREAT READING!
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 
Is this a guest post, or did you move to Moscow?
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Neither of the above.
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“We in Russia …”
Okay. I would suggest that if, mid-essay, you were speaking parenthetically on others’ behalf, perhaps some appropriate punctuation or demarcation might be in order.
Otherwise I have no other quibbles with the gist.
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Point well taken and I appreciate the comment. And I’m glad you liked the gist.
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Something else to consider:
There are, as ever was thus, clear policy benefits to letting Russia and any other countries think one’s leadership is crazy and unpredictable.
Reagan’s supposedly-inadvertent “Today I’ve signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes…” soundcheck got the USSR to the bargaining table like no one else could have.
So too Trump, where shellacking a Syrian airbase got China to mobilize nearly a million of their own troops to potentially take out Nork whackjob Kim half a world distant, under the doctrine of “Your circus, your monkeys”.
I daily deal with the street-level crazies, and no small part of their ceaseless schtick is manipulation by design, rather than just pure bat guano can’t-help-it danger to self and others. (The latter is a desperate cry for medication, BTW.)
But when being reasonable gets you nowhere, being unreasonable, even to the point of others doubting your sanity, is the way to go.
In short, if it’s crazy, but it’s working, it’s not crazy.
That’s another set of shoes to potentially try on for a short walk, sil vous plait.
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I’ve usually been able to get what I want with ruthless rationality and straight line logic, but inspired insanity and curmudgeonly craziness certainly have their places in the tool kit.
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Aesop read my mind. Either way it’s an excellent piece. Can’t think of anything that was left out.
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fleabaggs,
I’m glad you liked it, but I don’t think Aesop thought this was an excellent piece. I think he’s implying either that I didn’t write it, or that I’m a Russian propagandist.
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Reblogged this on Starvin Larry.
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Articulate points, and a fine article.
I think Aesop missed your second paragraph. 😉
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Thanks. The hardest part of this article was consistently conveying that after the second paragraph, the article was in the point of view of the Russian and Chinese leadership. I really had to work at it, and almost gave it up, thinking I might be trying to be too cute. If Aesop missed that I understand. I’ll let the readers decide if I made things sufficiently clear.
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Bob! I got it and I would not doubt most of your readers are brighter than this Infidel.
But I have managed to get myself a 7 day ban on Facebook.
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Lisa,
On behalf of the entire SLL community, let me extend my heartiest congratulations. A permanent ban from Facebook is of course the Holy Grail, but seven days is noteworthy, and you should be quite proud.
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In honor of Towel Day, my attitude towards getting on Facebook:
The mere thought hadn’t even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.
WRT the OP, I don’t know how you could have made it any clearer that the (all very well taken) points were from the Russian / Chinese POV short of putting a blink tag on try seeing the world through their eyes:
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Reblogged this on The way I see things … and commented:
Will shock treatment be brought back?
—
You try to ignore the ravings of the paranoid lunatic on a street corner, but if he’s waving a gun, you can’t. He may kill himself, but he may kill you. Protecting yourself is your first consideration. You want to get as far as possible from him.
As an intellectual exercise, imagine how the Chinese and Russian leadership look at the United States, its government, and those of its allies. It will get you labeled as a “sympathizer” or “agent,” but take the risk and try seeing the world through their eyes:
We hear the Americans raving about the exceptional and indispensable nation, the American imperium, and maintaining world order. What other conclusion can be drawn: like many lunatics, the US suffers from delusions of grandeur. As we know, it’s difficult to maintain order in one country, and the US wants to take on the whole world? They’re having a tough time maintaining order in the US. Half the country hates the other half, and many of their experts warn of civil unrest that could be ignited with the smallest of sparks. Take it from us, spark suppression is a full-time job in big countries with many people and few common interests, even those with powerful, intrusive governments like the US.
How can the US think that it can rule the world when it can’t win wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq? That’s crazy talk! There are smart people in their military. They must recognize that guerrilla warfare, terrorism, knowledge of the people, language, and terrain, and the availability of cheap but effective defensive weapons and munitions give a huge advantage to nationals resisting domination in their own territory. Why hasn’t the US learned anything from their disastrous wars, or the Soviet fiasco in Afghanistan?
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It is an excellent piece.
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Thanks.
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Concur we have lost it too many sheepeople in out mist… & corrupt polytissues making billions….you contain a wild beast you do not take it home to your family…. Thank God that we finally have a President not a resident in the white house.
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Thought provoking article. Many truths there.
How accurate is this as a picture of what Russian and China think of the US?
Along a similar vein I have thought for years that it is no wonder that Islam considers the United States the great satan – we support and applaud many things that are abhorrent to their ideology. 30-50 years ago most of the US felt the same way about those things.
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Obviously I can’t actually get into the minds of Russian and Chinese leaders, but I think its valuable to try to imagine what they think. The same thing applies, as you point out, for Muslims, and for anyone else with whom the US interacts.
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“Financially, self-protection means moving away from fiat dollars and euros and stockpiling real money—gold.”
Just to focus in on this sentence of the blog personally and then with a bigger picture.
From a guy who is in the 4th quarter and who took a long position significantly stacking both metals in 99, who picked up the pace in 2008….and now is completely convinced a physical position with both (wealth/portability & day to day transactions) for myself and/or as a legacy for family is critical for survival when the next SHTF event changes everything.
I agree with the obvious drain of Gold from West to East is their long game…while most Americas are lost in the economic cornflakes, as the giant international credit/debt/derivative/bankster-fiat bubble grows expanding towards the inevitable pin. However, I remain wary the SDR and the devastating havoc on the American masses/sheeple when the Reserve Currency shifts and half of the country who doesn’t even have $500.00 for an emergency saved…starts missing meals.
I trust the IMF as much as the FED…After you shake hands with either isn’t it wise to count your fingers!
While their War of Cash herds U.S. into the globalist – bankster digital pen?
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Strong walls make for safe(r) societies
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moderated?
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When a commentator has not been on this site before, their first post has to be okayed by me, which I routinely do. WordPress calls that moderation.
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so you disagree?
Elections. For the love of God, if you don’t hear anything else I say for the rest of the evening, listen to this.
Elections are no longer free. They are staged theater, designed to maintain the illusion of representative governance and to enrich the political class. This is despotism. If after this mess that we just went through, if you do not understand this, you are beyond hope.
My God.
And then you have election fraud on top of it. Here in Colorado ten counties had voter turnout in excess of the total adult population of the [county]. Not just the registered voters – the total adult population of the county, excuse me, the county. And what did Romney do? Roll over. How can you not see this? How can you not understand? Do not talk to me anymore about elections. There are no elections. There are no more free elections. Just stand over that dead horse and beat it – it is never going to get up. For the love of God.
I’m sorry, but there comes a certain point where you have got to pull your head out of your a ss and deal with reality. You cannot just keep going on with this over and over and over again, saying, “Well if I just give somebody some money and I put some signs in my yard I’m doing enough…”
No, you’re not doing enough. You’re not doing enough at all. Not even close. In fact, if you’re participating in this, you’re part of the problem.”
Ann Barnhardt
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You just need to work on that Russian accent.
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Da.
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the nation does seem to have a beam in its eye.
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Be very interesting to hear the views of foreigners leaders or otherwise to the antics of Trump in these videos. Typical loud, brash, rude, and ugly American. Watch all the videos including the video linked to at the end. Never seen anything like this at that level.https://sputniknews.com/politics/201705251053993363-trump-pushes-montenegro-leader-brussels/
Does wonders for our status as a Country.
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I must have missed the paragraph explaining that bulk of the article was from a Russian/Chinese viewpoint, and had to back up to find it. I guess I was thrown by the title “Why bother?” – I didn’t find anything in the introduction on that score. IT wasn’t until the final paragraph that “bother’ was used again. Most confusing.
Change the title to “From the Russian/Chinese perspective, why bother?” and it all makes sense.
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Reblogged this on sentinelblog.
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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