|
| "During Fascism, photography, in synergy with the communications industry ante-literam, was an essential part of the construction of the cult of the leader that transformed the figure of Mussolini into an icon... The Duce, in anticipation of our celebrities today, did not hesitate to undress and display his torso in what Valerie Sperling calls ‘iconic public-relations stunts’ that were both exhibitionistic and voyeuristic." He even favored the baseball cap! From Alessandra Antola Swan, "The iconic body: Mussolini unclothed", Modern Italy 21/4 2016. |
In his evident desire to restore the Russian empire in his own name, rather than some descendant of Rurik, Putin really resembles Mussolini, who was thinking of the same kind of thing for Rome, much more than Hitler. Moscow is, of course, theologically, the "Third Rome" of Orthodoxy, after Rome proper and Constantinople, and Putin's emergence as a kind of physical hero from nowhere, like the milkman in a porn film, is a kind of iconic thing too, with the same kind of precedent. Not sure that's been discussed before.
I seriously can't tolerate any more treatment of Putin as some kind of "leftist", meanwhile, sorry, but it really upsets me, at least in part because of the way it keeps offering Republicans an excuse for not attacking fascism, because, as keeps turning up, fascism doesn't really bother them, as when they failed to respond one way or the other to Putin's campaign to "de-Nazify" Ukraine.
This is cool (from Ben Collins/NBC): In the runup to the war, Russian propaganda was centered on the "Ukraine is Nazi" theme, but it wasn't going anywhere with the international or American right--that's when Russians came up with the "bioweapons" canard.https://t.co/K8e8B7Ueo1
— Yas We Can (@Yastreblyansky) March 20, 2022
They only reacted to the threats of evil liberal government, in the form of
Dr. Fauci and the Communist Party of China. The anti-government threat of
Nazism doesn't bother them at all, and they're not interested in examining
their views on whether somebody is fascist or not. But meanwhile, when I found
this extraordinary thread on the current situation inside Russia (I'm not reproducing it, but check it out!), tweeps found occasion to associate Putin with communism again:
Really hghlights the devastating criminality of the communist era, throwing away millions of lives so casually. Putin could have arrested this demographic crime but instead but guns and got rich. He finished the communist work at mutilating the country.
— TralfamadoreStan (@zoffany90) March 21, 2022
I'm like no, that's not the point:
I grant that, except to say his is more a criminal despotism - KGB criminal. My point was more that these very characteristics that you have cited made him the worst possible style of leadership to resuscitate Russia from the demographic body blows of the 20th Century.
— TralfamadoreStan (@zoffany90) March 22, 2022
Not that I'm clear what a "demographic body blow" is
Yah, but the Okrhana was not really used in the Putinist fashion to gut the oligarchs & bend them to his will. Grandees in the Tsarist system were by real power centres of their own, not puppets by any measure. If anything was more a scourge of the intelligentsia, Old Believers..
— TralfamadoreStan (@zoffany90) March 22, 2022
He allows them freedom of speech because he doesn't fear them. He fears journalists and opposition politicians and street demonstrators. Just like the tsars. Even a radical like Tolstoy was allowed to do whatever he wanted on his estate, because he didn't matter.
— Yas We Can (@Yastreblyansky) March 22, 2022
And now, interestingly, he seems to fear the FSB https://t.co/w1za0KNHBF
— Yas We Can (@Yastreblyansky) March 22, 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment