Empathy is putting yourself in the other person's shoes. A profound lack of empathy is one of the diagnostic criteria for psychopathology.
So empathy is good. Putting ourselves in the Foxes shoes, they were scandalized because they see empathy as a kissin' cousin of going wooly in the knees. Why would the Foxes think that? Because it often is! But it needn't be and that is why the Foxes should not have been scandalized. See, right there, we were empathetic to the Foxes, "We know where you're coming from," "We feel your scandal" but we did not go wooly in the knees, we called the Foxes on it.
It's what I think Public Occurrences has done with Russia. We've gone back to the moment of creation, to the first three minutes after, I feel Russia's pain! America lied to them, they "lost" an empire, let it go in reality, those first three minutes did not call for Western "triumphalism." I used to listen, and watch the YouTube video of the old Soviet national anthem, read along the words. The melody or whatever you call it is heroic, beautiful, the lyrics are full of pride, it is deeply moving, the Soviet anthem is deeply moving. I bet I watched that thing 100 times. I have not watched it in 2014. Because Russia's pain, empathized with here, does not justify IN ANY WAY the invasions of Ukraine. Period there. Empathy without wool.
When you lack empathy it is easier to demonize people. See Hitler and the Jews. In 2014 we, America, the West, demonized Putin by comparing him to Hitler. Why would we do such a thing? Because there were parallels in behavior, that's why! Putin's behavior in 2014 was BAAAADDD, shows no signs of getting better, but Putin's behavior was not as bad as Hitler's. Putin is not as bad as Hitler. and we, America, the West, backed off the Putin-Hitler comparisons.
There are other things. Maybe you remember with me. Remember the Sochi Olympics? Remember the run-up to the Sochi Olympics? Remember there was a terrorist attack at a railway station like 600 miles* from Sochi that killed a whole bunch of Russian people? 600 miles from Sochi but still, like, on the road to Sochi, something like that. For about a week American news was filled with concern for the safety of the Sochi Olympics.** Remember? Gray eminences with medals on their chests figuratively and literally went on the Sunday news shows that weekend and soberly expressed concern for the safety of the Sochi Olympics. I think one gray non-eminence wrote soberly about it also or at least wrote one of his "Rooski!" posts. One Medal, I don't remember if it was American or NATO, said we had plans to send a rapid response team in the Black Sea into Sochi in the event of trouble. We were going to send a destroyer into the Black Sea.
So, we were prepared to invade Russia.
Now can we feel Putin's burn? Can you imagine how much that must have pissed Putin off?
I remember thinking right after the first spate of alarmist newspaper articles, "Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait: this is 600 miles from Sochi, I trust Russia on Russian security, hoooo-doggie, and this alarmism is beginning to sound a little pat, a little orchestrated." I don't know if I wrote that but Honest Injun, that is what I thought and I backed off. If I recall correctly it took POTUS his own self to come out and say "The Sochi Olympics will be safe." It took the President of the United States to reassure the world about the safety of the RUSSIAN Olympics.
It'd piss me off.
Sochi is on the Black Sea, Crimea is on the Black Sea, Sochi and Crimea are 293 miles apart, the Sochi Olympics ended February 23, "little green men" began invading Crimea in late February.
Western media predicted the Sochi Olympics would be a failure. Okay, maybe security is the one thing Russians do well so the Sochi Olympics will be safe but Russians are not competent enough to pull off a successful Olympics:
-Sochi is too temperate for a Winter Olympics. The snow will melt. What little snow falls will
melt. Sochi is the worst possible place Russia could have chosen for a Winter Olympics.
-Remember the adjoining toilets with no separating wall? Rooski!
-Remember one of the Olympic rings or something didn't open during the Opening Ceremony? Ha-ha-ha-ha, stupid Rooskis.
And if they do pull off a successful Olympics, at what cost?
-OMG! that much*** (don't remember what it was). Russia spent a gazillion dollars on the
Olympics?! They just don't have their priorities straight (shaking head).
-Displaced long-time Sochi residents.
-"Homosexuals have rights in Russia, we just don't want any child molesters in our Olympics."
Pretty close to a direct quote from Putin. So, Obama sent a team of Gay and Lesbian athletes
to...something, as the official American delegation or something, I don't remember.
There's truth in all of the above, we, America, the West, did not make that stuff up. Our security concerns had some legitimacy, but they were grossly overstated and overstated in a way I at least thought calculated (I may be wrong!) to embarrass the Russians. Our security concerns showed a lack of empathy, they were insulting. Our contingency plan to rescue captive athletes was an invasion, an act of war, for godssake.
The toilets were funny, no Western media outlet is capable of ignoring that. That is stupid and, c'mon, own up, we think the Russians are stupid. We do! I do! Toilets with no walls seems an "only in Russia" thing. It embarrassed the Russians.
Putin's statement about Gay people: ignorant, stupid. Obama calculated to embarrass Putin by sending a Lesbian and Gay delegation to whatever it was and Obama was right to do it! Putin should have been made to feel a lack of "respect" about that. And he did. Putin felt disrespected. We can understand that, "empathize"and still not go wooly in the knees.
True, whatever the Sochi Olympics cost was too much. True also: whatever any Olympics cost is too much. It always is, in Sochi, Vancouver, wherever. It does show a lack of priorities. It is not unique to Russia.
Media in free-press societies is always negative. Always. The adage is "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." That's just the way it is in the West. Most, maybe all, of the above negativity was just a free press being free. Even in America or Britain, when Americans or British are the targets, media negativity can be deeply wounding. We say we are used to it, we shrug and say "That's a free press" but we grit our teeth and force a grim grin that betrays us.
Russia is not that way, Russia did not have a totally free press, has less a free press now than in February and so there were no grins however grim, no shrug however resigned, it was all just grim insult and disrespect. These were Putin's Olympics. Putin took it all personally.
We all saw this, we all laughed or shook our heads and a lot of people saw how Putin was taking it all. I saw it. Did the Western media ever congratulate the Russians on their safe, successful Olympics? The Western media was wrong! All those Medals and experts and pencils, they were all wrong. The Russians pulled it off! The Russians were competent and smart enough to pull off a safe, successful Olympics in Sochi. Were there any retractions, any mea culpas? No, the Western media doesn't do much of that.
I saw it. I saw all the negativity, all the success, all the non-acknowledgment of success, all the non- mea culps. After the Olympics was the para-Olympics and Obama and Putin were on the phone a lot over those little green men. I wrote that in one of his phone conversations with Putin the president ought to congratulate him on the success of the para-Olympics. He did, Obama congratulated Putin. Obama is an empathetic man.
Nothin' wrong with being empathetic. Don't have to go wooly in the knees.
*611.
**"Experts fear Russia attacks are terrorist probes ahead of Sochi," NBC; "High probability of terror attack at Sochi Olympics - CBS News"; "Russia bombings raise questions about Sochi Olympics," CNN.
***$50 billion.
So empathy is good. Putting ourselves in the Foxes shoes, they were scandalized because they see empathy as a kissin' cousin of going wooly in the knees. Why would the Foxes think that? Because it often is! But it needn't be and that is why the Foxes should not have been scandalized. See, right there, we were empathetic to the Foxes, "We know where you're coming from," "We feel your scandal" but we did not go wooly in the knees, we called the Foxes on it.
It's what I think Public Occurrences has done with Russia. We've gone back to the moment of creation, to the first three minutes after, I feel Russia's pain! America lied to them, they "lost" an empire, let it go in reality, those first three minutes did not call for Western "triumphalism." I used to listen, and watch the YouTube video of the old Soviet national anthem, read along the words. The melody or whatever you call it is heroic, beautiful, the lyrics are full of pride, it is deeply moving, the Soviet anthem is deeply moving. I bet I watched that thing 100 times. I have not watched it in 2014. Because Russia's pain, empathized with here, does not justify IN ANY WAY the invasions of Ukraine. Period there. Empathy without wool.
When you lack empathy it is easier to demonize people. See Hitler and the Jews. In 2014 we, America, the West, demonized Putin by comparing him to Hitler. Why would we do such a thing? Because there were parallels in behavior, that's why! Putin's behavior in 2014 was BAAAADDD, shows no signs of getting better, but Putin's behavior was not as bad as Hitler's. Putin is not as bad as Hitler. and we, America, the West, backed off the Putin-Hitler comparisons.
There are other things. Maybe you remember with me. Remember the Sochi Olympics? Remember the run-up to the Sochi Olympics? Remember there was a terrorist attack at a railway station like 600 miles* from Sochi that killed a whole bunch of Russian people? 600 miles from Sochi but still, like, on the road to Sochi, something like that. For about a week American news was filled with concern for the safety of the Sochi Olympics.** Remember? Gray eminences with medals on their chests figuratively and literally went on the Sunday news shows that weekend and soberly expressed concern for the safety of the Sochi Olympics. I think one gray non-eminence wrote soberly about it also or at least wrote one of his "Rooski!" posts. One Medal, I don't remember if it was American or NATO, said we had plans to send a rapid response team in the Black Sea into Sochi in the event of trouble. We were going to send a destroyer into the Black Sea.
So, we were prepared to invade Russia.
Now can we feel Putin's burn? Can you imagine how much that must have pissed Putin off?
I remember thinking right after the first spate of alarmist newspaper articles, "Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait: this is 600 miles from Sochi, I trust Russia on Russian security, hoooo-doggie, and this alarmism is beginning to sound a little pat, a little orchestrated." I don't know if I wrote that but Honest Injun, that is what I thought and I backed off. If I recall correctly it took POTUS his own self to come out and say "The Sochi Olympics will be safe." It took the President of the United States to reassure the world about the safety of the RUSSIAN Olympics.
It'd piss me off.
Sochi is on the Black Sea, Crimea is on the Black Sea, Sochi and Crimea are 293 miles apart, the Sochi Olympics ended February 23, "little green men" began invading Crimea in late February.
Western media predicted the Sochi Olympics would be a failure. Okay, maybe security is the one thing Russians do well so the Sochi Olympics will be safe but Russians are not competent enough to pull off a successful Olympics:
-Sochi is too temperate for a Winter Olympics. The snow will melt. What little snow falls will
melt. Sochi is the worst possible place Russia could have chosen for a Winter Olympics.
-Remember the adjoining toilets with no separating wall? Rooski!
-Remember one of the Olympic rings or something didn't open during the Opening Ceremony? Ha-ha-ha-ha, stupid Rooskis.
And if they do pull off a successful Olympics, at what cost?
-OMG! that much*** (don't remember what it was). Russia spent a gazillion dollars on the
Olympics?! They just don't have their priorities straight (shaking head).
-Displaced long-time Sochi residents.
-"Homosexuals have rights in Russia, we just don't want any child molesters in our Olympics."
Pretty close to a direct quote from Putin. So, Obama sent a team of Gay and Lesbian athletes
to...something, as the official American delegation or something, I don't remember.
There's truth in all of the above, we, America, the West, did not make that stuff up. Our security concerns had some legitimacy, but they were grossly overstated and overstated in a way I at least thought calculated (I may be wrong!) to embarrass the Russians. Our security concerns showed a lack of empathy, they were insulting. Our contingency plan to rescue captive athletes was an invasion, an act of war, for godssake.
The toilets were funny, no Western media outlet is capable of ignoring that. That is stupid and, c'mon, own up, we think the Russians are stupid. We do! I do! Toilets with no walls seems an "only in Russia" thing. It embarrassed the Russians.
Putin's statement about Gay people: ignorant, stupid. Obama calculated to embarrass Putin by sending a Lesbian and Gay delegation to whatever it was and Obama was right to do it! Putin should have been made to feel a lack of "respect" about that. And he did. Putin felt disrespected. We can understand that, "empathize"and still not go wooly in the knees.
True, whatever the Sochi Olympics cost was too much. True also: whatever any Olympics cost is too much. It always is, in Sochi, Vancouver, wherever. It does show a lack of priorities. It is not unique to Russia.
Media in free-press societies is always negative. Always. The adage is "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." That's just the way it is in the West. Most, maybe all, of the above negativity was just a free press being free. Even in America or Britain, when Americans or British are the targets, media negativity can be deeply wounding. We say we are used to it, we shrug and say "That's a free press" but we grit our teeth and force a grim grin that betrays us.
Russia is not that way, Russia did not have a totally free press, has less a free press now than in February and so there were no grins however grim, no shrug however resigned, it was all just grim insult and disrespect. These were Putin's Olympics. Putin took it all personally.
We all saw this, we all laughed or shook our heads and a lot of people saw how Putin was taking it all. I saw it. Did the Western media ever congratulate the Russians on their safe, successful Olympics? The Western media was wrong! All those Medals and experts and pencils, they were all wrong. The Russians pulled it off! The Russians were competent and smart enough to pull off a safe, successful Olympics in Sochi. Were there any retractions, any mea culpas? No, the Western media doesn't do much of that.
I saw it. I saw all the negativity, all the success, all the non-acknowledgment of success, all the non- mea culps. After the Olympics was the para-Olympics and Obama and Putin were on the phone a lot over those little green men. I wrote that in one of his phone conversations with Putin the president ought to congratulate him on the success of the para-Olympics. He did, Obama congratulated Putin. Obama is an empathetic man.
Nothin' wrong with being empathetic. Don't have to go wooly in the knees.
*611.
**"Experts fear Russia attacks are terrorist probes ahead of Sochi," NBC; "High probability of terror attack at Sochi Olympics - CBS News"; "Russia bombings raise questions about Sochi Olympics," CNN.
***$50 billion.
