Regulated Shamanic Reforms
Ayn Rand kamikaze drones
Not much to report. Deoccupation proceeds, albeit at a slower pace because of the mud. Meanwhile, attacks on Russia’s center of gravity show an expanded capability of Ukraine’s long-range assets of destruction (Engels, Ryazan, Kursk, Bryansk, etc). And Uncle Joe has agreed, reportedly, to upgrade Ukraine’s air defenses, eventually.
I listened to Timothy’s latest and last lecture about the Making of Modern Ukraine. He leaves a lot out.
The final class is not about unfettered muddling and unclarity during the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Tim glosses over Tuzla, post-Orange Revolution idiocy leading to the election of a Kremlin goon, Kharkiv accords and the lead-up to Russia’s invasion in 2014. The authoritarian populist accelerant to Putin’s decision to decapitate Kyiv is ignored.
Pre-war Ukraine should be remembered as a sham democracy, a primitive post-Soviet feudal autocracy not underpinned by elections or coordinated work of institutions, but by popular uprisings (2001, 2004, 2013). Absent them, even the illusion of tolerance, much less competency, would not exist. What happens after we win the war is anyone’s guess. Should we embrace pan European socialist-styled remedies? Or should we emulate Ireland?
Which brings me to the non-existent seven-foot tall monument of Ronald Reagan in Kyiv, c/o Jeff Stein at The Washington Post.
Ukraine’s Ayn Rand cult reminded me of this C-Span chit chat between Christopher Hitchens and David Frum 17 years ago.
The article about Zablotskyy’s brainchild followed a long, loopy report, titled, “War has tamed Ukraine’s oligarchs, creating space for democratic change: Ukraine may have the opportunity to rebuild a postwar society that is more democratic, less corrupt and more economically diversified.”
Those interviewed include economist Timothy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former government economic development minister, who said Ukrainians’ economic future would follow a U.S. or European model, not a Russian one.
More lawyers and less bribers, concluded Mylovanov, one of the most active and self-aware villians of Ukraine’s macroeconomic mess under Z.
But that’s another story.