WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:15.080 So why should you care? Why should anybody care? We live in America, 2 00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:22.000 pretty peaceful place. We've got our own problems. We're fighting intellectual, 3 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:28.399 philosophical, political battles on every front. Why should anybody care about a war 4 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:33.079 on the other side of the planet. You can see, you can see 5 00:00:33.079 --> 00:00:36.920 where Ukraine is, you can see where Russia is. It's far from Western 6 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:42.479 Europe, it's really far from the United States. Why should we care? 7 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:49.439 And I think the reason we should care is that while this conflict is happening 8 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:55.399 in a far away place, the reasons it's happening are relevant to every one 9 00:00:55.439 --> 00:01:00.439 of us. Not only is the conflict the conflict about I think, good 10 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:06.799 and evil and justice, but it is a conflict that politically, ideologically, 11 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:11.879 philosophically is very relevant to the conflicts we all faced right here in the United 12 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:17.760 States and has real implications to whether we win or we lose the conflicts that 13 00:01:17.799 --> 00:01:23.799 we're engaged in. In many respects, the enemy, the bad guys over 14 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:30.159 there, inspire and are very similar to at least some, not at all, 15 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:38.359 some of the enemies we have right here in the United States. I 16 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:45.239 think the war Ukraine is a conflict of civilizations, is a conflict of a 17 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:48.920 vision about the future, of the kind of political world we want to live 18 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:52.319 in, in the kind of world we want to live in. It is 19 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:57.560 a conflict that is challenging to Western civilization. It is a conflict that challenges 20 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:05.400 everything good that I think we have in our world. And to the extent 21 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:13.280 that Russia wins this conflict, to that extent, our horizon shrinks in terms 22 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:17.719 of the time we have to change the world. To the extent that Russia 23 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:27.319 fails, we buy some time to change our own world. Now, I 24 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:31.360 want to do just a little bit of terminology before I go on, because 25 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:35.960 I'm going to use some terminology that might be a little different than the way 26 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:39.319 some other people use it, different than the way I rand used it, 27 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:44.759 So I need to clarify that in advance. I'm gonna be talking about left 28 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.719 and right, but I'm gonna be talking about left and right differently than I 29 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:54.120 think often is discussed. For me, left is egalitarian collectivism with everything that 30 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:58.599 implies woke and everything else you want to add into that. I think you 31 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:01.919 understand what left is. But right, the way I'm going to use it 32 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:10.879 and the way today I think about it is nationalist, religious collectivism in that 33 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:14.360 sense, I don't believe objectivism is right. You can ask me about it 34 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:15.479 in the Q and A. I'm not going to get into a whole debate 35 00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:19.039 right now about it, but that's how I'm going to use it when I 36 00:03:19.080 --> 00:03:23.599 talk about the West. For the purposes of this talk. We could talk 37 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:25.919 about other purposes. You could use it a little differently. For the purposes 38 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:29.800 of this talk, I'm going to refer to Western Europe and the United States. 39 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:36.960 When I talk about Western civilization, I'm referring to the ideas of the 40 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:43.560 Enlightenment, the ideas that I believe have made the West the civilization, and 41 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:53.360 I three big ideas reason individualism and political liberty, political freedom, capitalism. 42 00:03:53.400 --> 00:04:01.240 So that's the frame. Let's get into a discussion of the war. And 43 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:05.199 I want to start with really the causes of this war, the reason this 44 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.960 war happened, and the reason it happened when it happened. And here we're 45 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.159 going to go into kind of the mindset of the Russians and the mindset of 46 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:21.639 Vladimir Putin in particular because he is Russia for all intensive purposes. But first 47 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:27.000 a few words about Ukraine, because you can't understand the Russian perspective without understanding 48 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:31.240 Ukraine. Ukin became a dependent In nineteen ninety one, it declared its independence, 49 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:35.800 feeing itself of being part of the USSA. I'll show you maps afterwards 50 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:42.439 and you'll see, you'll see all that. And since then it's being in 51 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:48.439 a struggle, a push pust struggle between its own attraction, particularly in western 52 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:53.399 Ukraine, particularly in Kiev and to the west of Kiev, towards the West, 53 00:04:53.920 --> 00:05:00.959 towards Europe, towards Western civilization, and a pulled to the east coming 54 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.160 from Russia trying to pull it into its domain, trying to make it a 55 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:10.279 part of Russia. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute 56 00:05:10.399 --> 00:05:15.000 and Russia's perspective on Ukraine, but it's important to understand that Ukraine is in 57 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:18.680 this shift. Once in a while you get a president in Ukraine who's very 58 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:24.360 pro Russia. What has happened though, over the last twenty years, is 59 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:32.600 when that happens, usually there's some questions about the elections themselves. People go 60 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:36.920 out into the streets and demonstrate because they want to be pro Europe, not 61 00:05:38.199 --> 00:05:42.199 on the Russian side, and there's a regime change, there's a consequence. 62 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.560 This has happened twice over the last twenty years. It happened in two thousand 63 00:05:45.560 --> 00:05:51.160 and four with the Orange Revolution, and it happened in twenty fourteen with a 64 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:58.199 Maidan Maidon is the big square in the middle of Kiev where thousands, tens 65 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:05.720 of thousands of Ukrainians came to protest a pro Russian corrupt president. Violence ensued 66 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:13.120 and as a consequence, he was deposed and replaced by somebody who ultimately was 67 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:18.160 pro West and moved Ukraine further to the west. The trend over the last 68 00:06:18.199 --> 00:06:24.800 twenty years as being westward. Ukraine has the desire, the will, the 69 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:33.680 interest becoming an integral part of Europe and adopting European values. It wants to 70 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:39.279 be a member ultimately of the EU, and now I think certainly wants to 71 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:44.319 be a member of NATO. But it's really important to understand that Ukraine was 72 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:49.839 moving westwards, becoming more like the West, and of all the things Ukraine 73 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:56.560 could do, this ultimately was the biggest threat to Russia. It's the culture 74 00:06:56.839 --> 00:07:02.399 more than anything else. I've been to Kiev four or five times, I 75 00:07:02.439 --> 00:07:06.800 can't remember exactly. I've given a lot of talks in Kiev. You might 76 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:11.480 not know this, but Atlas Shrug was the best selling novel in Kiev in 77 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:15.920 twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen. It came out in three volumes. Every six 78 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:20.000 months they came out with a different volume, and all three volumes were best 79 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.240 sellers. You could go to the supermarket. It was in the bins, 80 00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:26.800 you know, the discum bins where best sellers land up, and you could 81 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:30.000 find it there. Now I'm not suggesting because of this, Ukraine as some 82 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:34.920 you know, objectivist haven, and that's where the revolution is going to happen. 83 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:41.920 Ukraine politically, it is very corrupt. Ukraine politically is really problematic. 84 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.519 It has certain atheletarian tendencies all the presidents they have had. But the movement 85 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:54.000 was towards the West. That was the direction it was heading in. I 86 00:07:54.120 --> 00:08:00.439 met a lot of young people in Ukraine who are passionate about making Ukraine Western 87 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:09.879 country. So that's important to know in terms of Russia's perspective, because what 88 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:16.680 does Russia think about the West. What is Russia's perspective on the West, 89 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:28.279 or Russia believes that the West fundamentally is decadent, weak and fragmented. I 90 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:31.480 want to I've got a lot of quotes, because I feel like if I 91 00:08:31.559 --> 00:08:35.600 just say that, you know, I want to put it in Putin's woods, 92 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.720 say here's a little bit, and you find this in every speech that 93 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:43.039 he gives. Almost every speech that he gives, paragraphs like this appear. 94 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:48.240 Look what they're doing to their own people. It's all about the destruction of 95 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:52.480 the family, of culture, of national identity, perversion, and abuse of 96 00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:56.759 children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their lives. 97 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:01.840 They are forcing the priests to bless same sex marriages, bless their hearts, 98 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.960 let them do as they please. But here is what I would like to 99 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:11.159 tell them. Look at the holy scriptures and the main books of the other 100 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:15.279 religions. They say it all, including that the family is the union of 101 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:20.519 a man and a woman. But these sacred tasks texts are now being questioned. 102 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:24.720 Reportedly, the Anglican Church is planning, just planning, to explore the 103 00:09:24.759 --> 00:09:31.480 idea of a general gender neutral God. What is there to say, Father, 104 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.480 forgive them, for they do not know what they do. Millions of 105 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.720 people in the West realize that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. 106 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:43.759 Frankly, they elite a pear to have gone crazy. It looks like there 107 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:48.399 is no cure for that. But like I said, these are their problems. 108 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:54.200 Well, we must protect our children, which we will do. We 109 00:09:54.240 --> 00:10:01.039 will protect our children from degradation and degeneration. For Boots in the West is 110 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:07.360 woke. That's it. It's everything, and he is standing up against it. 111 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:15.440 He is the bastion of a civilization standing up against the West, standing 112 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:20.840 up against the West degradation. And we'll come back to that wood degregation later. 113 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:26.279 The West is us a week. Puts In is engaged in two wars 114 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:33.039 in two thousand and eight in Georgia, where his forces invaded two sections of 115 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:37.519 Georgia. The West did basically nothing. In twenty fourteen, he took Crimea. 116 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:43.759 The West did nothing. That done Boss, the West did nothing. 117 00:10:43.679 --> 00:10:48.000 And then he looks and he sees the Trump administration, the Biden administration, 118 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:52.399 pretty much of the administration before that. Just make a disaster out of Afghanistan. 119 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:58.679 Leave with our tail between our legs. The West is week, it's 120 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:05.720 the ad and it's fragmented. Everybody hates each other, nobody gets along. 121 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:11.200 Western Europe is everybody's fighting. And the relationship between the Western Europe and the 122 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:20.919 United states broken, So he sees the West as a decadent place, a 123 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:24.919 place that is failing, a place that is falling apart, a place that 124 00:11:24.120 --> 00:11:33.440 is descending, not ascending. In addition, the West is hostile to Russia 125 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:37.879 and always has been, according to Putin, According to Putin and the philosophers. 126 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:43.159 He kind of he kind of follows. He has again putin in his 127 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:46.840 own words, they have only one objective, to prevent the development of Russia. 128 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:50.679 They're going to do it in the same way as they did it before, 129 00:11:50.240 --> 00:11:56.759 without furnishing even a single pretext, doing it just because we exist. 130 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:03.559 Or in twenty team during the in his first speech in Cromea, he says, 131 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:07.320 the politics and for the containment of Russia, which continued throughout the eighteenth, 132 00:12:07.440 --> 00:12:11.679 nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, continues today. There is constant attempt to 133 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:16.360 push us back into a corner because we have an independent position, because we 134 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.320 stand up for ourselves, or in our time, they started turning Ukraine into 135 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:28.440 anti Russia. Actually, this project is not new. People who are knowledgeable 136 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:31.080 about history, at least to some extent, realize that this project dates back 137 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:37.919 to the nineteenth century. The Astro Austro Hungarian Empire and Poland had conceived of 138 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:43.960 it for a purpose, that is, the deprived Russia of these historical territories 139 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:48.159 that are now called Ukraine. This is their goal. There is nothing new 140 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:54.679 here. They are repeating everything. So there's an ancient grievance. There's somehow 141 00:12:54.679 --> 00:13:01.320 the West has interfered with Russia's ambitions and Russia's wise as an alternative civilization to 142 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:07.320 the West. So that's his view of the West. What's his view of 143 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:15.879 Russia. Well, the view of Russia is that Russia is special in a 144 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:22.120 kind of mystical sense. Russia has something unique. Indeed, every ethnic group, 145 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.159 supposedly, according to again the philosophers the Putin listens to, every ethnic 146 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.960 group has some kind of biological determined nature and ultimately culture, and Russia's is 147 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:41.159 truly unique. And it is Russia, and only Russia to conceive the West 148 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:46.759 from itself. It is the projection of Russia onto the West that is the 149 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:52.120 only hope the West has. Now we'll see that there are several Westerners who 150 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:58.039 believe this to be true. So, you know, a professor from Mosco 151 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:03.679 State University in an event, he says Russia's destiny is no less than quote, 152 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:09.360 to build herself up as a separate civilization and to think of herself as 153 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:18.120 the conservative savior of Europe. Russia is there to save Europe. It has 154 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:24.960 a mission, it has a destiny, it has a purpose. All this 155 00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:30.200 adds up to something, right now, what are these values that Russia represents. 156 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:33.600 Well, these are conservative values. These are the values of the past. 157 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:39.480 These are the values of tradition. And Putin constantly talked about how he 158 00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:43.919 is a true conservative, that what he wants is to is to leverage the 159 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:48.960 past to create a beautiful future for Russia. But it's all about tradition and 160 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:58.879 family and the proper role of male and female. If you read Putin's speeches, 161 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:05.159 you'll find a real obsession that he has with homosexuality. To him, 162 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:09.679 this is the real threat that Western decadences poses to Russia. Right, we 163 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:16.320 need to go back to Papa woeful Man, Papa woeful woman, and the 164 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:26.360 traditions of Christianity and the traditions of the past. So a complete rejection of 165 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:33.279 the West, rejection of reason for the sake of mysticism and religion, a 166 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:39.159 rejection of individualism. If you read some of the philosophers again that Putin either 167 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:41.840 reads from the past or who are current, like Dugan, who is a 168 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:46.960 very influential philosopher in Russia today. The one thing they think the West is 169 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:52.240 really evil about is the idea of the sovereignty of the individual. The idea 170 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:58.039 of individualism is a horror to them. It is about the collective, it 171 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:11.919 is about the state. It is about Russia. So let me just see. 172 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.759 So for Russia to manifest itself, for Russia to achieve its potential, 173 00:16:21.320 --> 00:16:27.559 Russia must return to it's past. Russia must resurrect those traditions and that culture 174 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:33.480 which led in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century to a Russian empire. 175 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:38.399 And he has a vision for a Russian empire. Can we get the next 176 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:47.559 life? All right? There it is? That is the Russian Empire. 177 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.120 Now Russia already is a big country, the biggest in the world by far, 178 00:16:52.720 --> 00:17:02.639 but empire is massive. So I'm gonna there we go, all right, 179 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:07.119 I was pressing the wrong button. Go figure the flow is straight. 180 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:15.480 All of this this is eastern Ukraine. Western Ukraine was part of the Austrian 181 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:19.039 Garian Empire, and parts of it were part of Poland. But all this 182 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:25.160 in the south, this is Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia. This is 183 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:30.720 actually part of Turkey. This is part of Yuan. This is many stans 184 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.799 from Kazakhstan. It was Bekistan to many of the other stans. All of 185 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:38.599 the stans other than Afghanistan here a part of the Russian Empire all the way 186 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:45.319 to the east and to the borders with Mongolia and with China. Even Finland 187 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:52.440 did not exist. This is This is as of um just before the revolution 188 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:56.079 in nineteen seventeen. So this is at the at the height of what of 189 00:17:56.119 --> 00:18:00.000 the size of the Russian Empire. But this is pretty similar to the way 190 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:06.480 it was during much of the nineteenth century supput and embraces. If you that 191 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:11.000 this is what Russia is capable of, this is what a true Russia looks 192 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:15.559 like. This is a manifestation of Russia. And if you take it one 193 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:19.200 step further, if you eat Dugan, then Dugan would say this is not 194 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:26.400 enough, but Russia to really achieve its historical role, it's histopical place among 195 00:18:26.519 --> 00:18:30.880 the nations of the world. Russia, I'm going to extend to the Atlantic 196 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:41.160 and must dominate all of Europe. Now this sounds bizarre to us sitting here. 197 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:45.680 I know, it reminds me of of when the Islamists after nine to 198 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.880 eleven would say things like we want Islam to rule the world, and we 199 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.880 went, really, you know, that's kind of ridiculous. No nobody has 200 00:18:55.559 --> 00:19:00.079 thinks those but they do. They do think those thoughts. The Muslims thought 201 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:06.599 that, the Islamis thought that the Russians, at least the Putin type Russians 202 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:12.640 really think this. Dugan writes extensively about this idea of Eurasia. You know, 203 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:18.599 I a country that spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the entire 204 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:25.799 scope, and again the manifestation of some kind of mystical Russian spirit, some 205 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:33.079 kind of ristical Russian destiny that is getting compassed this entire sphere. Just to 206 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:40.720 give you a sense, this is from a two thousand and five two thousand 207 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:48.279 and five speech. Actually, let me get that the next life first. 208 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:52.079 So this is the USSA, right, she can see the USSA preserved much 209 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:56.880 of the empire, not all of it, but all these little shaded colors 210 00:19:56.880 --> 00:20:00.400 these are part of the USSA. So that part of one country, one 211 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:08.519 political regime. This number six is Ukraine, so this was Russia. These 212 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:15.759 all these declared independence in nineteen ninety one when the USSA fell. What is 213 00:20:15.799 --> 00:20:19.200 Putin's response the fall of the USSA. This is in two thousand and five, 214 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:23.920 he says, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was 215 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:30.720 a major or the major Zuo political disaster of the century. Of ever, 216 00:20:30.839 --> 00:20:34.480 all the horrors of the twentieth century, the thing that upsets him the most 217 00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:44.920 is the fact that these were split off from Mother Russia. This is his 218 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:52.319 ambition, and when he comes to Ukraine, he's very clear. Talking to 219 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:59.319 US President George Bush on the sideline of a NATO summit in two thousand and 220 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:03.880 eight, he said, Ukraine is not even a state. What is Ukraine. 221 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:08.359 Part of its territories is Eastern Europe, but the greater part is a 222 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:15.240 gift from us. When the USSA was broken up. And then in twenty 223 00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:18.799 twenty one, about seven months before the war started, eight months before the 224 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:25.240 wars started, Prutin actually wrote an essay, a long essay there was published 225 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:30.759 on the kremlins A website and the name of the essay was on the historical 226 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:37.279 unity of Russians and Ukrainians. And I'll just quote one sentence. The essay 227 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:42.480 is pretty repetitive. This captures it all, I think quote a spiritual human 228 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:52.839 and civilizational ties formed for centuries and have their origins in the same source. 229 00:21:53.559 --> 00:22:02.200 Together, we Russians and Ukrainians have always been and will be many times stronger 230 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:14.720 and more successful, for we are one people. So why did Putin invade 231 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:19.759 Ukraine? Because he've used it as his It's a part of Russia, it's 232 00:22:19.799 --> 00:22:30.759 one people. He've used it as essential part of a Russian empire. Ukraine 233 00:22:30.799 --> 00:22:37.000 today he tried Georgia. Georgie's right here, George's number eight. Who knows 234 00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:41.240 who else? Belarus is a ready in his pocket. He would love to 235 00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:44.640 have his hands on Kazakhstan, which is an ally but not yet completely in 236 00:22:44.680 --> 00:22:49.279 his control. One step at a time to resurrect this empire, one step 237 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:52.960 at a time, to get closer to the ultimate goal. And in the 238 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:57.119 meantime he can watch as the West descends into chaos, and maybe one day 239 00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:03.880 he can actually fulfill the dream of going all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. 240 00:23:07.960 --> 00:23:10.200 Now you have to add one element to this, which I think is 241 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.759 important, and that is at the same time that Russia has this sense that 242 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:18.720 they have this destiny and they you know, they are the civilization that's going 243 00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:23.119 to replace the West, and they are all importance. They're also failing, 244 00:23:25.079 --> 00:23:29.880 and this is before the war. They're poor, significant poorer than Western Europe. 245 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:33.240 They have a lot of natural resources, but other than that very little. 246 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:41.720 They have a political system based on one man, a productive system, 247 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:47.279 a system, an economic system based on olligochs, based on mafia style theft, 248 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:51.680 based on people associated with the government getting their wealth, all of their 249 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:56.119 wealth from the government. They have a system that is based on violence. 250 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:00.839 I mean, on my show, on my You're One book show, I 251 00:24:00.880 --> 00:24:07.480 have a running tally of Russian's falling out of windows, you know, oligochs, 252 00:24:07.599 --> 00:24:11.119 dying and the mysterious ways. This is the methodology. This is how 253 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:18.480 you do competition in the Russian economy. You have your competitive falling out of 254 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:23.880 a window and you take over their business. And Putin himself, I think, 255 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:30.319 at the end of the day is very insecure, as any head of 256 00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:33.319 the mafia would be insecure. You don't know who's going to stab you in 257 00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.240 the back. Now, granted, Putin has notne a very good job as 258 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:42.200 surrounding himself with weak people. He's done this some purpose. He doesn't want 259 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:45.519 strong people around him. He's afraid of strong people. But you never know. 260 00:24:47.720 --> 00:24:51.680 We just witnessed that last weekend. You never know exactly what will happen. 261 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:53.720 Who will stab you in the back, who will take you over. 262 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:00.640 It's at the same time as he has this grand vision for Russia, he's 263 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:08.000 also super insecure about himself, about his position and about Russia itself. He 264 00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:14.759 could be killed at any moment, and he knows it. Put that all 265 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:22.119 into the mix, and what you get is an invasion of Ukraine. The 266 00:25:22.119 --> 00:25:26.799 West is weak, the West won't respond. The West will just capitulate. 267 00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:30.599 If I can do it fast, if I can take Kiev in a week 268 00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:33.720 or two, what are they gonna do. Nothing some boycotts, some some 269 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:38.799 you know stuff, but nothing significant, nothing that really hurts us. We 270 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:44.920 get our own regime in Kiev. We turn Ukraine into a part of Russia, 271 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:48.920 or into a state that's completely subservient to Russia. And we've done a 272 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:52.799 job. And all this can happen very very quickly, because hey, we 273 00:25:52.920 --> 00:26:03.400 have the second most powerful military on the planet. And it's a step in 274 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:11.079 the process of creating this destiny, and it's a step towards solidifying Putin's place 275 00:26:11.079 --> 00:26:18.200 in history, solidifying his position as the head of Russia, silencing opposition, 276 00:26:18.839 --> 00:26:22.359 unifying the country. You all know that war is a good tonic for the 277 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:27.440 people. It unifies people, gets people excited, it makes people patriotic, 278 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:33.160 and they will unify around Putin. And I think this was the thinking and 279 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:37.880 the days before the war was engaged in the expectation was that this would go 280 00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:44.640 fast. They landed special forces troops not far outside of Kiev. They expected 281 00:26:44.720 --> 00:26:48.039 to be able to take Kiev in less than a week. Didn't work out 282 00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:55.960 that way. So how has it worked out? There? Wars being a 283 00:26:56.079 --> 00:27:00.039 massive failure for Russia. I mean a massive failure at every front, from 284 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:06.799 every perspective. Militarily, we know that the assaultant Keya failed. They had 285 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:14.000 a retreat ultimately from all of northern Ukraine. Ultimately the Ukrainians kicked them out 286 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:17.039 of a vast area in the east, kicked them out of a vast area 287 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:19.519 in the south. So yes, they're still holding significant Ukrainian territory. AMYB. 288 00:27:19.559 --> 00:27:23.799 We can get the next slide. But this is the second most powerful 289 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:30.000 military and it's being humiliated by Ukraine, which has a much smaller military. 290 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:36.200 Nobody considered them. If you looked at every military expert on any one of 291 00:27:36.200 --> 00:27:40.599 the channels on television in the days when the war begun, everybody was predicting 292 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:45.200 that Ukraine would fold. The only difference was how quickly, days, weeks, 293 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.799 months, everybody thought it was over for Ukraine, with a few exceptions. 294 00:27:52.519 --> 00:27:56.519 So this is what they now control. That's Kromea of course, this 295 00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:59.799 is the south. They had a match, vast area. They were very 296 00:28:00.079 --> 00:28:03.279 is to kal Kiev. Over here, all of this has been taken back 297 00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:07.640 from the Russians. Militarily, they've been humiliated. Their weapons systems don't work. 298 00:28:08.200 --> 00:28:11.720 They don't work anywhere near as well as they advertised. The American weapons 299 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:15.599 systems and the Western weapon systems more broadly, far more efficient, far more 300 00:28:15.640 --> 00:28:22.759 productive. They've destroyed the weapon systems of the Russians. And if you think 301 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:26.880 about Russia as one of its sources of revenue, which it is, the 302 00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:32.039 weapons industry. Has a weapons industry, exports weapons. It's a massive export 303 00:28:32.119 --> 00:28:36.319 of weapons. Who's going to buy their weapons after seeing how they performed in 304 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:41.759 Ukraine. Indeed, India, which is one of the largest importers of Russian 305 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:48.559 weapons systems in the world. India has just come to the US asking to 306 00:28:48.599 --> 00:28:52.039 buy US weapons. They've given up on the Russian weapons system. Even they're 307 00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:56.079 buying Russian oil that they haven't given up on, but weapons systems they're not 308 00:28:56.160 --> 00:29:00.640 buying. Economically, this has been horrific for Russia. The economy shrunk last 309 00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:06.960 year, and the GDP numbers don't capture what's really going on there. Not 310 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.680 only are we talking about tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of casualties 311 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:19.799 dead and injured, of a whole generation of young men disabled, you're talking 312 00:29:19.839 --> 00:29:25.480 about hundreds of thousands and those productive Russians leaving the country. They're now in 313 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:27.839 Georgia and Kazakhstan and in Europe and all over the world, but not in 314 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:33.759 Russia. But in addition, the Russian economy itself, quality of life, 315 00:29:33.799 --> 00:29:40.480 stand up living have declined dramatically. The Russians are selling in their oil. 316 00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:45.599 They keep selling their oil, but they're selling their oil way to India and 317 00:29:45.640 --> 00:29:53.400 to China at significant discounts because that's the only way India and China are willing 318 00:29:53.400 --> 00:29:56.880 to buy that oil. And they know they can squeeze the Russians because there's 319 00:29:56.920 --> 00:30:02.319 a limited market for the oil because of the because of all the sanctions. 320 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:07.960 By the way, one of the aspects that gave them courage to go to 321 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:11.640 war, I think was this idea of energy dependence of the West. Right, 322 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:15.400 the West was dependent on Russia for energy. And one of the ways 323 00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:18.799 in which they failed is the fact that it turned out it turned out that 324 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.920 Europe could manage without Russia. It turned out that there are other sources of 325 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:26.839 energy that if the Europeans put their mind to it, they can build l 326 00:30:26.920 --> 00:30:32.680 en G facilities, liquidified natural gas and get natural gas in the Middle East 327 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:37.000 from the United States and not have to depend on all those pipelines from Russia. 328 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:45.079 Which again this is a massive strategic defeat for Russia, which depended on 329 00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.359 the fact that the rest of the world is dependent on them. It's not, 330 00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:56.039 and we just this will proved it. But other ways in which this 331 00:30:56.160 --> 00:31:00.680 was a massive defeat. You know, some argue that Russia was worried about 332 00:31:00.759 --> 00:31:08.599 NATO being stationed in Ukraine. Well, NATO now after the war is stationed 333 00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:17.000 in Finland, which is closer than Ukraine along the border with Russia. You 334 00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:19.279 know, I don't know what a drive is from the finished border to Saint 335 00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:26.039 Petersburg. But it's short. Finland is a far bigger threat from a NATO 336 00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:30.640 perspective to Russia than Ukraine ever was. Sweden is likely to join SENATO has 337 00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:37.839 grown. Sweden and Finland actually make weapons, they actually have armies. They 338 00:31:37.880 --> 00:31:41.119 could actually stand up to Russia. I mean, Ukrainians have stood up to 339 00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:45.519 Russia. Anybody could stand up to Russia. Really, that's not to diminish 340 00:31:45.559 --> 00:31:53.200 the Ukrainians. It's just to say so they failed with the good to NADO 341 00:31:55.119 --> 00:31:57.759 Ukraine today. You know, they said they were going to Ukraine to demilitarize 342 00:31:57.759 --> 00:32:02.319 it. Well they got the opposite. Ukraine has more militarized today than ever 343 00:32:02.359 --> 00:32:07.759 before. They went to Ukraine to stop Ukraine from becoming too close to the 344 00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:14.759 West. Ukraine is closer to the West than ever before, likely to be 345 00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:19.680 fast checked into the EU once there was over, and potentially for NATO membership. 346 00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:24.480 And then they're thinking about Europe and the United States and the fragmentation, 347 00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:29.880 and we fight all the time and they won't do anything. Nothing has united 348 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:34.200 Europe more than this war. Countries that don't speak to each other on a 349 00:32:34.240 --> 00:32:39.200 regular basis suddenly agree. Poland, which was kind of shunned by many European 350 00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:45.680 countries. Suddenly everybody agrees with Poland about the necessity to combat the Russian risk. 351 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:51.880 This has been an incredibly unifying event for all of Europe and for European 352 00:32:51.960 --> 00:32:58.960 US relationships. So we have now a much stronger West from the perspective of 353 00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:05.799 Russia. And maybe in the most shocking of all is the fact that NATO 354 00:33:05.880 --> 00:33:12.480 members in Europe, who never used to spend any money on military on defense, 355 00:33:13.279 --> 00:33:19.440 and now substantially increasing their budgets. So Germany is committing to spending two 356 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:25.759 percent of a GDP on the military for the first time. Europe is going 357 00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:32.839 to become much more independent militarily because of this war. So this has been 358 00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:38.200 a complete disaster, something of course the Russians can't admit. But you saw 359 00:33:38.240 --> 00:33:44.839 it last weekend with the Pukos in first he came on, he came on 360 00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:50.519 a YouTube video and he told us that the war was not really about NATO 361 00:33:50.920 --> 00:33:53.599 or anything like that. What he said the war was about just a little 362 00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:58.160 you know, I didn't include this reason. He said, it was just 363 00:33:58.839 --> 00:34:01.759 it's just the Russian moth are basically the Russian oligots wanting to steal all the 364 00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:07.960 Ukrainian stuff, and that's why they went to war. It's the steal the 365 00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:13.519 stuff. And if you look at all the industries in places like maliital In, 366 00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:17.800 South Ukraine and other areas around Ukraine, all the equipment's gone, it's 367 00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:22.159 all being transported to Russia. Everything's gone. They're stealing all their wealth, 368 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:29.639 everything they can get their hands on. But what we saw last weekend was, 369 00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:35.039 in addition to everything else that has set Russia back, Putin has been 370 00:34:35.079 --> 00:34:38.480 set back. What we saw last week when it was the first real challenge 371 00:34:38.519 --> 00:34:45.599 to Putin in over twenty years. Putin's on thin ice. He is much 372 00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:52.400 weaker today than he was when the war started. So Russia has failed. 373 00:34:53.559 --> 00:35:00.599 It has failed to achieve all of its strategic goals except maybe for one, 374 00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:07.559 and that is that it seems like it's friends in the West are still strong. 375 00:35:07.599 --> 00:35:13.960 They're still supportive of Putin, they're still embracing call it the Russian way. 376 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.320 And this is maybe the most shocking thing about this war. Everything else 377 00:35:19.800 --> 00:35:23.280 I kind of could get a grip on. But the mountains support Russia and 378 00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:29.880 Putin have in this country and in Western Europe, but primarily in this country 379 00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:37.519 is truly astounding and truly shocking. But then if you read Putin and you 380 00:35:37.599 --> 00:35:45.000 read about how he's anti woke and how he's anti left, it kind of 381 00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:50.800 starts fitting in. If your perspective on the world is right versus left, 382 00:35:51.280 --> 00:35:53.920 and the left is really evil, and therefore anything you do to combat the 383 00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:59.599 left is good, then Putin is your hero. He stands up to the 384 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:06.679 left, He talks to talk, and he walks the walk. Russia is 385 00:36:06.719 --> 00:36:14.599 appealing to vast segments of the American right. Sadly, they like the authoritarianism, 386 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:19.719 the tough guy, the president who doesn't wear a shirt and rides a 387 00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:24.760 horse. You think you think RFK is posing without a shirt on accidentally. 388 00:36:27.159 --> 00:36:30.840 And by the way, this is left and right because RFK right. They 389 00:36:30.880 --> 00:36:37.320 like the strength, the manliness of a Putin, the sheer force of his 390 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:42.760 character. He stands up to the West, he stands up to the leftists. 391 00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:50.800 And there are many in this country who admire that. Don't believe me, 392 00:36:52.920 --> 00:37:00.159 Let me read you for one of the most influential people underwrite in America 393 00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:07.199 today, and that is Jordan Peterson. Jordan Peterson writes Prutin regards the current 394 00:37:07.239 --> 00:37:15.079 West as decadent to the point of absolute unworthiness, particularly in culture and religious 395 00:37:15.280 --> 00:37:21.079 front. But Putin tells his people that he sees us falling far too far 396 00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:27.159 under the sway of ideas very similar to those that produced the revolutionary frenzy of 397 00:37:27.199 --> 00:37:32.239 the Communist moment movement. This is the left. And then Jordan Peterson continues, 398 00:37:34.920 --> 00:37:39.719 and we are degenerate or he says sorry, He says, this is 399 00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:45.320 a question, and all we degenerate in a profoundly threatening manner. I think 400 00:37:45.320 --> 00:37:53.239 the answer to that may well be yes. The idea that we are asconced 401 00:37:53.360 --> 00:37:59.039 in a culture war has become a rhetorical commonplace. How serious is that war? 402 00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:05.000 It is serious enough to increase the probability that Russia, say, will 403 00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:10.599 be motivated to invade and potentially incapacitate Ukraine merely to keep the pathological West out 404 00:38:10.639 --> 00:38:17.000 of that country. And he says, and Russia and Russians believe that they 405 00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:23.440 have a moral duty, and they have the highest moral duty to oppose the 406 00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:30.000 degenerate ideas, philosophy and theology of the West. And there's something about that 407 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:37.360 that is not wrong. We cannot do without the Russians on our side. 408 00:38:37.519 --> 00:38:44.519 Here in the rest of the Western world. For Jordan Peterson, Russia is 409 00:38:44.519 --> 00:38:47.159 part of the West. Indeed, Russia is not just part of the West. 410 00:38:47.440 --> 00:38:51.719 Russia is a crucial part of the West. Russia is the part of 411 00:38:51.760 --> 00:38:55.199 the good part of the West. The partisans associated in his mind with religion 412 00:38:55.280 --> 00:39:04.440 and tradition and the past and authoritarianism. We can't do without that. Indeed, 413 00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:07.519 for Jordan Peterson, for America to become right, for America to fix 414 00:39:07.559 --> 00:39:13.280 itself, we must return to our Christian roots. We must return to religion. 415 00:39:14.280 --> 00:39:19.400 And again here he is inspired by what he sees from Putin. He 416 00:39:19.400 --> 00:39:23.119 says, there is every sign of a revival of Christianity in Russia, including 417 00:39:23.320 --> 00:39:30.039 a veritable storm of church building and cathedral construction. Putin himself is a practicing 418 00:39:30.119 --> 00:39:35.679 Christian, and it appears that he has been strongly influenced by such ideas. 419 00:39:36.519 --> 00:39:40.079 The Russian leader frequently speaks of his country's role as a bulwark against the moral 420 00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:45.199 decadence of the West, and he speaks in philosophical and theological terms to degree 421 00:39:45.599 --> 00:39:54.880 unthinkable in a Western leader. So for Jordan Peterson, Russia is the ally 422 00:39:55.199 --> 00:40:01.000 of those conservatives, of those in the right who are fighting the left and 423 00:40:01.079 --> 00:40:04.800 those, of course, are the only two alternative they can imagine or they 424 00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:13.239 are presented in the world. They love the unabashed nationalism of Russia, the 425 00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:19.840 imperialism, the idea that the state is all important. And think about the 426 00:40:19.920 --> 00:40:23.039 national conservatives, and they are the more moderates of some of these groups. 427 00:40:29.719 --> 00:40:35.360 So the West, the West is threatened today. We know this if we 428 00:40:35.400 --> 00:40:39.440 talk about Western civilization, if we talked about the ideas of reason, individualism, 429 00:40:40.199 --> 00:40:45.199 capitalism. The West is under attack, under attack from the left and 430 00:40:45.400 --> 00:40:49.880 under attack from the right. And we, who I think represent best what 431 00:40:49.920 --> 00:40:55.840 Western civilization really is. Philosophically, we face a two front battle, a 432 00:40:55.920 --> 00:41:01.519 two front battle facing the collectivists of Bosa, the mystics of both sides, 433 00:41:02.199 --> 00:41:14.719 the statuss of both sides. The Ukraine Russia or the Russian War on Ukraine 434 00:41:15.280 --> 00:41:19.440 is a manifestation of one of those battles that we are fighting today, the 435 00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:27.119 battle we fight with the right. Russia represents for the right what kind of 436 00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:34.719 an ideal state looks like hawkening back to all those traditional values and religious values 437 00:41:34.760 --> 00:41:39.840 and mystical values to the extend Russia wins. I don't think that's possible at 438 00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:45.000 this point. But to the extent that it could win, that will embolden 439 00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:50.480 those elements on the right in the United States and in Europe, make them 440 00:41:50.519 --> 00:41:54.199 stronger. They will give more support from Russia. Russia already funds many of 441 00:41:54.199 --> 00:41:59.280 these political parties in places like Europe, the right wing nationalist parties, the 442 00:41:59.320 --> 00:42:04.800 right wing religion in his parties. A Russian victory is a victory for the 443 00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:12.639 new right. It is a victory for the worst kind of right. A 444 00:42:12.719 --> 00:42:19.840 Russian loss doesn't guarantee us anything, but it buys us some time. It 445 00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:24.559 buys us some time to fight these enemies that we must fight. It buys 446 00:42:24.639 --> 00:42:30.039 us this time, buys us some time to educate the world about the alternative 447 00:42:30.480 --> 00:42:35.679 to the left and the right, an alternative to the collectivism, the mysticism, 448 00:42:35.800 --> 00:42:40.599 and the statism that they represent. It buys us some time to save 449 00:42:40.679 --> 00:43:01.920 Western civilization. Thank you all right, I see a line of questions, 450 00:43:04.440 --> 00:43:07.760 nikos Hi, I don't thank you very much. So the question is how 451 00:43:07.800 --> 00:43:13.280 does this war ends? So on that part, on the territories which are 452 00:43:13.280 --> 00:43:16.320 still occupied by Rossia, the red part, there's a significant part of the 453 00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:20.840 population who would want to be in one way or the other. Part of 454 00:43:20.920 --> 00:43:25.679 Rossia. So do you see any realistic way that this war would end and 455 00:43:25.880 --> 00:43:30.599 that Ukraine would still be intact as it is to day? And is there 456 00:43:30.639 --> 00:43:36.039 a chance it ever gets to NATO? Thank you? So is there a 457 00:43:36.119 --> 00:43:42.599 chance that the war ends and Russia gets to keep the don't ask and Crimea 458 00:43:42.679 --> 00:43:46.119 and maybe some other relatively Russian speaking parts of Ukraine. I think there's a 459 00:43:46.239 --> 00:43:52.400 chance. And I think what Putin is really, what Putchin really is counting 460 00:43:52.400 --> 00:43:57.039 on right now is still the weakness of the West. What is counting on 461 00:43:57.159 --> 00:44:00.880 right now is the idea that the West will stop at some point giving weapons. 462 00:44:00.239 --> 00:44:05.920 Let's say, I don't know, I can think of several Republican candidates 463 00:44:05.920 --> 00:44:10.199 who might win the presidency and stop providing weapons to Ukraine. In you could 464 00:44:10.199 --> 00:44:15.960 you could see elections in Germany flipping and a much more pro Russian government in 465 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.800 Germany rising, and other countries around Europe, and the Poles are alone because 466 00:44:19.800 --> 00:44:22.880 the polls are not going to change. Of all the countries in Europe, 467 00:44:22.880 --> 00:44:25.719 the country is most dedicated in its anti Russian I think, is Poland. 468 00:44:27.599 --> 00:44:30.519 So you could see that if you can, and its strategy right now is 469 00:44:30.559 --> 00:44:35.360 to drag this war out so that that is what he achieves, because he 470 00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:38.400 can't win at this point, all he can do is drag it out so 471 00:44:38.599 --> 00:44:42.719 that there's a change in government in some of these key countries like the United 472 00:44:42.760 --> 00:44:47.239 States, and they negotiate some thing that allows Russia to keep Cromea and to 473 00:44:47.320 --> 00:44:53.639 keep Dunnasko or that that dun Basso that area of Russia. But I militarily, 474 00:44:54.400 --> 00:45:01.320 I think if the West provides provide Ukraine the weapons, I think I 475 00:45:01.360 --> 00:45:05.800 think the Ukrainians are going to kick the Russians out of the entire area of 476 00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:08.960 Ukraine. It's just the of what Ukraine was before this invasion. It's just 477 00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:13.800 a question of time, whether they have the time, and it's a question 478 00:45:13.840 --> 00:45:15.679 of whether the West will continue to support them. I'm not convinced the West 479 00:45:15.679 --> 00:45:21.679 will again. I think they're serious cracks once you get elections. Marie La 480 00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:25.280 penn is thought to be the leading candidate again in France. Mlcon is very 481 00:45:25.639 --> 00:45:30.280 um uh, you know, unpopular. If she wins. Down the road, 482 00:45:30.320 --> 00:45:34.719 if she gains and strengthen Malcorn needs to show that he's not. So 483 00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:38.480 who knows what happens in Europe over the next year. That's what Putin is 484 00:45:38.519 --> 00:45:43.480 counting on. He's going to drag his feet, He's gonna play defense, 485 00:45:44.239 --> 00:45:51.480 so that Europe shifts and America shifts. Thank you very much. You spoke 486 00:45:51.519 --> 00:46:00.519 about Dugan's and Puddin's idea to what extent you think general Russian mentality? I 487 00:46:00.559 --> 00:46:07.599 mean, these people's ideas are representative of general and mentality of the Russians. 488 00:46:07.800 --> 00:46:12.159 Right, we know that what is ultimately much more important is you know, 489 00:46:12.440 --> 00:46:17.599 mentality of the nation, not the leaders that are ruling the country. So 490 00:46:17.679 --> 00:46:22.880 if if they one day get rid of Putin, there will be prickles and 491 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:27.880 maybe even much you know, worse people. What is what is uh? 492 00:46:28.280 --> 00:46:31.440 And we know that tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people who 493 00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:37.360 disagree with Putin left Russia. What remains there is it? Is it the 494 00:46:37.400 --> 00:46:39.880 worse mentality than Putin? Is it the similar mentality? So? Or what 495 00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:46.000 is it? Look? I think that we understand that it's intellectuals the shape 496 00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:52.400 of culture, it's ideas the shape of culture, and Russian ideas the dominant 497 00:46:52.480 --> 00:47:00.559 Russian ideas at least since the days of Dostoyevsky anti Western civilization years. If 498 00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:07.519 you think about Dosteyevsky, I have some way this quote from Dostevsky about the 499 00:47:08.360 --> 00:47:13.800 purpose of the Russian people is to save the West in the name of Christianity. 500 00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:19.079 You'll see revival of Christianity in Russia, and that'll sweep through the West 501 00:47:19.119 --> 00:47:22.000 and Russia. So this is not new, this is not ducan, this 502 00:47:22.119 --> 00:47:24.360 is Dosteevsky right, one hundred and fifty years ago, one hundred and thirty 503 00:47:24.440 --> 00:47:29.519 years ago. Whenever. Um, you know the number of intellectuals, the 504 00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:32.840 number of philosophers since then who have repeated that kind of line and that kind 505 00:47:32.840 --> 00:47:37.039 of mystical view of Russia and what it means, and it's significant. That 506 00:47:37.159 --> 00:47:40.159 has to have an impact on the on the culture, on the on the 507 00:47:40.199 --> 00:47:46.199 people in Russia. I ran at a you know, she said, it's 508 00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:52.039 it's a it's a mystical collectivist culture and it'll you know, I don't know 509 00:47:52.039 --> 00:47:54.159 if she said this, but she implied he would take decades to change that. 510 00:47:54.800 --> 00:47:59.519 And indeed, when the Berlin Wall fell, many people said, well, 511 00:47:59.599 --> 00:48:02.920 that's it, right, we won liberal democracy whatever that is one, 512 00:48:04.360 --> 00:48:08.440 and Russia will just become part of the West. Well, no, it 513 00:48:08.559 --> 00:48:15.639 became afia land where them mafia took over whole industries, and it became a 514 00:48:15.719 --> 00:48:20.360 land of authoritarianism, mysticism, and collectivism, exactly what you'd expect from the 515 00:48:20.480 --> 00:48:23.079 culture that has that has led to this point, that led them to become 516 00:48:23.079 --> 00:48:28.079 the USSL. That wasn't an accident. It's not an accident that they became 517 00:48:28.239 --> 00:48:31.519 the first real communist country. All of this is a consequence of the ideas 518 00:48:31.559 --> 00:48:37.639 that are deeply embedded in the in Russian culture. And I think that so. 519 00:48:37.159 --> 00:48:43.159 I think if Putin disappears, you get somebody as bad or maybe worse 520 00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:45.480 for a while. Is the hope long term, of course there is, 521 00:48:45.760 --> 00:48:49.079 because people have free will, they can't change. They are hundreds of thousands 522 00:48:49.079 --> 00:48:52.679 of Russians who left because they wouldn't succumb to this kind of authoritarian government. 523 00:48:53.199 --> 00:48:55.800 They could come back. You could see a real changeing. You could see 524 00:48:55.880 --> 00:49:01.239 kind of a liberalization of Russia. But that's far fetched. I mean, 525 00:49:01.280 --> 00:49:05.880 I think it's going to be really, really difficult to imagine a world in 526 00:49:05.920 --> 00:49:13.559 which that happens. It doesn't look good for them, but I will say 527 00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:15.239 this. I mean you could have said the same thing about Ukraine, because 528 00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:20.239 Ukraine was so much under the influence of Russian culture and Ukraine has moved away, 529 00:49:20.320 --> 00:49:23.239 So it is possible. It is possible. And you know, don't 530 00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:29.159 you it's wanting to give up on people. There's always that potential. Thank 531 00:49:29.159 --> 00:49:32.440 you, Ron, amazing talk. So you started with a premise that success 532 00:49:32.559 --> 00:49:37.519 or failure of our enemies overseas impact the success or failure of our enemies here 533 00:49:37.519 --> 00:49:43.400 at home. And I agree with you. And yet as Russia fails in 534 00:49:43.559 --> 00:49:51.239 spectacular fashion, Putin's head of propaganda, Tucker called Carlson, is still on 535 00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:55.159 the rise. Why what's it going to take for people like Tucker to be 536 00:49:55.239 --> 00:50:05.199 held accountable? You know, I don't know. It's very depressing. Um, 537 00:50:05.360 --> 00:50:07.559 something has happened over the last I don't know, since since Trump, 538 00:50:07.599 --> 00:50:15.559 I think, and that is that people won't accept reality. They don't. 539 00:50:15.639 --> 00:50:21.159 They just ignore it. They come up with conspiracy theories that explain everything, 540 00:50:22.039 --> 00:50:24.920 right. Uh, And and you know, prigos and didn't it's not actually 541 00:50:24.920 --> 00:50:29.760 an enemy of Putin. He's actually you know, this is all Putin doing 542 00:50:29.840 --> 00:50:35.880 four D chess and there's a whole constellation there and this is all strengthening Putin. 543 00:50:35.960 --> 00:50:38.760 It's making him stronger. I don't know. You can't even talk about 544 00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:43.360 it because it's completely arbitrary to say it has no cognitive standing. There's nothing 545 00:50:43.400 --> 00:50:47.000 to say about these things, um and Teca. Carson is a perpetuator of 546 00:50:49.039 --> 00:50:52.079 some of the worst conspiracy theories I think today, and I think he is 547 00:50:52.280 --> 00:50:59.440 completely divorced from reality from facts, and people don't seem to care, and 548 00:50:59.480 --> 00:51:01.559 to the extend, the facts don't matter anymore. Yeah, it's it's it's 549 00:51:01.599 --> 00:51:05.639 a. It's a that's the biggest problem I think of all the problems we 550 00:51:05.719 --> 00:51:08.320 face today, it's an epistemological problem. People don't care about facts and about 551 00:51:08.360 --> 00:51:15.440 reality and about truth. If we truly on a post truth error, then 552 00:51:15.480 --> 00:51:19.159 it's over because all we have is truth, facts, reality, reason, 553 00:51:19.320 --> 00:51:22.800 logic. What else is there? So, you know, I don't know. 554 00:51:22.880 --> 00:51:30.599 My hope is that Russia loses so badly that they can't ignore it anymore. 555 00:51:30.840 --> 00:51:37.280 But you know, the ability of human beings to rationalize and to evade 556 00:51:37.519 --> 00:51:42.639 and to create stories, call them conspiracy theories is astounding to me, and 557 00:51:43.039 --> 00:51:45.559 they manage to somehow do it anyway. I mean, if he loses, 558 00:51:45.599 --> 00:51:50.559 they'll call that for d chess and actually he's going to do something. And 559 00:51:50.639 --> 00:51:53.920 when you say, look, Finland has joined NATO. That's bad. It 560 00:51:53.960 --> 00:52:00.159 doesn't even register with them. They can't even respond. So I don't I 561 00:52:00.199 --> 00:52:02.039 don't know. If we knew, maybe we'd we'd have some good arguments to 562 00:52:02.079 --> 00:52:07.480 convince some of those people. You know, Tucher Carson I think is just 563 00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:10.239 a liar. I'm convinced he knows exactly what he's doing. This is a 564 00:52:10.320 --> 00:52:15.280 marketing ploy he this is how he gets his audience. He knows what attracts 565 00:52:15.280 --> 00:52:19.639 an audience. He says what he needs in order to attract an audience. 566 00:52:19.960 --> 00:52:23.239 I think that was revealed in this lawsuit between Fox and Dominion, where he 567 00:52:23.320 --> 00:52:30.280 was saying one thing on his text to other Fox employees and something completely else 568 00:52:30.440 --> 00:52:35.920 on a during during uh, you know, after January sixth and and and 569 00:52:35.960 --> 00:52:42.119 after the election. So, um, you know, Tucker Carson will do 570 00:52:42.159 --> 00:52:45.079 what Techa Calson does. I mean, he's he's a he's a he's an 571 00:52:45.159 --> 00:52:49.280 entertainer and he entertains. Um. It's the fact that he has such a 572 00:52:49.320 --> 00:52:53.559 following, which is truly scary. But imagine what would have looked like if 573 00:52:53.639 --> 00:52:59.039 Russia wins. That's my point. If Russia wins, it gives him so 574 00:52:59.119 --> 00:53:01.920 much power. It gives him so much strength. It legitimizes everything he says, 575 00:53:01.960 --> 00:53:05.760 even among people who might be on the fence. So it might because 576 00:53:06.599 --> 00:53:08.679 if they lose, at least we have reality and outside right if you can 577 00:53:08.760 --> 00:53:14.199 point at it. If they win, Taka becomes much more powerful than you 578 00:53:14.280 --> 00:53:19.159 idiots, And that's scary. Great response, Thank you, yarn. We 579 00:53:19.280 --> 00:53:24.599 have a question from the online audience. Sure does America's massive resource investment in 580 00:53:24.679 --> 00:53:35.079 your grass military serve America's self interest? Look in a if we lived in 581 00:53:35.159 --> 00:53:42.039 luz a fair America and the government was as small as and as limited as 582 00:53:42.079 --> 00:53:46.559 we believe it should be, and it had any kind of semblance of a 583 00:53:46.840 --> 00:53:52.400 strategic fagn policy, a real self interested faun policy, as I think we 584 00:53:52.559 --> 00:53:57.800 understand it, then Russia would have never invaded Ukraine and this question would be 585 00:53:57.840 --> 00:54:02.199 off the table. You would need it. Nobody would mess with America, 586 00:54:02.320 --> 00:54:07.599 Nobody would mess with the West, and the West would be such an example 587 00:54:07.639 --> 00:54:13.079 of a shining city on a hill. The game over. But the fact 588 00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:15.920 is we live in a mixed economy. The fact is that the United States 589 00:54:15.960 --> 00:54:22.239 spends huge quantities of money on all kinds of things that have nothing to do 590 00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:27.360 with our interests. Of all the things the United States spend money on today, 591 00:54:27.559 --> 00:54:31.320 is the ant is the money sent to Ukraine not in our self interest? 592 00:54:32.719 --> 00:54:36.840 No, of course, it's in our self interest. It's a positive 593 00:54:36.840 --> 00:54:42.159 investment in the security of the United States. It places a real limit on 594 00:54:42.280 --> 00:54:47.360 Russian expansion as in a Russian imperialism. It is a statement about the value 595 00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:51.639 of freedom and the value of liberty. I mean, as we understand it 596 00:54:51.639 --> 00:54:54.840 in our mixed economy kind of sense. Right, most of the weapons we 597 00:54:54.880 --> 00:54:58.440 are sending I mean this is important because I don't think people talk about this. 598 00:54:58.880 --> 00:55:02.639 Most of the weapons we sending Ukraine or weapons we don't need. The 599 00:55:02.880 --> 00:55:08.880 primary threat to the United States faces today from a strategic perspective is China. 600 00:55:09.079 --> 00:55:12.960 We're not gonna go to war with Russia. Rush is not a threat. 601 00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:14.960 As you can see, it's not a threat Ukraine. It's certainly it's not 602 00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:16.880 a threat. I mean, Ukraine can beat it. Certainly not a threat 603 00:55:16.880 --> 00:55:22.320 to the United States. We're probably not in our lifetime going to go back 604 00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:25.760 to them, at least in force, you know, I think that's in 605 00:55:25.800 --> 00:55:29.880 our culture. We're just not going back to them at least where we're going 606 00:55:29.960 --> 00:55:34.519 to use these tanks and artillery pieces. A war with China, if such 607 00:55:34.519 --> 00:55:38.480 a war happened, is an air war and and a sea war. It 608 00:55:38.639 --> 00:55:43.760 is a navy and an air force enterprise. I mean, if if we 609 00:55:43.920 --> 00:55:46.559 had a strategy, which we had we don't, haven't had a strategy since 610 00:55:46.599 --> 00:55:51.079 World War Two. If we had a military found policy strategy, we would 611 00:55:51.079 --> 00:55:53.320 be investing all our military resources right now in a navy and an air force 612 00:55:53.639 --> 00:55:59.760 and then, by the way, strategic air defense systems to knock down hypersonic 613 00:55:59.840 --> 00:56:02.599 and ballistic missiles out of the air. The idea that Israel can knock out 614 00:56:02.719 --> 00:56:10.119 little projectiles that are shot within seconds milli seconds with the Iron Dome and we 615 00:56:10.440 --> 00:56:15.119 are completely exposed to ballistic missiles that take minutes to get to us is bizarre 616 00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:19.199 and absurd, and it just means we haven't invested in the technology enough. 617 00:56:19.840 --> 00:56:23.880 We should be sealed. This country should be sealed so that nothing can hit 618 00:56:23.920 --> 00:56:28.119 it. And it's I believe it's doable. It's just a matter of the 619 00:56:28.199 --> 00:56:30.920 right technology and the right and investment in that technology and doing Israel just announced 620 00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:39.920 the first it's the first weapon designed to knock down hypersonic missiles howpasonic missiles are 621 00:56:39.920 --> 00:56:46.119 These missiles that go more than mach five, so really really fast and maneuverable. 622 00:56:46.480 --> 00:56:51.320 And Israel now has a missile that will take those down. We're afraid 623 00:56:51.360 --> 00:56:53.119 that China has a lot of these, So it's this is a huge step 624 00:56:53.159 --> 00:56:57.039 towards defending ourselves against China. Those are the kind of things we should be 625 00:56:57.119 --> 00:57:00.559 doing. More abrams, tanks, where are we gonna what are we going 626 00:57:00.599 --> 00:57:04.840 to deploy them? More artillery pieces. We're not going to put tanks in 627 00:57:04.840 --> 00:57:07.360 Taiwan. We're not gonna put artillery in Taiwan. You're gonna put missiles and 628 00:57:07.440 --> 00:57:13.039 ships and airplanes out of Guam into Taiwan. If that becomes a rule, 629 00:57:13.360 --> 00:57:15.559 so the whole strategy needs to shift. Then we got a bunch of army 630 00:57:15.679 --> 00:57:20.079 equipment that we don't really need. Let somebody who can use it for a 631 00:57:20.119 --> 00:57:24.880 good cause use it. And yes, from budgetary perspective, it costs sixty 632 00:57:24.920 --> 00:57:28.840 three billion dollars or whatever it is, but a lot of it is not 633 00:57:28.840 --> 00:57:31.920 going to be replaced, so a lot of it is not net an added 634 00:57:31.960 --> 00:57:37.000 expense to the US. So yes, I think it is an American self 635 00:57:37.079 --> 00:57:42.199 interest. It's I wish America at a strategy. I wish America could think 636 00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:45.079 about these things. I wish America he understood what its self interest is and 637 00:57:45.480 --> 00:57:49.960 how to deploy its resources in such a way. But given all the money 638 00:57:49.960 --> 00:57:55.159 we spend around the world on horrible causes and on we have a basis one 639 00:57:55.239 --> 00:58:01.079 hundred and twenty different countries with you know, American military all over the world 640 00:58:01.639 --> 00:58:07.079 not acting in American self in just often. This is one cause that I 641 00:58:07.119 --> 00:58:15.119 think is worthy of US support. If I may ask another America Center question, 642 00:58:16.119 --> 00:58:21.639 what wouldn't be different in this situation if last presidential election the other guy 643 00:58:21.719 --> 00:58:27.960 won, would he give them Russia moral sanction, claim they're heroes on both 644 00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:30.960 sides, fly over to occupy a territory, to take a photo ofp with 645 00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:37.519 a Bible, or just completely abandoned them like Hong Kong. I don't know, 646 00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:42.480 so it's really hard to tell. But my guess is that he would 647 00:58:42.519 --> 00:58:46.079 have abandoned Ukraine, that he would let the Russians have it, and he 648 00:58:46.079 --> 00:58:50.840 probably would have negotiated some deal where you would have got a Russian figurehead in 649 00:58:50.960 --> 00:58:52.400 Kiev and he would say I cut a deal, and I made a deal, 650 00:58:52.480 --> 00:58:55.440 and he would have come off as a and that's what he's saying. 651 00:58:55.440 --> 00:58:59.400 Now. I would meet with Putin, we'd we'd fix it all, just 652 00:58:59.440 --> 00:59:01.559 like he fixed with North Korea. I mean, we'll just we'll just arrange 653 00:59:01.599 --> 00:59:06.800 everything and everything will line up. And but ultimately, you know, there's 654 00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:10.440 Donald Trump is I mean, Donald Trump would not is not going to do 655 00:59:10.519 --> 00:59:15.960 anything different, um, in a positive sense. And I think I think 656 00:59:15.960 --> 00:59:19.360 he would in a minute abandon the Europeans. You would say, this is 657 00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:21.840 the European problem, let them deal with it. We don't need to be 658 00:59:21.880 --> 00:59:27.159 involved. Um. So I think it would be quite a bit different, 659 00:59:27.320 --> 00:59:30.559 I think in a negative sense. Yes, I mean I can't think of 660 00:59:30.599 --> 00:59:35.760 anything fun policy wise it donald Trump did that was good other than maybe what 661 00:59:35.840 --> 00:59:40.679 he did in Israel. But yeah, no reason to expect any better in 662 00:59:40.679 --> 00:59:45.199 this in the circumstances. He'd probably also react to Putin's the threat of nuclear 663 00:59:45.239 --> 00:59:49.079 warfare by bragging about our own, as if I would solve anything. So 664 00:59:49.119 --> 00:59:51.920 yes, it's very close to my guess. I mean, I mean he's 665 00:59:51.920 --> 00:59:54.599 look he if you saw his press conference with Putin when they met, I 666 00:59:54.639 --> 01:00:00.000 forget where they met, um, I mean Putin was like overshadowed him. 667 01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:01.719 Putin was like the man there, and it was like Trump was saying, 668 01:00:01.719 --> 01:00:05.440 I don't believe my own security services. Like Billy Putchin. Putin is a 669 01:00:05.480 --> 01:00:08.280 good guy. I like Puttin. I mean, that's that's that's how that 670 01:00:08.400 --> 01:00:12.320 was our president. I mean, I'm not a big admire of Biden, 671 01:00:12.840 --> 01:00:17.480 but the reality is that uncertain issues related to font policy. Both with the 672 01:00:17.519 --> 01:00:21.320 God of China and with the God Ukraine. I think Biden has been better 673 01:00:21.400 --> 01:00:24.679 than Trump would have ever been. I think Trump was a disaster when he 674 01:00:24.719 --> 01:00:27.880 came to China. I think he emboldened them, he did all the wrong 675 01:00:27.960 --> 01:00:30.559 things. I think Biden has actually done some good things with God to China, 676 01:00:31.159 --> 01:00:38.719 Thank you very much, sir. For quite some time, Ukraine has 677 01:00:38.760 --> 01:00:45.039 consistently ranked poorly in terms of economic freedom according to the Heritage Foundation, even 678 01:00:45.119 --> 01:00:49.039 worse than Russia. Aside from that, the nation has faced many accusations of 679 01:00:49.079 --> 01:00:52.440 corruption. With that being said, do you think it is wiser to simply 680 01:00:52.480 --> 01:00:58.480 oppose to Russia rather than outright support and champion Ukraine. Yeah, there's no 681 01:00:58.639 --> 01:01:02.719 question Ukraine is a corrupt country. It has its oligoques. You know, 682 01:01:02.840 --> 01:01:07.000 Zelinsky was kind of a fresh face, but all indications were in the first 683 01:01:07.079 --> 01:01:12.880 two years is that he was unfortunately succumbing to the same kind of corrupt system 684 01:01:13.119 --> 01:01:15.800 and was not being as radical as I think many people who voted for him 685 01:01:15.960 --> 01:01:22.239 would have liked him to be in terms of changing the system. The difference 686 01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:28.440 is this the differences that the Ukrainian people have voted repeatedly and want the country 687 01:01:28.559 --> 01:01:31.639 to move more towards becoming a Western country. So yes, it has a 688 01:01:31.679 --> 01:01:37.360 political class and a political establishment that is corrupt and that is bad, and 689 01:01:38.199 --> 01:01:43.239 those kind of political systems are very difficult to get rid of. You need 690 01:01:43.360 --> 01:01:47.039 somebody truly committed to the cause, who really understands what they're doing in order 691 01:01:47.079 --> 01:01:51.159 to do that. Georgia, the country of Georgia, actually managed to get 692 01:01:51.280 --> 01:01:57.159 rid of that corruption amazingly. But that's because they had a unique circumstance where 693 01:01:57.159 --> 01:02:04.920 they had a prime minister and a government that was uniquely committed to relatively free 694 01:02:04.960 --> 01:02:07.719 markets, actually more committed than any other government I know off to free markets 695 01:02:07.719 --> 01:02:13.480 for a while at least judges. You know, Ukraine just hasn't had that. 696 01:02:14.119 --> 01:02:15.960 But the people want that, they want to move in that direction, 697 01:02:16.280 --> 01:02:20.920 and I think in that extent. And again, I'd beat to Ukraine and 698 01:02:21.039 --> 01:02:22.960 I've talked to people, I support those people. I'd be to Russia. 699 01:02:23.199 --> 01:02:27.079 And look, I didn't want to say this, but because this is subjective, 700 01:02:27.280 --> 01:02:30.199 completely subjective, but of all the countries I've been in the world, 701 01:02:30.199 --> 01:02:32.679 and i'd be too, I don't know eighty maybe, Um, the place 702 01:02:32.760 --> 01:02:39.119 where I felt least comfortable was Russia. I will take China over Russia any 703 01:02:39.199 --> 01:02:42.639 day, in terms of a visitor, in terms of a tourist, in 704 01:02:42.800 --> 01:02:45.039 terms of a lecture, in terms of any of these things, and in 705 01:02:45.159 --> 01:02:51.639 terms of the people as a Russia's oppressive. It has an oppressive sense to 706 01:02:51.760 --> 01:02:58.760 it. Ukraine didn't have that. Kia was vibrant and exciting, and young 707 01:02:58.880 --> 01:03:05.039 people beaved like young people in the West in ways that you did not see 708 01:03:05.719 --> 01:03:07.639 in Russia, at least I didn't see it. I'm you know again, 709 01:03:07.679 --> 01:03:15.719 I'm speaking only from personal my experience. I would you know. So funny 710 01:03:15.760 --> 01:03:19.039 story. So the first time I went there was a Saint Petersburg. And 711 01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:22.679 the nice thing about that was the guy who introduced me was talking about iron 712 01:03:22.760 --> 01:03:24.880 Van and he said, yes, he and Saint Petersburg. We need a 713 01:03:24.880 --> 01:03:28.639 sculpture of iron Van and we need to call one of the boulevards after her 714 01:03:28.760 --> 01:03:32.920 name. So she's definitely got a presence within Saint Petersburg and among sudden people 715 01:03:34.119 --> 01:03:37.679 over there. But in the Q and A, somebody asked me, this 716 01:03:37.880 --> 01:03:40.559 is probably twenty fifteen, fourteen, I don't know. Somebody asked me, 717 01:03:42.440 --> 01:03:46.119 you want, so what do you think of Putin? I said, I 718 01:03:46.199 --> 01:03:52.360 think he's a thug, And you could tell the room kind of fell a 719 01:03:52.400 --> 01:03:57.000 little quiet, and everybody kind of backed up a little bit. And afterwards 720 01:03:57.239 --> 01:04:00.840 I and I elaborated about this as a mafia economy and them off your political 721 01:04:00.880 --> 01:04:03.320 system, and this is force and this is anti liberty and all of that. 722 01:04:03.679 --> 01:04:06.440 People came up to me and said, you don't say that in Russia. 723 01:04:08.599 --> 01:04:12.320 You just not a good idea. Don't don't do that again. Um 724 01:04:13.840 --> 01:04:18.719 so yeah. So that's so I'm pro Ukraine. Not because I'm pro the 725 01:04:19.119 --> 01:04:21.920 you know, the corruption, but because I think that they're moving in the 726 01:04:23.039 --> 01:04:25.639 right direction. They wanted to move in the right direction, and I think 727 01:04:25.639 --> 01:04:28.920 the culture was ready to move in that direction, and they were, you 728 01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:31.159 know, I think the Mida. If you if you read up about Midon 729 01:04:31.239 --> 01:04:38.280 in twenty fourteen. You know, they demonstrated full relative liberty for freedom. 730 01:04:39.639 --> 01:04:45.199 Many of the protesters were killed. They stuck it out in that square over 731 01:04:45.280 --> 01:04:48.079 the winter. They fought for their own freedom. They got rid of a 732 01:04:48.159 --> 01:04:53.519 corrupt president. They replaced them with somebody better who started to move in the 733 01:04:53.639 --> 01:04:57.400 right direction. Not at the speed we would want. But yeah, so, 734 01:04:57.960 --> 01:05:00.280 so it's not just that I'm anti Russia, though that's certainly the emphasis. 735 01:05:00.320 --> 01:05:04.000 The emphasis should be to be anti Russia will than to be pro Ukraine. 736 01:05:10.519 --> 01:05:15.400 You said objectivism is not on the political right. Is the political compass 737 01:05:15.559 --> 01:05:18.440 with the two axes and the four quadrants better? Or does it cause a 738 01:05:18.480 --> 01:05:23.840 similar problem with us being confused with libertarians for example? And if so, 739 01:05:24.039 --> 01:05:28.599 how do I introduce my political views when I'm asked about it in a situation 740 01:05:28.840 --> 01:05:30.280 like a cocktail party, where there's not a lot of time to get into 741 01:05:30.599 --> 01:05:36.639 well, existence exists, and you know, to go from metaphysics on up 742 01:05:36.679 --> 01:05:43.639 to give a moral in the cocktail party is the ideal place to talk about 743 01:05:43.719 --> 01:05:48.079 existence exists. You've got that cocktail right there in your hand, and it's 744 01:05:48.159 --> 01:05:55.719 not oh, maybe there's poison, I don't know. No, Look, 745 01:05:56.480 --> 01:06:00.760 my view is there's only one political spectrum. And I don't like the quadrants 746 01:06:00.800 --> 01:06:04.480 and all that because because the terms, the way you define them is everything, 747 01:06:04.880 --> 01:06:10.039 and they're define in ways that are not objective. But the politicalist victim 748 01:06:10.199 --> 01:06:16.480 is individualism, collectivism, capitalism, statism. And I think it, folks, 749 01:06:16.559 --> 01:06:19.320 when you get to collectivism, because there are many forms of collectivism. 750 01:06:19.440 --> 01:06:23.079 There's only one form of individualism at the end of the day, but there 751 01:06:23.079 --> 01:06:28.119 are many forms of collectivism, said folks, into left style collectivism and right 752 01:06:28.159 --> 01:06:30.039 style collectivism, in the middle of the road, nothing in the style of 753 01:06:30.119 --> 01:06:34.239 collectivism. You get all the different varieties, and then you get some people 754 01:06:34.280 --> 01:06:39.920 who are not objectivists, who are generally on the individualist line and are quite 755 01:06:40.480 --> 01:06:45.239 as consistently objective about what individual individualism means and what it applies to limited government 756 01:06:45.239 --> 01:06:48.760 and how it But you get some people over they call the classical liberals maybe 757 01:06:49.320 --> 01:06:53.239 right, that are a little bit on the individualism site. And then there's 758 01:06:53.320 --> 01:06:57.199 us, and we're pity alone over here. There's not a lot of people 759 01:06:57.239 --> 01:07:00.760 over here to have a true understanding what individualism is, because you cannot have 760 01:07:00.840 --> 01:07:05.079 a proper political understanding of individualism without a proper understanding of individualism as a moral 761 01:07:05.159 --> 01:07:10.559 concept, and therefore is egoism. So and that's why we're alone here, 762 01:07:10.599 --> 01:07:15.239 because they know nobody else has that moral concept. So that to me is 763 01:07:15.280 --> 01:07:20.760 the spectrum. And you know, and I think forty fifty years ago the 764 01:07:21.039 --> 01:07:25.039 rights, there were elements of the right. There were significant elements, not 765 01:07:25.119 --> 01:07:29.639 minor elements, significant elements of the right that believed in individual rights or at 766 01:07:29.719 --> 01:07:34.079 least some view of individual rights, that were on this spectrum towards individualism. 767 01:07:34.159 --> 01:07:39.840 So you could say the right represents ultimately individualism. I think those elements on 768 01:07:39.880 --> 01:07:43.960 the right are so small today and the dominant of the right is collectivism. 769 01:07:44.199 --> 01:07:46.920 That you use that terminology is just confusing. It's confusing in your own mind, 770 01:07:47.280 --> 01:07:50.920 and I think it's confusing for the audience that doesn't quite understand it. 771 01:07:51.079 --> 01:07:57.199 So you say, I'm not on the right as you understand it today, 772 01:07:57.199 --> 01:07:59.920 and I mean on the left as you understand it today. I'm an individualist, 773 01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:02.719 I'm a capitalist, I'm a free market guy. Thank nobody else is. 774 01:08:03.760 --> 01:08:08.760 We have another question from the online audience. Okay, how can you 775 01:08:08.920 --> 01:08:14.079 say that to the American right? Russia is the savior of traditions and religious 776 01:08:14.199 --> 01:08:17.279 values. These values in the West are completely different from those of Russia. 777 01:08:19.840 --> 01:08:26.560 I mean they're completely different in their minutia right, because they are Eastern Orthodox 778 01:08:26.720 --> 01:08:31.479 Church and in the West were Protestant and Catholic. But the idea of the 779 01:08:31.640 --> 01:08:39.800 whole of religion in one's life is the same. The idea of the insignificance 780 01:08:39.840 --> 01:08:44.560 of the individual versus the collective is the same. Again, of these certain 781 01:08:44.640 --> 01:08:48.680 elements in the West, the anti left. And this is the key. 782 01:08:48.800 --> 01:08:56.119 Look, what seems to unite people on the right and and some good people 783 01:08:56.159 --> 01:08:59.720 on the right who are willing to associate with the very bad elements on the 784 01:08:59.840 --> 01:09:06.399 right is a position to the left. And what I think mostly attracts Jordan 785 01:09:06.439 --> 01:09:11.640 Peterson to Putin is this idea that Putin really stands up to the left. 786 01:09:12.680 --> 01:09:15.600 He's willing to talk the talk, he's willing to say it, he's willing 787 01:09:15.680 --> 01:09:19.920 to advocate to Christian value. Yeah, we might disagree about whether when you 788 01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:24.640 put the piece of thing in your mouth that's really the body of Christ or 789 01:09:24.720 --> 01:09:28.800 just a metaphor for the body Christ, whatever the theologians want to debate, 790 01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:31.760 right, but that's not what's important. What's important is is Christianity at the 791 01:09:31.840 --> 01:09:38.359 center of life or isn't it is Christianity to guide us is, for example, 792 01:09:39.199 --> 01:09:42.039 should homosexuality be banned legally or not? I mean, this is a 793 01:09:42.079 --> 01:09:45.319 big deal for Putin. He mentions this in every single speech. And while 794 01:09:45.319 --> 01:09:49.520 the American right often doesn't want to touch that because it's not the most the 795 01:09:50.239 --> 01:09:55.079 topic that's most popular for them. When you dig a little deeper, watch 796 01:09:55.119 --> 01:10:01.880 Matt Walsh or what's his name Knowles on Daily Wire? Thank you? On 797 01:10:01.960 --> 01:10:08.119 the Daily Wire, you see exactly what they think. Right, they're the 798 01:10:08.279 --> 01:10:12.479 worst of the worst. And this is not a Daily Wire Ben Shapiro, 799 01:10:12.600 --> 01:10:16.039 who we've thought maybe it sometimes it's pretty good. These are the people in 800 01:10:16.199 --> 01:10:20.640 his umbrella, right, his umbrella organization. These are the worst of the 801 01:10:20.680 --> 01:10:26.960 worst. I mean, you know, so it's exactly the same values at 802 01:10:27.000 --> 01:10:30.880 the end of the day, even if you know they have some theological differences 803 01:10:31.479 --> 01:10:36.800 at some point. Indeed, I've seen some I've seen some articles criticizing people 804 01:10:36.880 --> 01:10:43.439 on the right in America for supporting Putin because Putin's anti Catholic and and and 805 01:10:43.520 --> 01:10:46.960 it's so important to you know, to the West. You know, most 806 01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:49.800 of the intellectuals on the right tend to be Catholic. So it's how import 807 01:10:49.840 --> 01:10:54.479 Catholicism so important. Putin's and tich Catholic scene must be anti West and nats 808 01:10:54.560 --> 01:10:57.920 Day argument, But that's not an argument, and it can be argument. 809 01:10:58.000 --> 01:11:01.920 We see the commonalities between in all of the mystics, between all these religionists 810 01:11:02.680 --> 01:11:13.600 of various types, and in that sense there's no difference. So maybe I'm 811 01:11:13.640 --> 01:11:17.119 mistaking the forest for the trees here. But do you think that nuclear non 812 01:11:17.159 --> 01:11:24.600 proliferation efforts against US friendly countries by the US government has contributed to Russia feeling 813 01:11:24.680 --> 01:11:35.239 emboldened to invade Ukraine? Good question. I think that's probably part of it. 814 01:11:35.720 --> 01:11:42.159 The fact that we will not differentiate between good guys and bad guys. 815 01:11:42.920 --> 01:11:45.479 Can have nukes, doesn't matter if you have good guys are bad guys, 816 01:11:45.199 --> 01:11:48.399 I think is a real problem. I mean, you solve a lot of 817 01:11:48.479 --> 01:11:55.960 problems in Asia. If Japan's, South Korean and Taiwan have nukes, a 818 01:11:56.000 --> 01:12:00.600 lot of problems go away. But we can't conceive of that because we just 819 01:12:00.680 --> 01:12:02.279 against proliferation no matter. If you could guys are bad guys, that's it. 820 01:12:02.479 --> 01:12:05.840 You're done, and the same like we kind of know Israel has nukes, 821 01:12:05.880 --> 01:12:10.640 but we don't want to acknowledge it. And because if we acknowledge it, 822 01:12:10.760 --> 01:12:14.000 we'd have to say, oh bad Israel. Don't do that because we 823 01:12:14.800 --> 01:12:17.159 we want it. We have an egalitarian view of this thing. And this 824 01:12:17.319 --> 01:12:20.239 is part of the problem of not having a strategy visa v from policy, 825 01:12:20.319 --> 01:12:24.920 not being able to identify allies, not being able to identify the good guys 826 01:12:25.079 --> 01:12:29.119 versus identifying the bad guys. So so yes, I think that in Bold 827 01:12:29.279 --> 01:12:36.079 is not just Russia, but all in Bold in China. Thank you for 828 01:12:36.199 --> 01:12:44.279 a lectum um. I am born and raised in Ukraine and my parents from 829 01:12:44.319 --> 01:12:47.520 Saint Petersburg. I also lived for eighteen years in Crimea. So for me 830 01:12:47.720 --> 01:12:56.600 personally, it's the tragedy and I am ultimately anti war, so wild that 831 01:12:56.760 --> 01:13:02.319 come my questions. Two questions. Possibly it is not as widely known information, 832 01:13:02.439 --> 01:13:08.960 but both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were officially wanted in Ukraine before twenty 833 01:13:09.039 --> 01:13:14.600 twenty. In fact, the Ukrainian Federal Service As Bill released in twenty twenty 834 01:13:14.640 --> 01:13:19.439 a large report on Biden family crimes. It is available online and has been 835 01:13:19.600 --> 01:13:26.239 translated into English. It has shocking facts and numbers would you please comment on 836 01:13:26.439 --> 01:13:33.439 Biden's family involvement, particularly involvement with Burhisma ownership of lithium minings in Ukraine and 837 01:13:33.680 --> 01:13:40.880 making my homeland an ultimate money laundering machine. My second question, but must 838 01:13:40.960 --> 01:13:46.359 follow the money and our military industrial complex reported hundred forty billion dollars earned since 839 01:13:46.479 --> 01:13:51.840 the war started. Accordingly, proxy war in Afghanistan is over, another one 840 01:13:51.960 --> 01:14:01.359 is started. So I don't have any new information about the Bidens, Barisma 841 01:14:01.479 --> 01:14:08.279 and Ukraine. Would I be shocked if the Bidens got five million dollars from 842 01:14:08.399 --> 01:14:13.079 Ukraine over Barisma and over that ten million dollar kid. That's the number. 843 01:14:13.119 --> 01:14:15.920 The size of the thing doesn't matter, right, it's the principle. No, 844 01:14:15.439 --> 01:14:20.560 I wouldn't be shocked at all. But am I shocked at any American 845 01:14:20.640 --> 01:14:28.199 politician getting rich by cutting deals in all kinds of ways and all kinds of 846 01:14:28.279 --> 01:14:30.199 means. No, I mean they're all corrupt. I'm sorry, but almost 847 01:14:30.239 --> 01:14:34.039 all of them. Do you think Hillary Clinton got two hundred and fifty gets 848 01:14:34.039 --> 01:14:39.800 two hundred fifty thousand dollars per speech because she's a good speaker, or anybody 849 01:14:39.920 --> 01:14:45.000 cares what she has to say. People are buying access. This is how 850 01:14:45.039 --> 01:14:48.359 it's done. Before. I'm sure her rates are way lower today than they 851 01:14:48.399 --> 01:14:51.960 were before she ran for president. They expected her to win and they paid 852 01:14:53.000 --> 01:14:57.560 her two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Every single one of these politicians is 853 01:14:57.680 --> 01:15:01.199 rich. How did they get rich? Produce anything, don't create anything, 854 01:15:01.399 --> 01:15:06.520 and they get rich. You know, I've used this example before. What's 855 01:15:06.600 --> 01:15:12.880 a kus Kushner's Trump's brother in law. Nobody talks about this. This is 856 01:15:12.960 --> 01:15:15.720 not in the media. It hit, It was a story a little bit 857 01:15:15.920 --> 01:15:18.000 for a while, and then it disappeared because nobody wants to delve into these 858 01:15:18.079 --> 01:15:23.159 things. Right, But Kaushner just raised a private equity fund, first private 859 01:15:23.199 --> 01:15:27.159 equity fund he's ever raised in his life. Five billion dollars. That's a 860 01:15:27.239 --> 01:15:31.560 lot of money. Guess who gave him two of the five? Well, 861 01:15:31.600 --> 01:15:36.000 the Saudiast did. The Saudiast did. Now, why did the Saudiast give 862 01:15:36.039 --> 01:15:40.319 him two billion dollars? Most of the investment committee, it was reported in 863 01:15:40.399 --> 01:15:44.119 the media, most of the investment committee of the Saudi Investment Fund was against 864 01:15:44.159 --> 01:15:46.199 it. Why because he had no experience, He's never done private equity. 865 01:15:46.520 --> 01:15:49.720 Why didn't they insist giving him two billion dollars? Well, who was the 866 01:15:49.840 --> 01:15:53.920 guy from the Trump administration who did all the deals in the Middle East, 867 01:15:54.600 --> 01:16:00.520 Oh, Kushner. So is there a payoff here? I mean, personally 868 01:16:00.600 --> 01:16:02.479 I think there is, but I can't prove it. Nobody can prove it. 869 01:16:02.600 --> 01:16:06.439 So he can get away with it and he's just you can calculate in 870 01:16:06.520 --> 01:16:12.479 your head what the fee income that he gets on the Saudist two billion dollars. 871 01:16:12.680 --> 01:16:15.439 It makes him a very, very rich man. And they all like 872 01:16:15.600 --> 01:16:19.680 this, all these rich politicians. Very few of them were born rich, 873 01:16:19.760 --> 01:16:25.359 are born into wealth, but somehow they come out of the other side. 874 01:16:25.520 --> 01:16:28.880 I mean, you see the house to Obama's bought. I mean, I'm 875 01:16:28.920 --> 01:16:30.800 not saying they got a suitcase with fall of cash. But again they get 876 01:16:30.840 --> 01:16:34.840 speaking engagement and they have contacts and they do consulting and they do things because 877 01:16:34.920 --> 01:16:41.600 once you have a mixed economy, corruption is inevitable. Once you have a 878 01:16:41.680 --> 01:16:47.279 big economy, you have all these pressure groups and they all push and pull 879 01:16:47.880 --> 01:16:55.000 and most of it's legal but corrupt, and they fund and they have access, 880 01:16:55.159 --> 01:17:01.079 and regulators become going to companies, and company vice presidents become regulators, 881 01:17:01.119 --> 01:17:05.039 and it's everywhere. It's corruption is endemic to a mixed economy. There's just 882 01:17:05.239 --> 01:17:08.960 no way around that. The only way to get rid of the corruption is 883 01:17:08.960 --> 01:17:14.000 to get rid of the mixed economy. Was the second question, Oh, 884 01:17:14.119 --> 01:17:16.279 the military industrial complex. Look, yeah, they're making a lot of money. 885 01:17:16.279 --> 01:17:20.600 They make a lot of money during war. The only so called beneficiary 886 01:17:20.840 --> 01:17:27.439 of war is the people who produced their weapons. Nobody else benefits because you 887 01:17:27.520 --> 01:17:30.399 know, they're either dying or their tax money is being used and so on. 888 01:17:31.159 --> 01:17:34.279 Um. But look, the problem in the United States today is not 889 01:17:34.640 --> 01:17:39.000 that the military companies are making too much money. The problem in the United 890 01:17:39.039 --> 01:17:42.920 States is not that was spending too much money on the military. The problem 891 01:17:42.960 --> 01:17:46.800 in the United States is we spending too much money, period, and we're 892 01:17:46.840 --> 01:17:51.880 running massive deficits and their way in excess of anything the military spends. And 893 01:17:53.000 --> 01:17:56.960 the other problem is that when we spend money on the military, we spend 894 01:17:57.000 --> 01:18:00.119 it in wasteful, non strategic ways. It's very hard to spend on the 895 01:18:00.159 --> 01:18:04.840 military when you don't have a strategy on what you're trying to achieve. So 896 01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:10.920 again, the military spending becomes pressure group who who gets to pressure? Who 897 01:18:11.000 --> 01:18:15.199 gets to decide? And that's again the mixed economy. What we need is 898 01:18:15.279 --> 01:18:17.920 a is a military I think could be a lot smaller than it is today, 899 01:18:18.279 --> 01:18:23.039 focused on the strategic interests of the United States, that is ruthless and 900 01:18:23.159 --> 01:18:27.840 brutal at doing what it's supposed to do. And you know there's a lot 901 01:18:28.000 --> 01:18:30.840 in the military that is a necessary as a consequence, But that the reason 902 01:18:30.920 --> 01:18:36.079 it's bloated is not because of the industrial military complex, although that's part of 903 01:18:36.119 --> 01:18:41.279 it. It's because there's no strategy. There's no strategy, so anybody can 904 01:18:41.359 --> 01:18:43.439 start. You know, I want a warship, and I want to this 905 01:18:43.600 --> 01:18:45.000 ship, and I want that plane, and I want this tank and I 906 01:18:45.079 --> 01:18:47.920 want that. Why not let's invest in all of it. Maybe it is 907 01:18:47.920 --> 01:18:53.800 a strategy. No, I don't think there's a group out there trying to 908 01:18:54.039 --> 01:18:59.039 build us all in conspiring behind there's no responsibility. No, because because at 909 01:18:59.079 --> 01:19:03.960 the end of the day, um central planets like that, you know, 910 01:19:05.039 --> 01:19:13.520 they can barely you know, do anything to design one of these complicated conspiracy 911 01:19:13.600 --> 01:19:16.399 theories behind our backs. Way above the pay grade of any of these guys. 912 01:19:17.560 --> 01:19:21.960 Thank you. We have another question from the Onlian audience. Okay, 913 01:19:23.520 --> 01:19:27.279 what do you think the worst should do about this conflict? Send more weapons, 914 01:19:27.439 --> 01:19:30.960 money, troops, No, I don't think we should send troops. 915 01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:33.880 I don't think they're necessary. Um and I and I don't think NATO should 916 01:19:33.880 --> 01:19:40.119 get into get involved directly because I do think there's a threat of of of 917 01:19:40.319 --> 01:19:45.159 the use of nukes which could escalate in ways that would be very harmful to 918 01:19:45.239 --> 01:19:49.239 everybody to to to to the west. Um. I think we should do 919 01:19:49.319 --> 01:19:54.800 what we are doing now, which is support Ukraine militarily, support it more 920 01:19:54.840 --> 01:20:00.840 importantly morally and uh and politically. But I do not I think NATO should 921 01:20:00.840 --> 01:20:05.239 get directly into a direct conflict with Russia and is unless is absolutely necessary. 922 01:20:05.720 --> 01:20:15.920 And I don't think it is him. You briefly touched on Dostoevsky and some 923 01:20:15.159 --> 01:20:21.640 philosophers influencing Putin's regime, perhaps like Ivan Aline or Lev Gumiyev um And so 924 01:20:21.720 --> 01:20:28.920 I would ask what you think the recurrent roots of Russian authoritarianism are, because 925 01:20:28.960 --> 01:20:34.359 they've gone through several rebuilds and at least the twentieth century and before. Well, 926 01:20:34.399 --> 01:20:38.039 I mean, I think I'm not an expert on Russian philosophy, but 927 01:20:38.159 --> 01:20:42.319 it strikes me from reading going back to the Stefsky but Alien is supposed to 928 01:20:42.359 --> 01:20:46.319 be very influential industry on Putin Dugan. I read it quite a bit on 929 01:20:46.399 --> 01:20:49.079 du you know, I watched a bunch of interviews of Dugan and read a 930 01:20:49.119 --> 01:20:56.520 little bit of Dugan. What unites it is a deep mysticism, a real 931 01:20:56.600 --> 01:21:00.920 mysticism, right that we in the West find primitive and weird because it's not 932 01:21:01.039 --> 01:21:08.720 exactly just Christian. It's interwoven with this special nature of the Russian people and 933 01:21:08.880 --> 01:21:12.760 something unique about the Russian people that again, I think it's very far into 934 01:21:12.840 --> 01:21:16.279 the way we, you know, look at the world. Um, a 935 01:21:16.399 --> 01:21:21.319 sense of collectivism that comes from that kind of biological determinism. And as a 936 01:21:21.399 --> 01:21:27.600 consequence, I think collectivism and osticism always lead to the need for a strong 937 01:21:27.720 --> 01:21:32.359 man too, you know, um commune with the world of spirits and communicate 938 01:21:32.439 --> 01:21:36.199 to us what needs to be done. So I think the a thubbatarianism is 939 01:21:36.279 --> 01:21:42.399 kind of embedded in that mysticism and collectivism, you know. And I think 940 01:21:42.479 --> 01:21:45.960 that unites all of them. From from dust Aski's writings, which are less 941 01:21:46.000 --> 01:21:50.479 political, they're more cultural, but you see the threads in there all the 942 01:21:50.600 --> 01:21:55.079 way to Dugan today. And Dugan is the worst of them because he's he's 943 01:21:55.880 --> 01:22:00.920 complete eclectic I mean's and and and he's he's such a mystic. It's it's 944 01:22:00.119 --> 01:22:04.079 he says stuff. Then you'd go really, it's just so bizarre. But 945 01:22:04.319 --> 01:22:08.920 so I mean, but the thread, they're pretty consistent. Now they've being 946 01:22:09.000 --> 01:22:14.279 more liberal in the traditional liberal sense thinkers in Russia, but they've always been 947 01:22:14.359 --> 01:22:20.880 marginalized and they've never gotten a lot of traction. Thank you. Okay, 948 01:22:20.880 --> 01:22:24.399 I think this one might be a big one. I think I've heard on 949 01:22:24.520 --> 01:22:29.640 your show a few times say that a country should not exist if it can't 950 01:22:29.680 --> 01:22:33.199 get its own people to volunteer to fight for it, or something like that. 951 01:22:33.640 --> 01:22:38.239 Maybe it goes back to Ironran the reference. But like, there are 952 01:22:38.279 --> 01:22:40.960 people in Russia, a lot of young people who don't want to fight this 953 01:22:41.119 --> 01:22:45.479 war. They're being press ganged to be put to be taken off the street, 954 01:22:45.560 --> 01:22:48.159 put into a uniform to go and sent out to fight and to die. 955 01:22:48.640 --> 01:22:54.279 There are mobile creamatories for these soldiers. I mean, how horrible. 956 01:22:54.840 --> 01:22:58.800 But what I was saying for, can you clarify about that? Sure? 957 01:22:58.840 --> 01:23:02.199 And and just to be just to be accurate here, I mean Ukraine has 958 01:23:02.239 --> 01:23:04.880 a draft as well. If you're you're not allowed to leave the country. 959 01:23:04.920 --> 01:23:09.840 If you're mail and under a certain age, everybody's drafted into military. So 960 01:23:09.920 --> 01:23:13.960 it's not like Ukraine is a is an emblem of liberty here with a god 961 01:23:14.000 --> 01:23:16.960 to a draft, I said it. Don't please don't attribute to design Ran 962 01:23:17.000 --> 01:23:20.159 because I think she'd agree with me. But I don't think she said this. 963 01:23:20.840 --> 01:23:25.199 I said this or the God to Israel. People always tell me you're 964 01:23:25.319 --> 01:23:28.079 you're full voluntary army. What will happen in Israel? If you have a 965 01:23:28.159 --> 01:23:30.920 volunteer army, then not enough people will volunteer. And Israel has all these 966 01:23:31.039 --> 01:23:34.960 enemies, and it's surrounded with enemies. And what I said was a country 967 01:23:35.600 --> 01:23:39.279 where the people are not willing to fight for their own liberty, their own 968 01:23:39.319 --> 01:23:44.479 freedom voluntarily is not a country that deserves to exist. So if Israel can't 969 01:23:44.600 --> 01:23:47.760 raise an army to defend itself, then it won't exist, so be it. 970 01:23:48.399 --> 01:23:55.520 But that doesn't give the authorities the right to force you to go serve 971 01:23:55.760 --> 01:23:59.800 for cause you don't want to fight for. So that is the context. 972 01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:01.279 Think that's true visual I think it's true of Ukraine. It's true of the 973 01:24:01.399 --> 01:24:05.159 United States. Of course. Iron Ran was a huge opponent of the draft 974 01:24:05.239 --> 01:24:12.279 in the United States. But even I think in a war where the enemy 975 01:24:12.439 --> 01:24:15.880 was right here, not just in wars the unnecessary, like in Vietnam or 976 01:24:15.960 --> 01:24:24.399 or Korea. I want to offer a comment and a thanks so and a 977 01:24:24.479 --> 01:24:30.439 criticism. How long is this going to be? Very short? I promise 978 01:24:30.680 --> 01:24:33.600 it's not a mini speech. I feel like he glossed over maybe the most 979 01:24:33.680 --> 01:24:41.039 interesting, most important point that you made, which is we're buying time right. 980 01:24:41.159 --> 01:24:45.680 And it feels like every other source that advocates for this war, they're 981 01:24:45.720 --> 01:24:51.720 advocating for just stalemate. They just want to fight forever. It's bizarre, 982 01:24:53.279 --> 01:24:58.840 and so I just want to thank you and actually whoever made it possible for 983 01:24:59.159 --> 01:25:02.039 so many first timers to come and all the scholarships. It's been less than 984 01:25:02.079 --> 01:25:06.039 twenty four hours and I've lost count of the number of first timers on scholarships 985 01:25:06.079 --> 01:25:11.520 I've met. It's an unbelievable, benevolent act by the donors who made that 986 01:25:11.600 --> 01:25:23.439 possible. You are thank you. Yeah, And it feels a little bit 987 01:25:23.560 --> 01:25:27.520 like, you know, knowing that you know some portion of these people are 988 01:25:27.520 --> 01:25:31.479 going to continue on, will join maybe the Ironmand University, actually become intellectuals 989 01:25:31.479 --> 01:25:34.399 in this battle. It feels a little bit like maybe the start of an 990 01:25:34.439 --> 01:25:40.239 intellectual Manhattan project. And I think that's the only way, as you say, 991 01:25:40.279 --> 01:25:43.119 this can really be one. It's a war of ideas, and we're 992 01:25:43.239 --> 01:25:47.960 leading the offense. No one else is. So thank you everybody. I 993 01:25:48.079 --> 01:25:54.359 missed a criticism, but okay, maybe a little bit of the sin of 994 01:25:54.479 --> 01:25:58.640 humility. All right, you're leading in the charge. In many ways, 995 01:25:58.640 --> 01:26:02.720 you're the I think maybe the most problem public voice actually providing a moral foundation 996 01:26:02.800 --> 01:26:15.279 for why this makes sense. Thank you, Thank you. When Russia invaded 997 01:26:15.279 --> 01:26:21.119 I guess the most recent time. You know, usually everybody was outraged for 998 01:26:21.319 --> 01:26:26.319 maybe a month, and then all of a sudden I started seeing these writing 999 01:26:26.560 --> 01:26:31.479 wing people get triggered and be against the Ukraine in this war and pro Russia. 1000 01:26:31.600 --> 01:26:38.319 Did something happen to trigger that? First, I think they stayed quiet 1001 01:26:38.359 --> 01:26:42.520 because it was obviously Russia initiated, all right, this was an active, 1002 01:26:43.279 --> 01:26:46.159 you know, initiation of force. There's no question about that. Russia was 1003 01:26:46.199 --> 01:26:48.920 in the wrong. And in those first few days or for a few weeks, 1004 01:26:50.039 --> 01:26:56.680 they would have come off as too obviously pro the initiation of force, 1005 01:26:56.840 --> 01:26:59.960 and they I think they backed off a little bit. They also wanted to 1006 01:27:00.079 --> 01:27:02.640 see what would happen. I think they thought it would be quick and then 1007 01:27:02.760 --> 01:27:08.039 they could kind of celebrate. Right, Russia won and it was over, 1008 01:27:08.199 --> 01:27:12.199 and the West would have done nothing and it would have just it wouldn't have 1009 01:27:12.560 --> 01:27:15.239 it would have mattered. Oh, that's right. I thought we were going 1010 01:27:15.239 --> 01:27:24.720 to the thirty past. So and then the war stalled. Russia was not 1011 01:27:25.159 --> 01:27:30.279 being victorious. It wasn't happening quickly and there, and they started speaking up 1012 01:27:30.319 --> 01:27:34.000 because it's it's what they truly believed all along. And time had passed. 1013 01:27:34.159 --> 01:27:38.039 The American people had kind of forgotten about it a little bit. It wasn't 1014 01:27:38.039 --> 01:27:43.640 at the top of the headlines. The Russian aggression maybe was receding into further 1015 01:27:43.760 --> 01:27:47.159 into the back, and they felt more emboldened to come out and do this. 1016 01:27:47.359 --> 01:27:50.640 And and if if you're on Twitter, if you follow some of these 1017 01:27:50.680 --> 01:27:55.640 accounts, I mean, the number of people who are coming out as pro 1018 01:27:55.840 --> 01:28:01.119 Russia is truly astounding. And it's the one thing that unites one among many 1019 01:28:01.199 --> 01:28:06.039 things that unites kind of the New Rights and the fall Left. It's it, 1020 01:28:06.319 --> 01:28:11.800 you know, both on Russia side in this conflict. And it's not 1021 01:28:11.880 --> 01:28:15.039 an accident. If you think about the ideas that both sides represent. It 1022 01:28:15.159 --> 01:28:20.199 seemed to me that because like the mainstream was against Russia, that they became 1023 01:28:21.760 --> 01:28:25.359 pro Russia. Is this I mean, that is true. It's not so 1024 01:28:25.479 --> 01:28:28.159 much that the mainstream So I need, I need to end. But let 1025 01:28:28.199 --> 01:28:30.439 me say this. This is the part of the if you're if you you 1026 01:28:30.560 --> 01:28:34.159 know, if you're against the left, then you're against everything the left does. 1027 01:28:34.239 --> 01:28:38.920 And Biden supported Ukraine said must be wrong by definition, it must be 1028 01:28:39.000 --> 01:28:43.039 wrong if Biden did it. And if the mainstream media is reporting that Russia 1029 01:28:43.119 --> 01:28:46.039 is losing, then they must be winning because everything the mainstream media says is 1030 01:28:46.079 --> 01:28:53.920 exact opposite in reality. And that's become a guiding mentality, a guiding you 1031 01:28:54.000 --> 01:28:57.399 know, way in which people deal with reality these days, at least a 1032 01:28:57.439 --> 01:29:00.479 certain segment of the world out there. So yes, So at some point 1033 01:29:01.000 --> 01:29:04.800 they picked up that if you want to fight the left, you have to 1034 01:29:04.880 --> 01:29:08.920 be pro Russia. If you want to fight mainstream media, you have to 1035 01:29:09.000 --> 01:29:13.920 be pro Russia. That and and and I think that stimulated um stimulated the 1036 01:29:14.000 --> 01:29:15.600 growth of them. All right, thank you everybody,