So this diary is extremely off-topic from what is going on in our world today.
Kucinich is introducing articles of impeachment, Obama is sticking it to McCain on the economy and the Lakers desperately need a win at home against the Celtics. However, I recently found a passage in a book I have been reading that struck me as hilariously appropriate to our national discourse.
The book I've been reading is Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot." It was suggested to me by a Russian co-worker of mine and I have to say, it's very good (I've also read Crime and Punishment and have really taken a liking to Dostoyevsky).
Follow me below for the point of this diary.
During this scene our main character, The Prince Myshkin is having a discussion with the family of General Yevgeny Pavlovitch and one of his good friends. The topic is on political ideology. Take a look at this passage from Pavlovitch:
"Ladies and Gentlemen I will tell you something," he went on in the same tone, that is with extraordinary verve and warmth and at the same time as if he might be laughing at his own words, "a fact of observation and indeed discovery which I have the honor of attributing to myself alone; at least nothing has yet been said or written about it anywhere. This fact expresses the whole essence of Russian Liberalism, the sort I am speaking of. In the first place, what is liberalism, generally speaking, if not an attack (whether justified or not, is another question) on the existing order of things? Isn't this so? Well my fact is that Russian Liberalism is not an attack on the existing order of things, but an attack on the very essence of things, on things themselves, not merely on their order, on the established order in Russia, on Russia herself. My liberal has gone so far as to deny Russia herself; in other words hates his own mother and beats her. Every Russian misfortune or disaster stirs him to laughter and virtually delights him. He hates natural traditions, Russian history, everything. If there is any justification for him, it may be that he doesn't know what he is doing and takes his hatred of Russia for the most fruitful sort of liberalism [...]"
That's page 350 if anyone wants to read it themselves (it goes on for another page or so, but that's the gist).
This passage really struck me as funny because it could be lifted right out of a segement from Rush's show - of course Rush could never express himself as eloquently as Dostoyevski.
Today's American Conservatives are using talking points from 1860s Tsarist Russia!
I suppose it's an argument that has been made against Liberalism forever and will never stop, but it really should make people think twice about Conservatism today that they are willing to revert us back to a serf-based economy and social order.