Clarissa's Blog

10 responses to “Russians Are So Weird”

1. 

   el

   March 16, 2015

   Политолог Екатерина Шульман на страницах издания “для интеллектуальных и политических элит” ВЕДОМОСТИ анализирует состояние умов на верхних этажах российской номенклатуры
   http://trim-c.livejournal.com/410384.html

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2. 

   NG

   March 16, 2015

   You might find this article in the NYT salient.

   “I am the subject of an experiment. For the next week, I will subsist almost entirely on a diet of state-controlled Russian television, piped in from three Apple laptops onto three 55-inch Samsung monitors in a room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. (If I have to imbibe the TV diet of the common Russian man, I will at least live in the style of one of his overlords.) Two of the monitors are perched directly in front of my bed, with just enough space for a room-service cart to squeeze in, and the third hangs from a wall to my right. The setup looks like the trading floor of a very small hedge fund or the mission control of a poor nation’s space program. But I will not be monitoring an astronaut’s progress through the void. In a sense, I am the one leaving the planet behind.”

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   1. 

      Clarissa

      March 16, 2015

      “With the exception of fishing, soccer and the Orthodox Church, few things are taken more seriously in Russia than Eurovision.”

      • It’s the first time I hear of fishing being very important to Russians (as opposed to everybody else.) And it’s really bizarre to believe that the Orthodox Church, followed by less than 2% of Russians is taken seriously by them.

      Otherwise, it’s a great article, thank you. 🙂

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      1. 

         cliff arroyo

         March 16, 2015

         Wasn’t that a point in the vatniki article? They don’t go to church but revere the church and defend any ‘insults’ toward it (considering how much cognitive dissonance they’re already dealing with, that’s a small load to add…)

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         1. 

            Clarissa

            March 16, 2015

            They pay lip-service to some fake religiosity but as to revering anything, I can’t even imagine that. This is a culture of extreme cynicism. Yesterday, people were taking happy selfies in front of the burning Novodevichy Monastery. And today there is zero discussion of what happened and why. That’s the extent of their patriotism and religiosity.

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            1. 

               cliff arroyo

               March 17, 2015

               Yeah, that’s what I meant, in Cliffspeak ‘revere’ = pay a lot of lip service to something and maybe get huffy and even violent about ‘defending’ it but not really care about or respect it

               Anytime I hear someone ‘reveres’ something, that’s exactly what it means in reality (in my experience).

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               1. 

                  Clarissa

                  March 17, 2015

                  “Yeah, that’s what I meant, in Cliffspeak ‘revere’ = pay a lot of lip service to something and maybe get huffy and even violent about ‘defending’ it but not really care about or respect it”

                  • That’s exactly it. Tomorrow, Russians will piss on Putin as joyfully and readily and they worship him today. And then the whole process will repeat.

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3. 

   n8chz

   March 16, 2015

   Is that you in the foreground?

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   1. 

      Clarissa

      March 16, 2015

      Gosh, she totally does look like me, you are right. 🙂

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   2. 

      cliff arroyo

      March 17, 2015

      I was thinking the same….

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