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From Post # 13 in this Thread:
"I have already hinted that all sorts of low-class individuals had made an appearance among us. In troubled times of uncertainty or transition all sorts of low individuals appear everywhere. I am not talking about the so-called "progressives", who are always in a greater hurry than everyone else (that is their chief concern) and whose aims, though mostly absurd, are more or less definite. No, I am speaking only of the rabble. This rabble, which you will find in any society, usually rises to the surface in every period of transition, and is not only without any aim, but also without an inkling of an idea, merely expressing with all its strength unrest and impatience.. And yet this rabble without realizing it itself, almost always finds itself under the command of the small crowd of "progressives", who act with a definite aim, and it is they who direct this scum where they like, provided they themselves are not composed of utter idiots, which, however happens, too." Fyodor Dostoyevsky…The Devils, Part III Chapter 1
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, like many great writers, was crazy as a bedbug in real life. One can note some holdover notions here from 19th century Russian aristocracy. The rabble are dummies. The rich people can be dummies or not but the rabble always are dummies. And I think a richly dumb person like Donald Trump can push dummies around as well as Hitler, Mussolini or any other person who never could be identified as "progressive."
One really needs to understand that the Russian Revolution was on the horizon when Dostoyevsky penned these words. And the so-called progressives were indeed having their way in pushing the rabble around. But they were
devolving to Joseph Stalin, too, a cockroach in the imagery of the poet Osip Mandelstam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osip_Mandelstam). Stalin was a bully who happened to murder millions but in any case pushed the"rabble" around. "Dictator" and "cockroach" are words more accurate for him than "progressive."
"I have already hinted that all sorts of low-class individuals had made an appearance among us. In troubled times of uncertainty or transition all sorts of low individuals appear everywhere. I am not talking about the so-called "progressives", who are always in a greater hurry than everyone else (that is their chief concern) and whose aims, though mostly absurd, are more or less definite. No, I am speaking only of the rabble. This rabble, which you will find in any society, usually rises to the surface in every period of transition, and is not only without any aim, but also without an inkling of an idea, merely expressing with all its strength unrest and impatience.. And yet this rabble without realizing it itself, almost always finds itself under the command of the small crowd of "progressives", who act with a definite aim, and it is they who direct this scum where they like, provided they themselves are not composed of utter idiots, which, however happens, too." Fyodor Dostoyevsky…The Devils, Part III Chapter 1
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, like many great writers, was crazy as a bedbug in real life. One can note some holdover notions here from 19th century Russian aristocracy. The rabble are dummies. The rich people can be dummies or not but the rabble always are dummies. And I think a richly dumb person like Donald Trump can push dummies around as well as Hitler, Mussolini or any other person who never could be identified as "progressive."
One really needs to understand that the Russian Revolution was on the horizon when Dostoyevsky penned these words. And the so-called progressives were indeed having their way in pushing the rabble around. But they were
devolving to Joseph Stalin, too, a cockroach in the imagery of the poet Osip Mandelstam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osip_Mandelstam). Stalin was a bully who happened to murder millions but in any case pushed the"rabble" around. "Dictator" and "cockroach" are words more accurate for him than "progressive."
That's the way to deal with a shot like that and it always will be...in any era.
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