As what little I know about Russia comes from Tolstoy and Chekhov I can only surmise why Russian men would rather scram to Finland than fight in Ukraine—other than it sounding horrible in every possible way, I mean.
But whatever else is keeping Russians from doing their patriotic duty, I venture it bears some similarity to why so many Americans are quitting their jobs.
Maybe a century of network-induced couch-potato slacker-dom followed by a full cycle of social media narcissism makes it tough to rally to a cause, whether that cause is the glories of capitalism or the glory of mother Russia.
Movie theaters and network T.V. could demand togetherness and deliver a message beyond, or on top of, whatever cigarettes or soda they sold. You know, propaganda.
But they also established entertainment as king and now everyone has two full generations of too countless channels and privatized technologies. Into that solution purpose and unity dissolve, our willingness to purchase and scroll all that’s left of the podium or soapbox. The medium needs no message for its own survival.
“Follow me,” says the leader. “Fake,” says the viewer, who swipes on.
Thus, maybe Putin’s problem is not, or not only, his hold on the country so much as the hold of anything on anyone.