Dept. of Learning Stuff

[kaffy_r]

Political Language

One of the few positively interesting things I've learned as I've watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine (for varying powers of "positively interesting") is the existence of a couple of phrases smarter folks than I have used to describe what Putin's doing, even as his invasion stalls. 

He is gambling for resurrection. 

According to a political science specialist interviewed on MSNBC, this is the practice that one takes when one's policy/mission does the opposite of what you've expected to do, but you double down - nay, triple and quadruple down - on that policy, in hopes that those viewing you and seeing how illogically wedded you are to that policy, and how much you're willing to personally risk on behalf of that policy, will back off (probably hoping to avoid pieces of you as you explode), and you'll be able to pull off your original mission because they've finally stopped attacking you. 

That really does appear to describe Putin. 

Of course, the other phrase I learned apparently was coined by Dat Ol' Facist Otto Von Bismark, who supposedly described a particularly foolish military maneuver, of the type I tried to describe above, as "committing suicide for fear of death."

Comments

[cmcmck]

This was never about Ukraine- that's Putin changing the subject.

You'll have noticed by now that he's starting the crackdown on his own people.

The man who would be Czar of all the Russias..................

[lokifan]

Interesting. It kind of reminds me of the element of American foreign policy (and that of other major powers too, maybe? But it seems especially American) where the American defence establishment very deliberately wants to look a bit irrational and likely to react disproportionately to attacks, on the basis that it makes enemies less willing to attack in the first place - you don't know if America with throw an unreasonable tantrum so you don't try it.

NOT to correlate what Putin's doing morally with the States at all! But just in terms of the practical uses of being irrational.

[ljgeoff]

My biggest fear is the often seen murder-suicide "if I can't have them, no one can."

[a_phoenixdragon]

Or just being pissed that no one can see how brilliant you obviously are and hand the world to you on a plate, as the world should. Man has seriously been buying into his own stock on this...

*HUGS*