The Inevitable Putins (OT)

Sure is a tough time in the world. I feel for the many innocent citizens of Ukraine, those who would prefer just to be left alone to live their lives. I feel for the many innocent citizens of Russia, who have no control over the actions of their government or their leader—they have no more more ability to stop their country's "neighbor abuse" than you or I have to stop any of the cockamamie things our own governments do. Imagine yourself, if you will, as one of the 1,800 Russians newly imprisoned merely for protesting. Your life probably isn't so bad by comparison.

I feel for today's teenagers, growing up with COVID-19, isolation from their peers, and the jumbled babbling fracas of the internet. But also, this latest—the abrupt resurgence of an articulated nuclear threat by someone with the power to carry it out—is reawakening long-slumbering fears in the generation just ahead of mine, whose childhoods were clouded, long ago, by the brooding threat of nuclear Armageddon in the early days of the Cold War. They used to have to do drills at school which had them getting under their desks to take cover from a nuclear attack, a gesture even five-year-olds could recognize as pathetic and futile, even if they didn't know those words. Some people of that generation find those old fears being unearthed again by the prospect of a deranged leader waving his weapons around. As a small boy I used to listen for the "booms" of the supersonic fighter jets high overhead—staring at the sky, hoping to see one. They were invisible.

I've posted this before, but it seems like it might offer a modest balm this Monday: the reverently joyful 50th-anniversary performance of "The Weight" by Playing for Change, performed by Robbie Robertson, Ringo Starr, and more than 20 musicians across five continents. This took a year and a half to record and edit, everyone working together.

Dictator-types
This is just my opinion, but humanity, I feel, just has to get past its voluntary subjugation to the psychodramas of semi-demented single individuals. We regularly put our societies, often almost willingly it seems, into the hands of dictator-types with disordered personalities. It's always broadly the same, whether it's Alexander the so-called Great (I'd call him the Great Destroyer), Napoleon, Hitler, Idi Amin, Saddam, or Putin—we sure wish the list were that short. They're like a drug for us somehow. It might be the biggest recurrent problem of the human race throughout history. But we can understand it now, from a mental health perspective. Collectively we'll have to learn to act on what we know, to find some way to free ourselves someday from the inevitable Caesars, the inevitable Putins. Those assassins in the Curia of Pompey had something right, after all, on that ancient Ides of March. Although it's less well known that every one of them was eventually hunted or hounded to death, and they were on the losing side. The Republic they were trying to rescue by their shocking act was lost*.

May I just say I love Ringo's drumming, always have. Never a showoff, always in the pocket. He's not a great drummer, he's a great musician who happens to be a drummer. As someone once said, "most drummers play the drums. Ringo plays the song."

Enjoy the music, pray for peace.

Mike

*One of my unpedigreed theories, of which you know I have many, is that all modern Westerners should be schooled in the fall of the Roman Republic. Nothing in history offers greater relevance for our times and our own societies.

Book o' the Week

Ara Güler's Istanbul, one of the more amazing books in my collection. I'm also amazed it's still in print. Not only does it culminate a longtime habit and a vast body of work for the Turkish photographer of Armenian descent, one of the few world-famous photographers from Turkey—a labor of love—but it's a unique and wonderful example of bookmaking. If you don't buy this, at least see one sometime.

This book link is a portal to Amazon.

Today at B&H Photo

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David Miller: "Thank you Mike. I can't explain why that video from Playing for Change released the flow of tears that has been building up in me since the invasion of Ukraine began, but I'm grateful."

John Camp: "I was part of the under-the-desk generation. As the saying went, 'Get under your desk, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye.'"

Kye Wood: "My brother Mike. I hear you. I really do. But we're all hardwired to find the best mate we can. To compete. To show potential mates that we can provide for them, better than others can. Thus, finite resources get shifted disproportionately, to those who compete the most successfully. Wealth inequality and all that flows from it is a consequence of our core programming. Ya can't patch the symptoms with laws and dreams. Our core unconscious programming is the problem. All we can do is be kind and be generous. Inequality is an uncrackable nut."

Mike replies: We'll always have Athens.

David Cope: "I often wonder, but can’t work out how, as a society, we afford one individual so much power. The power is not really with them, it’s given to them by others who cannot say 'no.' Fear of punishment from one’s peers for saying no is carried out, usually, by subordinates who, themselves, are not willing to say no. It’s easy to see why a chain of command is, psychologically, the instrument of the hierarchy, be it military, criminal or civil society. Are we genetically disposed to live in hierarchy or can we evolve into true egalitarian, flat structures where no one individual can dominate."

Albert Smith: "Love that song and this compilation video is so well done. I was in the military for 22 years; it doesn't define me, it's just what I chose to do. Every day from the '70s until the early '90s, we trained to take on the Russian bear. I was in SAC when we brought our bombers off of alert and, in a gesture of goodwill, Russia flew two Bear Bombers to our base and we flew two B-52s to Moscow. Everyone exhaled and could relax a bit. We were done with the cold war without the worst-case scenario happening.

"Now because of one guy that can't accept history we are in jeopardy of one mistake leading to some horrible consequences.

"My hat is off to the Ukrainians. Nothing motivates like things happening in your own backyard, and they are putting up a valiant effort to repel this unwarranted assault. I wish them well and hope for a quick resolution."

Charlie Ewers: "Cicero wasn't even a conspirator, just a Senator who loved the Republic and was willing to speak up when he felt it was being threatened by the autocrats. They cut off not only his head, but also his hands, which he had apparently used extensively to gesture while speaking in the Senate. In my mind a true hero, someone whom we might well need to emulate in our own time, the way things have been going lately."

Mike replies: And Fulvia, the wife of Antony, who was presented with the severed head of Cicero (which would have been pronounced "KICK-eh-roe" in his time) stuck pins in the tongue, to repay him for his sharp words. Now that's vengefulness, lest you think your neighbor is being vengeful by ignoring your request to borrow his snowblower because you were slow to return it last time.

Patrick J Wahl (partial comment): "What book would you suggest about the Roman Republic?"

Mike replies: That's hard to answer. Maybe Rome: An Empire's Story, by Greg Woolf, to start? On the grounds that it's a complete overview from soup to nuts, a sort of basic primer of the outlines of everything. Roman history, I suspect, is one of those subjects in which scholars write books from the perspective of their own theories as a way to communicate and contend with one another. And it's such a vast and sprawling subject that a lay reader can dip in here and there and come away with a partial picture that feels more complete than maybe it is. And finally, I don't know how little old me would know. I read Roman history for maybe eight months—it didn't feel like a whole year, whatever it was—and took in only a smattering of books. Personally I would not recommend Mary Beard, who comes in for a lot of praise but doesn't give me what I'm looking for. Her book SPQR struck me as commentaries on history rather than a history. She seems to be writing for people who are already well versed.

One thing I will say is that reading about Rome is damned entertaining. Lurid, vivid, larger than life. 

Julius Caesar was the fulcrum point of Roman history, the hinge. Before even Greg Woolf's book, read the short Wikipedia article "Crossing the Rubicon." It's only a few hundred words, but you'll catch the whiff of all the drama implicit in it.

Rod S.: "I wondered whether I was alone in having my 'long-slumbering fears' resurface from childhood. I'm 65 and vividly remember the fear and chill that I, as a six-year-old, felt as my family listened during a car journey to a series of radio news broadcasts during the developing Cuban Missile Crisis. A nuclear World War Three was imminent. And here now, all these years later, we have cause to fear it all coming at us again."

Mani Sitaraman: "This was wonderful, Mike, though the theme song by The Band playing in our heads the last few days was probably 'The Shape I'm In'! Nice to see Lukas Nelson in that collaborative song—I like him.

"And a word offered in protest. It is 2022, and it is high time we retired the canard, originally likely proffered as a humorous aside, that Ringo Starr isn't a great drummer. He is—as any fresh listen to the Beatles albums and the perspective of time reveals to us. In my YouTube viewing of late, it is heartening to hear musicians of the younger generation wonder why we 'olds' would say that about Ringo. He just isn't a showy drummer, the type who hogs passages with long drum solos, but surely that's immaterial?"

Mike replies: I agree totally. The gag was, "Maybe Ringo wasn't the best drummer in the world. All right, maybe he wasn't the best drummer in the Beatles." Attributing it to John Lennon is what makes the joke a canard, "a false or unfounded report or story, especially, a fabricated report." The words were written by Geoffrey Perkins and broadcast on the Radio 4 sketch comedy "Radio Active" on October 6th, 1981, followed either by audience laughter or canned laughter. Lennon had no part in it it.

But, of course, you can't correct the internet.

Paul C: "On the Ringo front—there’s a short, fun TikTok video that was making the rounds last fall from a drummer illustrating what made Ringo so special. Twitter link to it."

Jeff Hughes: "What would you recommend to this modern Westerner who would like to learn more about the fall of the Roman Republic? Thank you for that musical inspiration."

Mike replies: See my reply to Patrick above, but my favorite of the ones I read is The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome by Michael Parenti. But this would not be an appropriate recommendation for everyone, because Parenti is a red-blooded leftist and unapologetically examines his subject in that light. I loved it—who wouldn't want to know that girl-children in ancient Rome were often given the same name and distinguished by descriptives? For example, the two daughters of Octavius were Octavia the Elder and Octavia the Younger. You'll know exactly where the author stands by the end of Chapter 1, which launches with an ice-cold, rock-hard appraisal of the class biases of Gibbon.  :-)

Comments

[Zack S]

For every Putin in the world there should be a Charlotte Corday.

[Paul.S]

Yup. Peace. Seems a dream that is unattainable. Problem solving for the greater good of humanity. If only we had governments and leaders around the world interested. I really do not see it anywhere. The vitriolic discourse that is infused in all forms of media lead to a distraction and division from the big picture. Perhaps exactly what is intended.

[darlene]

"A Prayer for Volodymyr Zelensky"

[Fred Haynes]

Wonderful!
I’ve seen a few of these,- Playing for Change. This was delightful. Made my morning. That was a gift Mike, thank you very much!
Fred

[I'm only the messenger obviously! But I'm glad you liked it. --Mike]

[Robert Billings]

Mike,
Thanks very much for this.

[martyn elwell]

Well said that man !

[Stan B.]

That was pretty... remarkable!

[Geoff Wittig]

There are countless relevant lessons in the fall of the Roman Republic (and the later empire) for current peoples. The down-side of government by an exclusive club like land owners for one thing. Socio-economic death spirals, for another. The Roman upper-crust basically caused the Empire's collapse, by pulling political strings to exempt their own estates from taxation. Which made them more prosperous, permitting them to buy out their tax-burdened neighbors, exempting more land from taxation and further increasing the burden on the shrinking pool of taxed citizens until it all collapsed.
My favorite contrarian view is that the Fall of Rome warranted celebration rather than regret. Rome was a brutal militaristic empire that ran on slave labor, extortion of tribute and mercenaries to benefit a shrinking minority of well-connected 'citizens'. Rome's claim to be defending 'civilization' doesn't really bear critical scrutiny.

[robert e]

Thank you for this, Mike. At the moment all voices of sanity and humanism are to be cherished.

". . . all modern Westerners should be schooled in the fall of the Roman Republic."

Any recommendations for remedial self-schooling?

[robert e]

Had to share with TOP this photo of Ukrainian fighters recreating a history painting well-known in Ukraine and Russia. I'm pretty sure that's a Super Graphic press camera on a tripod at lower right.

The story of the painting and the text of the letter can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks

"Letter to Czar Putin"

Ukrainian troops recreate the famous Repin painting "Zaporizhian Cossacks reply to the Sultan of Turkey" pic.twitter.com/KsOueQddg6

— Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) February 28, 2022

[Daniel]

Nuclear threats? I still remember "Duck & Cover" drills in grade school. Still remember how to do it - but am grown up and won't fit under a school desktop these days.
Nothing is new, just a different time set on "rinse and repeat".

[Brian]

Amen

[Mike Ferron]

At age 67 one of my earliest political memories is the Cuban missile crisis and ever since the looming threat of the Soviet Union/Russia has been present. I had hopes that nation would come around and join the 21st century but hopes are just that. When one becomes president for life with rigged elections, poisoned and imprisoned political opponents and lies about non invasion all chance of true development and independence of a people are crushed. I feel for the Russian people as this is not the 60’s dark age Soviet era anymore except in the eyes of a few irrational Luddites who hold the ball in their court while hiding behind the blood of someone else’s children.. So sad.

[Bill Tyler]

"getting under their desks to take cover from a nuclear attack" Many years ago, a very knowledgeable physics professor of mine told us that in the event of a nuclear war, he hoped to be at ground zero. And he wasn't particularly suicidal in other respects. Let's hope that sane heads prevail and that the nukes stay at home in their nice cozy bunkers and missile silos.

[Rob de Loe]

Until recently, I thought I was born in the post-war period. It turns out I was actually born in the inter-war period.

The idea is not original; I can't credit which of the many good thinkers I've been reading lately said that. But it stuck with me.

[Speed]

Mike wrote, "*One of my unpedigreed theories, of which you know I have many, is that all modern Westerners should be schooled in the fall of the Roman Republic."

I was subject to "History" and "Social Studies" lessons throughout my K-12 schooling. I remember it as mostly memorizing the names and accomplishments of the Europeans who "discovered" the New World. Every year. Over and over.

I dreaded the required two college semesters of History but ... then ... I learned HISTORY! It was taught as a story with overlapping and intermingled and interrelated characters, events and discoveries. As my friend George once said, "I hated history in school. And now I stay up all night watching the History Channel."

[Anton Wilhelm Stolzing]

A great post of yours, put tears to my eyes.

[Phillip]

Mr Johnston, you forgot one if not THE thing that hangs over our teenagers head : the environment crisis and the bleak future that comes with it! For many, it is the biggest source of stress they have to live with, coupled with the isolation resulting from Covid.
As a father, I've reach a point where I prefer they avoid following the news, despite preaching for years it was a duty and essential to stay well informed on the worlds events...
I'll have a more positive note next time I promise ;-)

[Patrick J Wahl]

By the standards and traditions and values of the ancient world, Alexander the Great was great. I think if you could ask him, he'd say - “They started it”. (the Persians)

What book would you suggest about the Roman Republic?

[Moose]

Ive always thought that an underrated part of the Beatles' success was following the biblical admonition, by building their band on a rock.

[Rod S.]

I wondered whether I was alone in having my "long-slumbering fears" resurface from childhood.

I'm 65 and vividly remember the fear and chill that I, as a six year old, felt as my family listened during a car journey to a series of radio news broadcasts during the developing Cuban Missile Crisis. A nuclear World War Three was imminent.

And here now, all these years later, we have cause to fear it all coming at us again.

[Jeff1000]

It's rich getting lectured by Biden voters. 🤣

[James]

If it is true, that "In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve" - (Joseph de Maistre) then Ukrainians are the most deserving people on earth.

[Herman Krieger]

The Putin Ruble is becoming rubble-

[Franz Amador]

People do indeed willingly choose dictators - both Hitler and Mussolini were elected - but it's driven by a minority of us. About a third of people have an "authoritarian personality", which is averse to complexity and diversity and wants someone who gives them simple answers and enforces conformity. See "III. The Authoritarian-Putin Love Affair" in https://terikanefield.com/the-renewed-relevance-of-the-great-fox-trump-putin-love-affair/ for an introduction to current thinking about this and links to more. However, authoritarians can be good citizens if they don't feel threatened, so maybe what's really needed is to stop the flood of propaganda that's riling them up.

[s.wolters]

Maybe you find this nitpicking, but the Roman Republic is different from the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar was a great-uncle of Gaius Octavius. After the assassination of Caesar in 44 BC, Octavius became his successor under the name Caesar Augustus. He was the founder of the Principate, the first period if the Roman Empire. So before 44 BC it’s Republic, after that year it’s Empire.

Photographer Alfred Seiland made two excellent books called IMPERIVM ROMANVM I & II.
I think they are now available combined in one publication.

[jr]

Dear Mike, I am a couple of years older than you, so I can remember Cuban Missile Crisis. I was then very young and I was really very scared. In fact, I was never after so much scared. Even now.
Not yet.

[Tom Bell]

An easy introduction to the latter days of the Republic is “ Rubicon” by Tom Holland.

Ringo was fine as a drummer …. But in this house we really mourn the loss of Charlie Watts. A true great. I love the story that when Keith and Mick and Brian were always very demanding on tour all Charlie wanted was a good supply of coat hangers for his suits. A class act!

[I read "Rubicon" during my "Roman period" and enjoyed it. --Mike]

[Mike plews]

Lovely book on the history of Rome is SPQR by Mary Beard. If you want to make a commitment jump into Tacitus.

[Earl Dunbar]

In situations like these I am often at a loss for words; anything I could write would seem either stupidly obvious or otherwise lame. So I just sigh.

I will say, however, that any drummer who can play the song is a great drummer. I love Ringo.

[William A Lewis]

Thanks for the heads-up on the Parenti book, I have a copy on order. As an old leftist and veteran, I'm looking forward to the diss of Gibbon :D

[Hans Muus]

Beautiful piece, Mike, and the world uniting ‘The Weight’ lifted me up when I really needed it. Thank you. As to the Romans, it is, I think, significant that in Mussolini times the self label ‘Fascists’ was (proudly!} coined after the Roman (Latin) word for ‘bundle of arrows’, ‘Fasces’. The image of a ‘facses’ was used by the Romans of old as a symbol for themselves.

[Brian O'Connor]

IMHO the best PFC so far....

When the Levy Breaks

https://youtu.be/LH0-WXUFY2k

[Jeff Hughes]

Thank you. I'll get the book based on the fact that you have a tremendous track record of good advice. For example, the money I've saved not purchasing meat and dairy, based on your recommendation to watch "What the Health" (savings at the grocery store and at the doctor's office) has more than paid for your other recommendations which are still running strong such as my used Pentax MX with a 50mm 1.7 lens and a Russell & Hobbs toaster, just to name a few. The weird thing is not fully understanding why your recommendations are so successful because, for example, with my favorite writers or musicians, I normally don't like their favorite writers or musicians. Anyway, thanks again.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Nuclear war wasn't the only thing we trained for in school. Getting under your desk might help quite a lot in a tornado. It's "Civil Defense", not "how to be nuked"! The ceiling coming down is a real risk in several scenarios (including a nuclear explosion at just the right distance for that matter; not that that was likely).

But what scared me was the drill where, on announcement of incoming nukes (20 minute warning), those children who could make it home in 20 minutes were sent home and the rest were kept in the school. Took me 10 or maybe 15 minutes to get home, which means we'd have no time left to do anything. Not that it's clear where to go. (We were pretty far away from any obvious first-round targets, but definitely somewhat down-wind of the missile installations in North Dakota.) I also didn't think the full 20 minute warning we got from the DEW line would be passed on to the civilian population, so I'd probably be on the way home when the sky lit up.

I was already an SF reader then, so post-apocalyptic societies were familiar territory.

[Keith Cartmell]

It's old, and long, but The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon is absolutely captivating. I read it on nightshift at work during quiet times, and for a while I actually understood what had happened. (Then shiftwork dementia set in and I lost a bunch of stuff.) The parallels to modern American events are obvious. My opinion is that America has become a failed state.

[psu]

For people interested in Rome I can't recommend this series enough:

https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com

It goes from the beginning of the republic up to the fall of the Western empire. Very well done.

Duncan has now done another long series of shows on various revolutions, and written two books.

[Animesh Ray]

I have many Ukrainian and Russian friends, including a Russian-Ukrainian couple, who had met as students in the 1990s in Moskow. I recently made friends with a wonderful Russian couple in their late 20s, "distance-working" while traveling through the world on a shoestring budget-- Sasha and Sasha, both from Russia, declined to talk politics even over good wine. Inevitably, politics overtook them. They are fearful of what might come next. Who knows what will happen to their jobs, banks they depend on. My Ukranian-Russian couple friends still have parents in Ukraine and Russia, respectively. War separates them now. None of these people ever wanted any part in any of this madness. I am left with a memory of Sasha trudging uphill with groceries against a sunlit Quito shimmering in the background. I had missed the shot.

[Simon]

That collaboration on The Weight is fabulous. Their version of All Along The Watchtower is similarly wonderful IMHO.

To learn more about Ringo Starr's qualities as a percussionist this 15-minute video is a great place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NCczct2ZIM

[Mani Sitaraman]

I stand gently (but duly) corrected, Mike! Always an honor to learn from an Ivy League educated English major who was editor of the finest American periodicals of yesteryear.

[I wasn't correcting you Mani, I was agreeing with you! Just adding a little finer grain is all. --Mike]

[Tom Burke]

I’m not sure about that version of “The Weight”. One of the things I always liked about the original version was the spaces, the little moments of silence; and I feel that version has lost them.

Now for some bragging rights: In 1969 I saw The Band perform The Weight at the Isle of Wight festival. Dylan was the main attraction, and why I was there, but in fact he failed to impress (or perhaps the audience weren’t ready for what he doing then - this was the Nashville Skyline period, all “Lay Lady Lay”, whereas we in the audience were expecting - something else). But before he performed, The Band did a short set which included The Weight. Even though were the support act, theirs were the songs I remembered from that night. 53 years ago, this year - oh my!

[robert e]

Thank you, Mike and commenters, for this diverting and enlightening thread!

I now have a more informed appreciation for Ringo's genius and his "zen". He gives perhaps too much credit to his cross-handedness in this interview https://youtu.be/vl9188EPdLI (h/t Sina via commenter Simon). The gem is his next admission, that he's unable to "struggle . . . it comes naturally or it doesn't come at all", Ringo-speak for understanding and respecting both his talent and his limitations, which IMO is the essence of mastery.

Looking forward to reading Michael Parenti's The Assassination of Julius Caesar, which turned up on Hoopla.

[Dennis Ng]

I do not see any value of this war. Like the Iraq 2 weapon of mass destruction it is the craziness of people in power.

But whilst we were all pacifist, at the same time we knew we do violence directly and indirectly. We are hybrid. Both image of god and Satan at the same time. And eu by showing its weakness (German in particular) you can into trouble. Some saw weakness and took advantage in spite of warning. It is luck that uk is off and is limited by German doctrine not allow even its weapon parts be involved.

Generalised it even higher level, not all war is bad. You even a the great. Whilst we want other way to spread cross culture, war of this scale cut across culture and boundary. As the Nobel peace winner lau said it is better to have china colonised for 3 hundred years … I am not sure it worked given the Hong Kong but it helps a bit for those too single minded. In fact, and even bad things (like my home land Hong Kong totally fall to communist China) has its silver lining … it ring the ball and hopefully save Taiwan. Not all war is bad.

The collapse of Hong Kong and this war totally change my world view. Whilst keep my hybrid view and still think market and even sport competition is better than battlefield, I accept certain blood letting as said in the book of godfather. Still this war ….

[Kelvin Skewes]

The Playing for Change video that I have had on repeat for the last week has been 'When the Levee Breaks' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH0-WXUFY2k

Maybe I have been playing it so much because it is their latest or it could because of events in Ukraine and the extensive (climate change induced) flooding in eastern Australia or it could just be because I love Derek Trucks guitar playing!