Thoughts on the Danger of Simplicity

I wouldn't be able to count at this point how many monologs I have listened to. Americans, Europeans, fellow former_soviets. Freinds, acquaintances, passers-by. Political scientists, students, accountants, drivers, construction workers, and many others. But all who took at least 15 minutes of their time to let me know why my passport is covered with innocent blood, why they would never go to that horrible country, and, because I definitely did not know, why Mr.Putin is the #1 dictator of our times. I am silent. Then comes "but you seem to be an adequate Russian!" or "I am sorry if it is unpleasant to hear but that is the truth!" or simply nothing. We go our separate ways. I hold an image of my passport in my mind. Wait. But is it even okay that they don't ask someone who lives in the country for a piece of opinion? Well. The new norm of a globalized world, I guess.

With that in mind, I wanted to dedicate this post to one of many things I am tired of hearing (or more like being talked at about) like Russian imperialism/expansionism, Russian interference in US elections, Russian aggression...and many other horrible things that MY nation has done. I want to underline that MY and paint it the same color as the only identification document I have - my Russian passport. You can call me "adequate" all you want but I am still Russian... So I was thinking back on all the times I have been talked at (or you can say forced to listen to a monologue) about Russian politics...And then this. My editor recommended me to ground one of my research pieces in "broader geopolitical realities of the FSU and the worsening of the US-Russia relations" (my piece was on American soft power). And that suggestion absolutely terrified me. One of the reasons being that I could probably spend decades researching the topic and then write a 1000+ pages manuscript in which I would try to explain why things are working the way they are. One paragraph? Just to make the article more interesting? 

It is like using the word Russian Regime and Putin interchangeably (which people do 99.9% of the time). Nevermind Igor Sechin, Sergei Ivanov, Vladimir Potanin, Sergei Lavrov and other Kremlin's men who, as Zygar rightly notes in his book, "make Putin." And do you really think Russia's "new imperialism" foreign policy agenda would cease to exist if we had a new democratically elected and friendly looking president? I don't think so.

Every day when I look through my Facebook newsfeed I see videos like "blahblahblah crises explained in 30 seconds," "deconstructing blahblahblah in 1 minute," "what does ___  mean for ___ in 10 seconds" etc. So is there a point of writing books and conducting research if any event X can be explained/deconstructed in less than 1 minute? Or everything that is wrong with my own country and how to fix it can be explained to me by a stranger who has never even been there in just 15 minutes? I saw this cheerful video with Hillary Clinton today where she explained all of Russia in a sentence. She simply said that "Putin just hates democracy" - here is the reason for it all. You know, I've always said that if I was a US citizen I would've voted Hillary. No doubt. But that? Is it an episode of RT's InTheNow ? Because that is a one familiar way of "explaining" things. 

I don't know about you but I have a feeling that we are looking for quick, easy, DIY solutions to global problems (and yes, Russia-US relations and each of the countries on its own deserves to be called a problem). Well, and I don't think it supposed to be as simple and quick as assembling IKEA furniture...But maybe we just don't see the difference anymore?