Terrorism as the last stage of imperialism

At one time, Vladimir Lenin, in a book with a title similar to the title of this article, quite rightly noted that one of the main signs of imperialism is the struggle for the redistribution of a divided world. At the initial stage of the development of imperialism, the only method of struggle for world hegemony was military, and practically all wars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the two world wars, were due to this very reason.

After the Second World War, more sophisticated social technologies appeared, due to which world hegemony began to be achieved through the production of meanings. Since in all countries the majority of the population perceives philosophy concretely, through things, the algorithm of the struggle for ideological dominance looked something like this: the imperialist state produces meanings, and they are embodied in material culture, which in turn forms everyday consciousness. Of course, this is a very simplified scheme, so much so that, bringing it to the point of absurdity, Rockefeller said that to win the consciousness of Africans, it is enough to establish the production of only two beautiful and inexpensive things that a person sees and touches constantly: shoes and fountain pens - and the African elite (and therefore the whole society) will be in your pocket! But, as a practice has shown, not only African humanity was drawn to the beautiful, because, according to someone's apt expression, the fatal blow to the Soviet Union was not Voice of America, but the Otto product catalog.

"Rockefeller said that in order to win the consciousness of Africans, it is enough to establish the production of only two beautiful and inexpensive things that a person sees and touches constantly: shoes and fountain pens - and the African elite (and therefore the whole society) will be in your pocket!

There are different opinions about how imperialism evolves in the era of globalization.  Some scientists believe that the mentioned military and ideological hegemony has been replaced by "soft power" - a technology that allows you to abandon the concept of state dominance and get what you want through cooperation and attraction; others insist that all this so-called  "soft power" is nothing more than another name for ideological hegemony, with the only difference that instead of fountain pens, there are now iPhones. Let's not get into this discussion, but focus on the bizarre development trajectory of such a contender for the status of an imperialist country as the Russian Federation. The format of this note does not allow us to describe its path in detail, but it is quite well known to interested persons, so let's draw this trajectory with literally three points.

The first point. Having barely recovered from the crisis of the 90s and "rising from its knees" thanks to high gas and oil prices, the Russian Federation immediately began to think about the revival of its lost imperial status. At first, it tried to achieve it by the means acceptable in the modern world, that is, with the help of the so-called "soft power". For this purpose, the "Russian world" technology was developed.  Without going into details, its meaning was perfectly conveyed by one of Viktor Pelevin's characters: "...there must be a clear and understandable Russian idea. So that they (the West - Author) do not think that here in Russia we simply stole money and put up steel doors.  So that b**ches feel such spirituality, as in the forty-fifth under Stalingrad!". Very soon it became obvious that such an ideology for some reason could not compete with either the Western ideology, the Islamic ideology, or the national ideologies of the new countries that appeared on the ruins of the Soviet Empire.

The second point. Convinced of its inability to compete with the leading countries of today, but despite all this, contrary to historical doom, claiming the status of an empire, the Russian Federation embarked on the path of involution, that is, it began development in the past, resorting to brutal force pressure. Simply put, Russia deliberately chose the path of social degradation.

In 2008, it attacked recalcitrant Georgia, and since 2014, it has started armed aggression against Ukraine, and finally on February 24 of this year, it unleashed a full-scale war against our country. However, it also had a setback in its military career. Today it is already clear that the Russian Federation will inevitably suffer defeat in the war against Ukraine.

"Why can we characterize the actions of the Russian Federation as terrorism? Because in political science terrorism is considered violence and the threat of using violence for political purposes, aimed at affecting a larger number of people than those who become direct victims."

The third point. The degradation of the Russian Federation continues and the struggle for the establishment of Russian imperialism reaches a stage not predicted by any of the classics in the realm of social and political thought, namely: to revive its empire, the Russian Federation resorts to terrorism. After all, this is how and in no other way one can characterize Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of Ukraine. Threats of cold weather towards Europe and, in the end, threats to the whole world with nuclear weapons.

Why can we characterize the actions of the Russian Federation as terrorism? Because in political science, terrorism is violence and the threat of using violence for political purposes, aimed at influencing a larger number of people than those who become direct victims. Thus, terrorism is a means of psychological influence.  This distinguishes terrorism from war and sabotage. Its main object is not those who became victims, but those who remained alive.  His goal is not murder, but intimidation and demoralization of the living. Demoralized and frightened people do everything themselves, demanding from the authorities or at least approving actions that are not beneficial to these people at all.

The Russian Federation has no chance to intimidate Ukraine, Europe and the world community, and its terrorist blackmail will not succeed. Therefore, it can be stated with certainty that the Russian Empire will not be revived, the methods used by the Russian Federation are nothing more than a historical perversion, and the country once again demonstrates that it is a dead-end branch of evolution "whose purpose is only to show the world how not to live and what not to do."

Especially for Espreso

About the author. Ihor Tanchyn, political scientist, journalist.

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