Geo-Strategy #9: Putin's War for the Soul of Russia

so this week Vladimir Putin um in a speech said to his Russian people that um all Russia must now prepare for Total War even if you are not fighting uh on the front lines in Ukraine pretend you are and uh because of the speech there are many analysts who believe that Putin is preparing Russia for Total War and Total War means that every aspect of your of your Society is geared towards winning a war and so we had La we last had total war in World War II okay uh but not after that so why is Putin doing this now um there are some people who believe that it's because Russia is not doing so well in Ukraine they lack Manpower and and so they need to mobilize their society to fully win the war in Ukraine okay another explanation is that PL uh Putin knows that NATO is preparing to send reinforcements to Ukraine remember that because of um last Summer's offensive Ukraine is desperately short of Manpower okay the average age of their soldiers right now is over 40 they have men in their 60s who are fighting in the front lines um emanu macron of France um have has publicly stated that he is considering sending French troops to Ukraine uh the British themselves are thinking of conscription drafting all young men into the army the Americans uh American politicians have said that they're considering a new law that would give CIP to illegal immigrants who join the Army okay so it seems like NATO um is only going to escalate the war in Ukraine and so Russia is preparing for that one more explanation one more possibility is that Putin wants to expand the war okay so he knows he's winning in Ukraine and he's thinking about U attacking Mo mova uh and possibly uh the Baltic states okay these are all possibilities today this morning what I want to do is argue another possibility which is that Putin is mobilizing his Society because he sees War as a tool as a mechanism to radically reshape the people in Russia so think of a metaphor okay you're fat and you're like okay how do I get fit how do I get trim right you go to the gym and you out and for Putin that's what war is war is a workout for your for for your society when you enter War you become a much more disciplined unified and prosperous Society okay so that's what I want to argue today okay so why does Putin think like this well let's look at the current state of Russia okay Russia in many aspects is a broken Society corruption Russia is the most corrupt Society in all of Europe uh the rich people steal and then they run off to Europe or the United States or Dubai okay so corruption is a huge problem in uh Russia and because of corruption um the GDP of Russia is very low so South Korea which has about a third of the population of Russia has a higher GDP okay the state of Texas just one state in the United States has a higher GDP than Russia so Russia in many uh respects is a very poor country okay second problem is alcoholism one out of every six Russian males about 16 17% of the population uh they're they're alcoholics okay it's a disease they they have the disease of alcoholism one of every three deaths in Russia is because of drinking too much and because of alcoholism the um the rate of young men dying is just increasing and increasing Okay the third problem is fertility so right now the fertility rate in Russia is 1.5 that is below the replacement level right remember that the replacement level for society is 2.1 Russia is 1.5 the problem is you have you have a lot of men dying because of alcoholism okay so since the year 2000 the population in Russia has been declining steadily and all this means is that if current trends continue Contin then Russia will cease to exist as as a society okay the nation will die so why is this happening well okay the Wern explanation is that this is happening because Russia is not Democratic right if you had full democracy and you unleash the human potential of your people then Russia will Prosper but Putin vladim Putin has a different explanation okay his explanation is that this is happening to Russia okay corruption alcoholism and low fertility because Russians have been lied to deceived and manipulated by Western Civilization Western Civilization preaches the gospel of liberal democracy of freedom of human rights of consumerism and these are all lies they're hypocrisies that have fooled the Russian people and have corrupted the Russian soul and destroyed Russian civilization and because Russians are abandoning their soul their civilization their Nation this is why this is happening right does that make sense that is Putin's argument so why does Putin believe this well um in the late 80s the Soviet Union had basically lost the Cold War and they lost the Cold War because their Elite basically gave up they no longer believe in communism they didn't believe in s self-sacrifice for the nation uh they felt that Western values the Western uh lifestyle was much better okay so they gave up um in the late 80s there was an American historian he actually he actually works for the American state department but his name is Francis fukuyama and he wrote an extremely influential essay called the end of History end of History okay uh with a quotation mark and he argued that the Soviet Union fell and America became triumphant because liberal democracy is the best idea to have ever been invented and to make his argument he uses uh the philosopher federick Hegel okay now federick Hegel had something called the theory of the dialectic dialectic and what Hegel argued is that history is determined by a war of ideas the progress of history is determined by the movement of ideas and how ideas work is that they have a pattern called the dialectic okay so there's a thesis a new idea comes into being but then we recognize that this idea has problems it's too extreme it's too problematic so we create an antithesis okay but this antithesis itself is also to extreme and this creates also problems so then what happens is the thesis and the anesis come together and create a more moderate more efficient idea okay called the symphysis and this is how history moves or progresses and so fukayama takes this idea and says okay well this explains what's happening today where at first you have a thesis called capitalism okay capitalism and this create the Industrial Revolution right and because capitalism was too extreme we move towards communism okay communism was created to counteract the extremes of capitalism but communism itself is to extreme so then we move towards the which is the right idea which is called liberal democracy okay so what is liberal democracy well at the core of liberal democracy is the idea of consumerism and the idea of consumerism is that we exist to buy things and as long as we buy things there'll be World Peace why because consumers have a need to buy and therefore Nations have a need to produce and Nations produce the best when they're trading together as opposed to Waring against each other okay so this is the argument that Francis fuk fukuyama makes um in the end of History I want to explain this argument further okay what's what's he really saying okay so um throughout human history all societies have struggled with one problem which is how do we optimize the workforce how do we get each and every person to work as hard as possible for our society and if everyone did that then our society would be strong United and prosperous right okay so a fundamental problem of politics how do you optimize uh Workforce participation okay and traditionally or historically there have been three answers the first is war the second is religion and the third is civilization okay now um as you can understand these three things work because they give structure meaning and purpose to our lives okay and we have structure meaning and purpose we are much more motivated to work hard but as you can also see there are actually lots of problems with all three right war is you kill people that's bad uh religion is superstitious okay but civilization itself is also problematic because the logical extreme of civilization is racism okay which is to say that we Russians are better than everyone else we Chinese are better than everyone else therefore we can do whatever we want okay and this naturally leads to imperialism right we have a duty to go conquer other people to civilize them right something call The White Man's Burden and this leads to Fascism okay okay war and Conquest are the ultimate good so historically War religion and civilization have given people structure meaning and purpose but they create a lot of problems they create suffering and War and pain okay so but over time what has happened is that um all of them over time have become much more abstract and the reason why um theyve become more abstract is in order to increase the population in order to um create Mass Society okay so let me give you an example of this the earliest religions uh in humanity have been polytheistic okay and the gods themselves were very much like humans so think of the Greeks okay Zeus um Athena Hera okay was a polytheistic society and they were very much like humans but over time this polytheism became monotheistic it became abstract okay the idea of God was so much removed from us and the benefit of that is that you can you can have more people believing in one God and it it motivate you to work harder okay because it's such an abstract concept and because of abstraction um we develop new ideas for example money okay so rather than have War religion and civilization as the structure and Center our society want to make money the structure of your Society okay and this this what we call capitalism and capitalism of course led to the Industrial Revolution industrialism okay capitalism meant that societies uh were becoming welfare and Welfare more industrial and more IND more industrialized okay does that make sense all right but there's a problem with capitalism right what's a problem with making capital or money at the very heart of your Society exactly okay so the first major problem of capitalism is it's all consuming so so as Jack says all capitalism cares about is the expansion and growth of capital Capital regardless of its effect on society okay profit for the sake of growing profit it's an all consuming idea which can ultimately lead to the destruction of the planet okay that's the first problem what's another problem with capitalism or or the idea of having money as the heart and center of your Society anyone okay um so what's H what this means is that money likes to consolidate itself okay consolidating okay meaning that if so the example is let's just say that each of us had a million dollars right what's the fastest way for us to grow our money if we put it together right and then we can go invest it okay so in other words if you just let capitalism do whatever it wants to Infinity what happens is that you you exactly have one person with all the money okay does that make sense because that's the fastest way to grow money by consolidating it okay so that's problematic what else is wrong with capitalism or money okay so another problem is the idea of alienating or dehumanizing okay what does this mean capital alienates and dehumanizes what does that mean exactly okay you are you as a person cease to be human right to be a human is to be a complex multifaceted individual who likes to to create and love but in capitalism you're only your production value you're only the amount of money in your bank account okay does that make sense all right so for all these reasons capitalism is really bad there are actually more reasons okay um so Carl Marx and his Communist Manifesto points out all these problems of capitalism and he proposes a solution which is okay rather than make money at the heart and center of your industrial society make the worker the heart and center of your Society okay so he makes his argument but what's very revolutionary or presant about his argument is this is a natural cycle okay this is part of the Hegel cycle where capitalism com along and communism will be the Natural Evolution of capitalism okay why okay okay so let's do the thought experiment okay let's do this thought experiment where your parents have died and now you're working in a factory in order to survive how do you feel about this your parents have died there's no one to support you so at age 16 17 18 you have to go off to a factory to make money for yourself so how do you feel about this are you happy about this H how how do you feel depressing and and lonely and yeah exactly okay you're bitter and you're depressed okay okay you're alienated so then what do you do then what do you do what can you do now you're bitter you're angry you're depressed you're lonely so what do you do okay you start to think about why this is the case right you start to have a a political Consciousness okay what Mark calls political Consciousness from this alienation of the worker workers will start to develop a political Consciousness right they're like why is this happening why has the government abandoned me why has Society abandoned me what can I do about this okay so then what happens that's exactly right you want change right and how and how how do you enact change yes okay you spread your ideas and you organize right and when you organize what do you realize yeah you what you recognize when you when you start to organize is the capitalist need you to do the work right the capitalist own the capital and the factories but you're the one who's actually doing the real work so without without you the factories can't run so as long as you say United you can enact whatever political demands you want okay does that make sense okay so for Marx this is just a natural evolution of capitalism capitalism leads to the alienation of the working class which will lead to their political Consciousness which will lead to their solidarity which will lead to a political revolution and so you can make the worker as the heart and center of your Society okay doesn't make sense guys all right now what's amazing about marks is that today we say he's wrong right communism happened in the Soviet Union it happened in China but it happened in Europe and in United States where Marx said it would happen first because Germany was more industrialized than Russia or China okay does that make sense that's that's that's what we say if you think about it deeply okay um Marx is right after World War II every society every industrial society to some extent adopted the ideas of Communism does that make sense okay we call the Socialist is M and not communism but basically it adhere to the thinking of Marx which is to make the worker the heart and center of your society and and why do they do that after World War II exactly okay because workers create value okay money doesn't create any value money just creates more money it's okay it's speculative but the workers create value they're productive and therefore you have to treat your workers properly so in America and in Europe workers became the heart and center of your society and the workers through unions could uh demand political reforms and so our society was geared towards making the lives of the middle class the working class better okay that's why you had excellent Healthcare great great Public Schools um cheap universities okay so the 50s and 60s and 70s was basically the peak uh of society for the working class but in the 80s we start to change this why why would why would we want to change the system it's a great system right Marx is right having the worker as the heart and center of your of your society as the Central organizing unit of of society makes a lot more sense than having money as the Harden Center okay but start in the 80s we start to go back to money why excuse me who wants more yes exactly okay so what happened in the 80s is something called the Revolt of the elite okay in other words the problem with having a society based on the worker is it becomes too egalitarian too equal right but if you're like the elite you don't want equality you want difference you want to have power and money in your hands does that make sense so the Revol of elite happened in the 80s and this is what we call in United States the re Reagan Revolution okay the Reagan Revolution the beginning of NE liberalism free market capitalism and in Britain it was called thatcherism okay Mar thater the thater Revolution and so now you need to transition away from the worker to something else okay another ideology that allows the elite to a mass power okay so just to show you how radical this Revolution was in the 1970s okay 1970s if you were a CEO the head of a company okay you were making on average $1 million us a year that's pretty good right that's really good money and that $1 million was more than 20 times the worker okay and that's pretty reasonable today the average CEO in United States makes $20 million a year and that is 200 to 300 times more than the average worker in the company okay does that make sense so um in the 80s inequality start to explode right and so they're transitioning from the worker to a new organizing unit called the consumer okay so they needed to destroy the the working class the middle class and the way they did it was by introducing a new concept called the consumer okay so in the 50s 60s and 70s the government promised you a good job if you were a member of a society if you citizen I promise you a good job that you would have for the rest of your life okay so in the 80s the government said I promise you that you have low prices and a wide selection of goods okay does that make sense all right so this sounds like a subtle shift going from the worker to the consumer okay but what this meant was a revolution in society a revolution in politics so remember that an example the worker the worker has to have political Consciousness in order to protect his or her rights in order to organize and and unify and uh push for favorable political reforms okay that's what what the worker must do okay but now let's think about the mentality of the consumer and to do this let's do another thought exper experiment and the thought experiment experiment is this everyone in the school about 500 people I decide to give everyone1 million us okay so everyone in the school has exactly 1 million US dollar to spend what happens now think about this what happens now use your imagination What Happens what's the first thing you do what's the first thing you do I've given you a million dollars what do you do with it well the first thing you do is buy something right what do you want to buy a $1 million is a lot of money what what what do you want to buy na you buy a house right that's great that's a great purchase then what do you do with then what do you do okay first thing is not buys a house then then what does he do excuse me buy furniture then what does he do and there's something that he must do that's very important what what what's he by the house what does he want to do he wants to take pictures and post on social media right so everyone sees on social media then you see this now has this huge house in Beijing with lots of fancy furniture what do you do now you also want to buy a house but what kind of house a bigger house right and then what do you do you also post pictures okay then how do other people feel you you think this is funny okay but this happens all the time so very quickly what happens in the school and you yeah you all spend your money and you all go into debt right because you're in competition with each other to buy the biggest thing and $1 million is a lot of money but it's not enough to buy everything right so you go into debt you borrow more more money to buy more things and then what happens and then what happens how do you guys feel about each other do you guys have lunch together do you guys have dinner together do you guys like like to share homework together you guys hate each other right at the end of the day what will happen is you all go to debt and you all hate each other right so that's consumerism this is what what consumerism is consumerism creates a competition in society for Prestige okay to see who can POS the nicest social media pictures this leads to the individualization or the optimization of you okay in other words you are now unable to act together you don't want to organize you don't want to act in solidarity okay and ultimately this means that you develop economic logic okay and what is economic logic it's to see the world only through the lands of capital okay does that make sense so when you when you see someone and you you like okay well do I want to date this person you don't ask oh is this person a nice person you you ask yourself how much money does this person have okay do you understand you use economic logic in order to understand the world and to reason and analyze the world okay now let me ask you this question today is this how China Works is is how the world works the answer is yes okay are do you are you like this yes you are like this okay you've been brainwashed into thinking thinking that this is the only way to behave and to think you in school why are you in school so you're get a good job why to make money and so you can buy things okay you understand that's how you all think but there are different ways to think about school right you're like I'm in school to learn to open my mind to have an imagination to think critically about the world right and that was the way we thought about school when the workers were dominant but now that consumers are dominant all we think about is how do I get a good job how do I buy a bigger house because I want to post it on social media okay so if you think about this what this really is is the Perfection of slavery okay does it make sense what does this phrase mean the Perfection of slavery yeah he becomes a slave of the money but but but what why is this perfect yes okay do you understand if you're a slave you be beheld right right but you don't know your slave and you like this you choose this then you will never Rebel Okay so the consumerism is the Perfection of slavery okay and that's why fris fukuyama thinks that consumerism is the end of History because it is a system that achieves what the elites want and the masses are unwilling and unable to protest and rebel okay does that make sense it's a perfect system okay so but there are certain civilizations that rebel against slavery intrinsically it is in their nature to rebel against slavery and one of the civilizations is the Russian civilization okay so when you impose slav on Russians they become corrupt they become alcoholics and they refuse to have babies that is why Russia is failing as a society because slavery is being imposed on Russians by Western by the westerners and the Russians refuse to be slaves but because the system of consumerism is so perfect Russian people lack a understanding of how to rebel against the system and that's why Russia is falling apart okay that is a Putin argument does that make sense okay in other words consumerism has corrupted the Russian soul and Russians have chosen to be corrupted by consumerism okay so doesn't make sense so what Vladimir Putin must do is free his people even though they may enjoy prison okay even though Russians may enjoy slavery Putin is still going to free his people and he's going to do it by creating a New Concept to combat consumerism Okay so we've gone from the worker to the consumer and Putin is going to introduce A New Concept called The Warrior the consumer is a person an individual who acts alone and does so to preserve his or her life okay the consumer is a coward the consumer lacks imagination the consumer is alienated the warrior is different the warrior is an individual who sees that through his actions he or she can shape the direction of History I I can make my own reality through my courage and through my imagination and by acting with others okay does that make sense all right so let's do another thought experiment to understand the warrior concept let's just say that okay in the school I give everyone a million dollars and now you hate each other okay then what happens is I put you on a plane and I take you all to an island okay and you're on this island and unfortunately on this island there are millions and millions of flesh eating monkeys they want to eat you okay but you hate each other you don't want to work together what happens now what happens now yeah that's right if you don't do anything everyone gets eaten by a monkey right but what are you going to do how you will F the monkeys by how will you f the monkeys okay what's GNA happen is that everyone is going to put aside the differences and work together to fight the monkeys okay and how you feel in this process are you going be happy or depressed you're gonna be happy why exactly you're all working towards the same goal okay structure meaning and purpose okay that's what war does war gives you structure meaning and purpose so you feel happy about yourself okay let just say that during this war um like Seline dies okay now what happens what does death do now yeah yes and so Seline dies she want a martyr you all celebrate her remember her you give her great funeral and then what do you do you fight harder do you understand because the death gives you purpose her death makes your life much more valuable to you and to your others okay not only do you celebrate her life but you celebrate her your own life okay all right now let's just say that the monkeys are coming okay and there's a bridge there's a bridge and Jack is standing on this bridge and there are 10 of you on the other side okay so Jack has a choice he can either cut the bridge and kill himself and save the others or he can run R run and possibly all get killed right by the monkeys what what does Jack do for sure he will do this what will he do he's going to sacrifice himself okay do you understand we've seen this in war over and over okay that's what war does to people it makes you it gives you structure meaning and purpose and it makes you a stronger more disciplined person okay does that make sense right so that's the thought experiment so in theory then when uh Putin launched this military operation it's it's called a special military operation in Ukraine back in February 2022 then we should see improvements in Russian Society okay does that make sense so um what's happened in Russia since this war are people happier do you think people are happier you think people are happier now okay I think they are you think people are more unified I think they are okay so one example of this is the Russian economy is surviving us sanctions in fact it's getting stronger and stronger why because people are fully participating in the economy now okay so an example of this is that every month Russia is producing 150,000 ammunition cells okay for the war every month Russia is producing more ammunition cells shells for the war okay 150,000 can you guys guess how much how every how much United States produ every month in comparison guess guess the number ex me 100 100,000 2,000 okay you understand so Russia is gearing towards a a war economy it's factories are producing more and more weapons but that means more and more people are employed which means that they're drinking less okay when you have structure and meaning and purpose in in your Society all this goes down okay corruption goes down alcoholism goes down oh sorry fertility goes up all right does that make sense so um last year Putin made the statement okay he was asked okay you have a lot of Russians dying on the battlefield and he said well when they die on the battlefield we honor them they sacrificed themselves for their country they'll always be remembered as Heroes their families will always love them but if we just let them do whatever they want all they're going to do is drink themselves to death okay you understand so I put in a saying is that what war is ultimately it is a mechanism for society to rejuvenate itself okay what war is it's opportunity for society to cut away the fat to make itself more lean so for Putin this war is not really about conquering Ukraine or defending against NATO it's really about saving Russian civilization it's really about saving the Russian Soul okay you don't if you don't fight this war and you let these Trends continue then Russia will eventually cease to exist as a nation does that make sense okay so what's going to happen is that over time A New Concept will arise to challenge consumerism and liberal democracy and we will call this concept putinism and and the idea of putinism is really continuous war that as a society you should be constantly funding Wars in order to discipline unify your nation okay and make your people stronger and more prosperous that is putinism okay and that and and I think this will be his defining Legacy and pism is a direct response to Liberal democracy okay so we will shift as a society from one that is based on the consumer to one that is based on the warrior does that make sense guys okay any questions oh um so Selen asked a question how is capitalism different from Liberal democracy that's a great question okay so um capitalism is only concerned about capital okay so you can be a fascist country and be capitalistic so capitalism many people will say leads to Fascism so Nazis were extremely capitalistic they see communism the Soviet Union as direct threat to its existence okay the idea of a liberal democracy is the participation of everyone in the generation of capital does make sense so in other words um and this this is this is one of the ironies of the 20th century is that capitalism and democracy are opposing forces and the idea of liberal democracy is to put the two together in a symphasis as to explain a way or ignore the contradictions okay but capitalism and democracy are contradictions does that make sense okay any more questions okay so Jack makes a great point which is like Wars have been fought before um have destroyed societies okay think so think of Athens and Sparta um and think of World War II and War one okay societies become exhausted and destroyed so the idea of continuous war is you fight small scale Wars so as to manage the size of the conflict okay and it's important to do that why why don't you want a large scale war no no no no you what what might happen in a large scale War that's that's right okay the problem is you have nuclear weapons in place now okay so it is not it's not smart to fight a large scale War because you fight a large scale War you can't really control um the escalation and eventually say United States and Russia fight a ground war in Europe eventually they'll be so angry at each other they might have to use nuclear weapons okay that's why uh one of the major tenants of putinism is you pick small contained conflicts so Ukraine is a small contained conflict okay an invasion of France or or invasion of Britain would lead to nuclear war does that make sense okay and that's why the United States would also pick Iran because Iran would be a small contained conflict does that make sense okay so so this is the putinism okay war is a mechanism to transform your Society whereas before we understood War as a mechanism to conquer others okay as imperialism or the spreading of Civilization now the IDE pism is no guys we don't care about the other people we care about ourselves we're using War as basically a mechanism to discipline our bodies just like the gym okay does that make sense okay the thing about global leaders world leaders is they're all insane but they're not stupid you understand there's a difference they're happy to kill millions of people they're not happy to blow up the world okay but uh Jack's other point is that Russia is not a very wealthy country right eventually you're going to exhaust yourself and um that's why we think war is usually a pyramid scheme okay what that means is um so so the EXA the example is Nazi Germany when they were fighing these wars and it was costing their economy a lot of money so they were forced to fight even more Wars okay that's what eventually led to Germany's invasion of Russia because they needed the resources and the Manpower okay and that's the same thing that will happen here where okay Putin is spending a lot of money to fight this one Ukraine okay but after after he finishes war in Ukraine then need he needs to go con more territory for their resources okay so in the long term uh this could lead to disaster okay this could lead to a large scale War but in the short term um it does work okay does that make sense okay any more questions okay so SEL asked a great question which is like eventually people are going to get exhausted okay and what Putin um believes is that the Russians are a warrior culture okay Russians enjoy War Russians are good at War so Russians won't be exhausted by the by War they'll be galvanized and energized by War that's a theory okay and he's right okay there are Warrior cultures out there around the world that do enjoy fighting okay so you think of the German people right the Germans have been fighting Wars for thousand years and they've been really good at it okay you think of Japanese okay J Japan is also a warrior culture that enjoys fighting Wars okay China is not a warrior culture it's very hard to get Chinese to fight Wars and Chinese okay so I hate I hate to say but China would probably lose most wars okay it's not a word culture so for Chinese civilization War would be exhausting but for Russian civilization War can be um energizing and rejuvenating okay does that make sense it depends on on your civilization okay any more questions okay so um what's going to happen and the answer is that um Warrior culture works right now okay because word culture beats consumer culture easily so you see the one Ukraine where Russians are destroying the ukrainians and the Europeans are like ah I'm too busy watching TV I'm I'm too busy uh buying things I'm do busy vacation okay so consumers don't want to go to war okay but eventually Russia is going to reach a point where it directly threatens Germany and France and Britain and then they will start to transition into a War culture okay so putinism will become the dominant ideology for the next 50 years okay but putinism can spread to other countries okay so Japan can adopt putinism Germany can adopt it Britain can adopt it okay and so the world we call so when this happens we call this world multipolar so the word we use is multipolar okay or multipolarity meaning that like there are different centers of power throughout the world right now there's only United States it's a global hedgemon but over the next 10 20 years we expect a multipolar world where each region has different hamon okay does that make sense all right any more questions okay so um what happens to United States so next week we'll discuss United States okay but what I will show you is that if United States fights this war in Iran what it has to do is Retreat back to its borders okay it has to become isolationist but I I'll explain that to you that I'll explain that to you next week okay any more questions sorry sorry go ahead and asiv connected so I think like can I interpret pism as another form oftion of slavery a bigger scale slavery okay so that's a great question okay so we just said that consumer culture is the Perfection of slavery but it's word culture slavery and you can make the argument that it's actually anti-slavery why why what can the warrior do that that the consumer cannot do what's the problem what's the problem with having a War culture really ex me no what can Warriors do that that consumers would never do guys Warriors can Rebel right Warriors can Mutiny the AR can be like you guys are terrible we're going to rebel against you okay you understand does that make sense to you you cons don't do that consum like hm I'm going to Rebel I'm I'm I'm going to stop buying things no one's going to do that okay you'll never be like I'm gonna stop buying things because I think it's bad for the environment you won't do that whereas Warriors like you know what I don't like this leader let's march to Moscow and get rid of him they can do that and they they they they do that all the time that's why War culture is so destructive and that's why War culture was so dominant before and then we got rid of it because for political leaders where culture is a direct threat does that make sense okay so but in this question uh this reviews a contradiction in putinism okay what is the ultimate problem in Putin turning his entire country into a wor wor Society what's the problem with that and it's a huge problem for Russia and this is why uh ultimately Russia will not Triumph in a multi-polar world in fact it'll probably this it'll probably fall apart why for a world culture to Triumph what does it need Warriors fight best when When what when there's a king guys when there's a king that's why we have Kings right so what's what's problem with Putin's Russia what's going to happen to Russia guys eventually Putin is goingon to die you understand eventually he's going to die and then what's going to happen the country is going to fall apart because it's a warrior culture and you have these different generals fighting each other for total control it's going to be civil war okay Putin right now is a strategic genius he's the king everyone admires him so he unites everyone he can direct all Society into Total War when he dies this Society is going to fall apart okay that's why Putin's Legacy will not be a strong Russia it'll be putinism okay the idea of continuous War Russia may not um survive about Putin okay and hon quite honestly when you have a great leader like Putin it's impossible to replace him all right no one no one would have his genius and authority and ruthlessness okay does that make sense okay all right and David you have a question okay so David asked a great question okay how much of society agrees with Putin and the answer is like no one most people don't like to go to war okay most people are scared by War but ultimately Society is determined by those who are willing to act on their beliefs okay so when we looked at America look they issue a Lobby um they're only a small faction small fraction of the American population like less than 1% okay but because you're willing to act and they're organized and they're determined they get their way does that make sense same same thing in Russia where at most okay I would say at most you have 10% who are like oh putinism is a great idea let's go conquer the world okay at most you have 10% most people are like we want peace we want to live our lives we I have children I want to I want my children to be safe I don't want to send my children to war okay but again history is determined by those those who are determined to act in unison okay so it's usually the most extreme uh individuals who get their way does that make sense okay but but thanks for the question okay any more questions um okay so Putin believes that Russia is first foremost a great civilization okay but as a great civilization it also has to fight Wars to protect itself you understand so Putin's like you know what if America left us alone we would not fight Wars okay it's only because America insists on encircling us insist on trying to destroy our culture our civilization that we must fight a war okay does that make sense right and so what what what people say is listen the war in Ukraine it's ultimately caused by NATO uh encroachment into Russia right so NATO uh after the Soviet Union fell expanded five times guys NATO was set up as a defensive defensive alliance against Soviet Union well if you don't have a Soviet Union you don't need NATO anymore so why is NATO expanding in fact NATO was was going to expand into Ukraine so Putin is like we are fighting this war ultimately to defend our civilization that's what matters the defense of of our civilization and if it requires us into going if it requires us to go to war then we will do so okay and it's is this process that will create putinism okay or continuous War does that make sense okay any more questions yeah okay so even though only 10% agree with putinism I actually don't know the real number okay but I think it's only a minority what happens is that um in war people become much more unified okay so the example is Ukraine where actually about 50% of the people in Ukraine were Russian speakers okay and there was a large group of people at least a third who are sympathetic towards Russia but the moment that uh Putin invaded they all United under zalinsky okay so that's what war does War unifies people so again back to the um Island example you guys may hate each other when you land on the island but hey if there's a million flesh eating monkeys that want to kill you you guys are going to become a family okay does that make sense okay any more questions is this clear to you guys okay you you you you you you look as so you you want to ask a question you confused by something Seline excuse me okay um so again Russia is a warrior culture it enjoys War it's good at fighting Wars okay but China is not a warrior culture and the reason why is that throughout most of Chinese history China was the dominant power the hamon okay also China is surrounded by natural defenses right so to the uh East you have the sea to the South and to the West you have mountains to the north you have the Great Wall okay so China doesn't feel threatened by anyone and therefore it doesn't have a Weare culture does that make sense but Russia is a huge country that's been invaded multiple times and all these invasions were traumatic for Russia okay so you look at the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 that killed 20 million people millions of Russians died in that war and people still celebrate that war okay so um China is not aware culture right does that make sense okay any more questions okay so what we will do uh next week is we'll talk about Putin's strategic genius okay and what I what I will show you um and this be interesting is that the way that Russians see the world is radically different from the way we see the world okay so so so we'll discuss uh Putin's strategy moving forward next class okay does that make sense all right good