Want to ask for prayers.
Among some (NOT everyone, but some), including people at my church, there has been growing nostalgia for the Soviet Union and even for Stalin, over the past ten years, and rapidly getting stronger.
Why has this happened? Well, my opinion is that, instead of disbanding NATO after 1991 and using the “peace dividend” to pay off national debt, those that got wealthy off the endless wars decided to continue military spending, and for a while, tried to cast “terror” as the enemy. That didn’t work out as something that could be sustained over time, and at the same time, they worked to expand, rather than reduce NATO membership, and push it eastwards, right to Russia’s doorstep, This led to the annexation of the Crimea, for reasons that ought to be obvious; during the Cuban missle crisis, we had the same objections that for some reason we don’t understand Russia having now. We would go nuts if, say, China bought out politicians in Mexico and China, set up a military alliance against us and started setting up military bases in our neighboring countries.
The upshot is that Russians, who were so eager to be our friends and join a global community, found themselves to be the whipping boys used as a chief justification for the never-ending spending on Forever Wars. They have begun to think that maybe their grandfathers were right to see us as enemies, with no good intentions towards them, and they want to feel able to defend themselves and not become a third-world colony of the West. Whatever you may think about that, it is a fact that some ordinary people are ready to resume hostilities because of our endless expansion, sanctions, and the rest.
I was accosted yesterday by a couple of men from our church, pro-Stalinists who want me to shut up about the Soviet Union’s past. Not that I talk about it all that much, but in discussions that have come up, I have referenced it, and the shutting down of the organization called “Memorial” really brought this to the forefront. They were angry that I had suggested that the evils Stalin did outweighed the good accomplished under him and I felt threatened.
I want to kick Ted Cruz in the butt, for being a generally otherwise mostly good politician who supports the anti-Russia rhetoric; that stuff has real effects over here. And everyone who parrots our own government line, one that got muted under Trump, but is now back on full volume.
And I hope some of you can pray for me, and for us. I am caught right in the middle of this crossfire. It’s more horrible to me that one of the men was recently ordained a deacon.
