{"id":1383,"date":"2007-03-08T07:48:20","date_gmt":"2007-03-08T12:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rush-n-attack\/"},"modified":"2007-03-08T07:48:20","modified_gmt":"2007-03-08T12:48:20","slug":"rush-n-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rush-n-attack","title":{"rendered":"Rush ‘n’ Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking a lot about Russian policy (domestic and foreign) lately. For my magazine this month, I tried to discuss the untenability of running a secret police state in a world where health issues don’t respect borders<\/a>. I don’t think I was all too successful, but I wrote most of it at 4am before hitting the road for Seattle.<\/p>\n

I want to write a longer piece about Russian politics, the KGB-defined worldview, petroeconomics, the meanings of Chechnya, and the question of “deep chrono”<\/a> as it relates to secrets revealed during the years between the USSR’s collapse and the ascendence of Putin. That is, I could spend the rest of my days writing something that would be out of date the moment I publish it.<\/p>\n

The engine for this whole project was my realization that, while we’re engaged in another cold war with Russia and China, this one isn’t driven by the ideological opposition of Capitalism vs. Communism. Rather, it seems to me that the policies of both of those countries are designed to assure the security of their ruling parties.<\/p>\n

Now, you could argue that that was the “true” motivation of the cold war itself, but it strikes me as fundamentally different, seeing as how this opposition is stripped down to the concept of retaining power for its own sake. The aspects of socialism that remain in both regimes are geared to sustain autocracy.<\/p>\n

I’ll continue ruminating on the subject and offering up occasional impressions. Meanwhile, here’s a piece (courtesy of Andrew Sullivan) from a (sorta) pro-Putin journalist who is freaked out by the number of murdered journalists<\/a> in Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking a lot about Russian policy (domestic and foreign) lately. For my magazine this month, I tried to discuss the untenability of running a secret police state in a world where health issues don’t respect borders. I don’t think I was all too successful, but I wrote most of it at 4am before … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Rush ‘n’ Attack”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-explicit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-mj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1647,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-aug-31-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":0},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Aug. 31, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"August 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are some not-necessarily-Labor Day-themed links, dear readers! Enjoy! I had a very different image in mind when Wired said this video game owed a debt to Ayn Rand. * * * Speaking of retro-futurosity. . . * * * Here's an article about returning to the gold standard, posted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1568986998","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1462,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-apr-20-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Apr. 20, 2007","author":"Gil","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a busy week, but that didn't stop me from almost writing about some articles. Here's a sampling of the stuff I didn't get around to! Why modernist architecture failed generally sucks. * * * A profile of Jane Galt, evidently not written by Reggie Miller's sister. * *\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17618,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-645-rachel-cockerell","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":2},"title":"Episode 645 – Rachel Cockerell","author":"Gil","date":"June 30, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 645: Rachel Cockerell \"I kept coming back to the notion that there's no easy answers. I hope that the reader is changing their mind every few pages, because the book is about the search for a promised land, and it's this question of a Jewish refuge that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cockerellcomp.jpg?fit=1100%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cockerellcomp.jpg?fit=1100%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cockerellcomp.jpg?fit=1100%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cockerellcomp.jpg?fit=1100%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cockerellcomp.jpg?fit=1100%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15061,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-473-darryl-cunningham","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":3},"title":"Episode 473 – Darryl Cunningham","author":"Gil","date":"February 15, 2022","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 473: Darryl Cunningham With Putin's Russia: The Rise of a Dictator (Drawn & Quarterly), cartoonist Darryl Cunningham undertook the most intense and difficult process of all of his nonfiction books. We get into Putin's postwar upbringing in Leningrad, his KGB career and the fall of the USSR,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cunningham2022comp.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cunningham2022comp.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cunningham2022comp.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cunningham2022comp.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/cunningham2022comp.jpg?fit=1173%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1459,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/missed-by-that-much","url_meta":{"origin":1383,"position":4},"title":"Missed by that much","author":"Gil","date":"April 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished reading Taliban, Ahmed Rashid's study of the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan, this weekend. 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In our latest episode, I talk with Miss Scorpio, party planner extraordinaire and mistress of Gemini and Scorpio, about 10 years of throwing fabulous themed costume\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B0006H92QK","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}