Power to the Platypus

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So I just finished an eight page paper that's serving as my Russian History take-home final. The question? Why did the Soviet Union collapse? Hmmmm... Aside from the economics? It's an interesting thought experiment if you think of it. Why does a regime collapse? How many factors does it take to bring down a nation? Was the Soviet collapse inevitable based on fundamental flaws within the system? Plutarch said that History was Philosophy teaching by example. If that's true, what lessons might we learn from the fall of the Soviet Union?

In other news, today is my birthday. Happy birthday to me! I've been alive for a year less than a quarter century. The Soviet Union was dead and gone by the time I was ten. Most of my adult life has been lived in a post-Soviet world where the U.S. is the unchallenged hegemon of humanity. I am a scion of privilege and I really had nothing to do with that. It doesn't make me feel guilty -I might equally have been born poor and destitute. What matters is what I do with what's given me. To whom much has been given, much more will be demanded. That's the great equalizer.

Those are the thoughts for the day. Until next time, the Platypus speaks truth.

Comments

Graf Spee said…
Happy birthday, Sir. And may you have many more of them.

And that is an interesting question. There are many factors, but the ones that you probably can't deal with are the spiritual side of things in the paper. And those are some of the most interesting.
2:59 PM
James said…
I agree. The closest you can get is the realm of philosophy: questions like "is there an inherant rightness to a worker recieving his wage as something earned, not as an entitlement for existing".
3:41 PM
Graf Spee said…
Remind me to lend you "Candles Behind the Wall" when you have time and I know where it is.
12:32 PM
luminarumbra said…
Happy Birthday, Jim!
4:55 PM
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