In public, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says his country’s growing friendship with China is unshakable — a strategic military and economic collaboration that has entered a golden era.
But in the corridors of Lubyanka, the headquarters of Russia’s domestic security agency, known as the F.S.B., a secretive intelligence unit refers to the Chinese as “the enemy.”
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I agree with all your predictions and the geopolitical risks you mention, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re cool. All around the world, everyone is ruled and bossed around by horrible people. Yours just happen to have bigger guns and the gold standard for central bank reserve currencies. I don’t think it’s fair to consider every single person that lives in a country/empire/whatever a bad human being or someone who deserves bad things, no matter how horrible the empire in its collective efforts.
You guys have good valuable people. I’ve had the fortune to meet a few and stay friends with them. I’m sure this is true for even the most perverse organizations. Some people are just there cause they didn’t have any better alternatives.
The value of someone is a case by case basis thing as far as I’m concerned. There’s no passport that skips the line to condemnation or salvation.
I figure it’s just like in poker, you know? The cards we have, we got dealt. The question isn’t why didn’t we get the hand we wanted, or how could we redesign the game in order for everyone to get good cards… The game will be over by then. Only thing that matters is how we play what we’re dealt.
And yes, I realize the cards both of us might get very soon might be very bad, but I guess i’d rather see if I can make some kind of play with whatever I have and have fun with the other people around me than endlessly grieve about the ones I wanted or the people that stopped me from getting em.
Much love, my friend. It’s not your fault and nothing is the end of the world (believe it or not, not even the end of the world). You have nothing to apologize for that you didn’t personally do freely and knowingly, and even if you have those, everyone does and most are less reflexive about it. Stay strong.