Does Putin have a soul?

[DrSmellThis]

I agree

Alex. Russia should be kept as a G8 partner. One would hope that pressure could be placed on Russia within that

forum. These days, I have less hope for that.

I suppose the most important work to be done in Russia is

organizing and educating people about Democratic ideals. Is that what you're doing in your blog? Will it make a

difference?

What I hear him saying is that it's not so much the ideals themselves, the shining cities on the

hill, that are hard to grasp; but rather the landscape -- practical, problematic realities of where the society is,

with respect to distance and terrain, in achieving anything like those ideals.

Even here, where we like to think

it all happened more or less "organically" (for most white people, and people with the biggest guns, anyway) the

ugliness of the landscape we have crossed and are crossing strains the imaginiation at times.

Rather, the lions

share of the former responsibility, to make clear the ideals and benefits of liberty and democracy; remains ours.

And it is not a matter of our words, to put it mildly. What good is it for them to learn more, when we have so much

to learn before we can teach anybody much more than a confusing, and at times nonsensical story?

There are

certainly those who think we have done a great job of "spreading democracy", and consequently its ideals. But that

belief happens most everywhere to evoke fiery and divisive debate more than any kind of understanding.

If we

ever achieve liberty and democracy here, for more than a minority, and demonstrate some integrity with that; there

will be no problem anywhere in the world finding a majority of people to buy into it. It is now a very small world

with a substantial collective consciousness. Most people want desparately to believe in ideals like these, on one

level; but they have their good reasons for not doing so.

A movie that brought some of this to light was

"Control Room", a documentary about individuals working for Al Jazeera in Iraq, individuals who would have

absolutely loved to spend their days dreaming about democracy, all other things being equal. I once reviewed it

here.