Russians as Natural Enemies of Rules-Based Global Order
© AP Photo / Alexander Zemlianichenko
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That Russian writer knows his Kipling and has obviously studied theideology of the Raj in India. And he has just published an essay with the bestavailable explanation on why Russia and Russians are natural enemies of thatWestern “rules-based order”.
Mr. Dmitry Orekhov puts it in a very simple way: in Russian language, and in traditional Russian thinking, that very word, rules, derives from the word “rights”, as in human rights. While in English these are two totally different words. Rules are what a ruler lays down for everyone, and that’s something that diametrically opposes rights, but still has to be accepted. As a result, here we have something very much like a shaky balance, if not a permanent conflict. Namely, you may have your human rights, but that’s in theory, while in practice you have to obey someone’s rules.
Dmitry Orekhov is, naturally, an Orientalist, albeit not a usual one. He is a culturologist. Graduate of top-class St. Petersburg University, second only to my Moscow University (or so I hope), he was studying cultures of East Africa and India, if you can imagine that mix. He made his name as an author of all kind of books, novels and philosophic volumes, and not only about the Orient.
Here we have his long biographic essay Buddha Of Benares, and then there came several books about Russia’s miraculous icons and natural springs with healing power, not to mention, suddenly, a book on the family of the last Russian emperor. If Orekhov was Indian, he almost surely would have gravitated to Vivekananda International Foundation or something like it.
His recent short essay is titled Rules-Based World Order Is Doomed. To remind, that order, whatever it is, has become an obligatory mantra for every Western leader, trying to explain the meaning and the ultimate goal of everything the collective West is doing in this world of ours. Some people are very frank about it, saying simply, that the ideal order is not just Western, it has to be American. Meaning that it’s America that lays down rules, while the rest only have to follow. A typical Russian reaction to that is between surprise and fury.
And this is where our culturologist reminds us of the very essence of these rules, originally British. Yes, it’s about India, and it’s about two of Rudyard Kipling’s most known works, The Ballad of East And West, and, of course, the Mowgli stories. These works are absolutely, basically and naturally un-Russian, says Orekhov.
Why so: our writer is been totally taken aback by a strange cult of naked power, visible in Kipling’s and many other British writer’s books. The Ballad of East And West is about a Westerner threatening an Indian with use of crude and extreme force, after which an Oriental man accepts the right of a Brit to lay down rules. Mowgli stories is about a boy, who, first, learns to obey the rules of the jungle, and, second, discovers that he himself can lay down rules, having a knife and fire in his possession.
That cult of force and obedience is an amazing trait in the whole Anglo- Saxon culture, says our writer. These Westerners sincerely think that the weak and the losers have no right for their own opinions on anything. If a weakling demands to follow the treaties signed, that’s ridiculous. If a weakling wants justice, he is stupid, and if a weakling tries to insist on anything, that calls for punishment. That mentality constantly puts Anglo-Saxons at odds with the rest of the world’s nations, with their own various cultures, Orekhov says.
It may be excessive to think that Russia is the first among so many discontent ones. But, again, that Anglo-Saxon mentality is absolutely un-Russian. Then, what is Russian, rules-wise? Here we need to note a basic idea of Russian culture that crude force cannot give anyone the right to dictate anything. Only the Truth, Beauty and Kindness gives you the prerogative to offer rules to the people, expecting them to accept it, if you are lucky, says Orekhov.
That, surely, is very poetic and high-brow. But then, plenty of Russian day- to-day realities show us the national character, which, indeed, absolutely precludes any chance of blind acceptance of Western rules.
First, what is the most popular, no, a truly legendary movie of the latest three decades? It’s The Brother and The Brother – 2, filmed in Moscow and the US in 1997-2000. And there is that absolutely legendary scene in the second movie, when a young Russian ex-soldier goes to the US to take revenge for his robbed and destroyed brother. He encounters the villain, who has got himself the US citizenship in the meantime, comes to his Manhattan office and points the gun at him. So, what do you do in such case, especially when people are banging at the door of the office where the bad man is staring into the barrel of a gun? You either pull the trigger or you don’t, but in any case you are in a great hurry.
But, no, our hero is suddenly starting to lecture the bad man on what is good and evil. And the audience is laughing its heads off, since, of course, all that cannot happen in real life, it’s a parody, but sounds so ridiculously Russian. “I keep on thinking, what is the source of force and power”, muses our killer. “And, you know, it looks like the truth has to be such source”. If you are interested, that wonderful philosopher escapes the US and orders vodka on the plane home. And he gets it, though that’s against the rules if the plane is taking off.
Second, what’s the typical reaction of the wider Russian public to any rules, especially bans, introduced by any kind of authorities? My own reaction is, I need to have a good look at the MPs who thought these new rules out, after all, I’ve met a few of them. While for the wider public, it’s never an opened protest, as in a demonstration or rally, but it’s always a quiet discussion on the subject of who invented that idiotic rule and whether anybody is going to obey it.
Some rules are being accepted as reasonable, others are not. The miserable fate of smoking bans or COVID mask-wearing, distancing and vaccine mandates are the best recent examples of that phenomenon. People began to look up medical articles to see what the science was saying about the mentioned bans, then a wide discussion started, but the net result was a very gentle massive disobedience, with surprisingly positive results, public health-wise.
Third, there is that old joke about what it takes to make a Russian, and a Japanese, and an American, etc., to jump into a river from a tall bridge. A Japanese needs an emperor’s order, an American may demand money. While in Russian’s case, you only need to put up a sign, saying that jumping into the river from that bridge has just been strictly banned.
Dmitry Kosyrev, a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
