Article: Nuts, No Offense

"French people are nuts. To become sane every Frenchman would consider a horrible misfortune."

Denis Fonvisin, Russian writer, 18th Century

Fonvisin was not a Russian by origin. He was Swedish. But whoever of his contemporaries were asked about him, they all said the same, "He is a Russian, a typical one."

This year there will be my 33rd anniversary in the US. Before that I lived for 33 years in Russia. I was born in Kiev, Ukraine. It was a member of the Union. A very important member; it had its own membership in the UN. Now it says it was never in it voluntarily. Now it's rulers proclaim the bizarre nationalism. Now it is war there. We here in the US-we support the nationalists in that war. We are nuts, no offense.

I have been living in the US for 33 years. Can I be called a "typical American". What is a "typical American", anyway? Can anyone on OEN call himself or herself a typical American? Russians can. I am still a "typical Russian", which includes those who were born in Kiev or Mariupol, but of my age. The young ones became nuts. We, the "typical Americans", infected them with nuttiness and now sanity is considered a misfortune there, just like here.

Nuttiness has many forms but the worst one is spiritual ignorance. US folks are full of it. We got used to invade the privacy of other cultures, we violate their sacred symbols, we trample on their experience, we kill their dignity and destroy their way of life. We behave like rapists and eventually we convince ourselves that we are "good", that "they wanted it". Whether it is Cuba or Iraq, Libya or Ukraine, Europe or Asia-we screw up everything and leave only ruins. And after that we "discuss" the issues as all "good" people do. We are nuts.

The matter of Ukraine is not historical. It is spiritual. Kiev was considered "the spiritual capital of Russia". Not Russia as a country but as a nation. That nation which included Swedes, Scots, Vikings, Chechens, Jews, Ukrainians, whoever. That nation which defeated the Nazis, lost 26 million people in that war and forever molded its unity in blood. Ukraine and Byelorussia are as much the parts of the Russian nation as the literary characters Vakula and Snow Maiden belong to the Russian folklore, as Egupetz is the name of Kiev in the Shalom Aleichem's books, as Nabokov stated, "Russia is our Motherland. Death is imminent". He was a "typical Russian" too. And he was sane. He respected the sacred things of others. He worked on himself. We better figure it out fast. That national unity is eternal, sacred, everlasting and self-evident. That place is bigger than us, that event is much bigger than us; we should better back off before it is too late. We are too small.

If anything we can learn from the Ukrainian tragedy, is that is how deadly we are, how nutty and how miserable. We are "not good". Our government supports and promotes the evil it created. It harms all of us; whoever in any way tries to "discuss them" is nuts, no offense. It is us we have to discuss, not them. It is their tragedy but it is our shame. It is their war, but our defeat. It is their life but our death. They, the ones fighting on both sides there, they are closer to each other than to us and if it was not for us, the bastards, they would have never had that abomination. It is all our fault. Wake up. The dream of reason creates monsters.I am a typical Russian, Ukrainian, Jew, American, whatever. I woke up. I am sane and happy with my sanity. I wish you all the same.

" The man has to know his limitations", says Dirty Harry. He was a typical American, sane to the core. Listen to him, please. Leave Ukraine alone. Know your limitations. Stop the nuttiness, no offense. You have plenty of things to discuss. This one is off limits.