
Episode 229
Why Did the Future Arrive First in Russia? | Peter Pomerantsev

Episode 229
Peter Pomerantsev
Why Did the Future Arrive First in Russia? | Peter Pomerantsev
summary
In Episode 229 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Peter Pomerantsev, a Soviet-born British journalist, former TV producer, and author about the break-down in belief systems and shared mythologies that we are experiencing in the West and why this has left so many people feeling increasingly cynical about the world and indifferent towards the future.
Peter was early in his diagnosis, having first experienced this phenomenon during his time living and working in Russia. It was not long after that experience and the publication of his first book “Nothing is True, But Everything Is Possible” that he began to notice some of the things that he wrote about in that book—the cynicism, the sense of surreality, the nostalgia, and what he described as an “aggressive apathy”—showing up in Western countries. And he began to ask himself the question, “Why did the future arrive first in Russia?”
This is the question that we seek to answer in today’s episode, because some of the same forces that were operational in the late-Soviet Union and in early post-Soviet Russia are at work in Western societies today. If we want to understand what the future might look like when trust in institutions has completely deteriorated, when grounding notions of identity and meaning have all but disappeared, when any independent standard of truth has become so elusive that people are willing to believe in anything and the only thing left to unify us is raw and unbridled power, then we would be wise to not only understand the path that Russia has followed in the last several decades but to do everything in our power to avoid following it any further. It leads to only one place and that is a postmodern, repressive society that uses the language and institutions of democratic capitalism for authoritarian ends.
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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
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Episode Recorded on 01/14/2022
bio
Peter Pomerantsev (born 1977) is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, where he co-directs the Arena program. He is also an Associate Editor at Coda Story, a position he has held since at least 2015. Pomerantsev has written two books about Russian disinformation and propaganda: Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible (2014) and This Is Not Propaganda (2019).
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Te ipsum, dignissimum maioribus tuis, voluptasne induxit, ut adolescentulus eriperes P. Audeo dicere, inquit. Iam contemni non poteris. Nam illud quidem adduci vix possum, ut ea, quae senserit ille, tibi non vera videantur.
Aliud igitur esse censet gaudere, aliud non dolere. Quid autem habent admirationis, cum prope accesseris? Bona autem corporis huic sunt, quod posterius posui, similiora. Nam Pyrrho, Aristo, Erillus iam diu abiecti. Praeteritis, inquit, gaudeo. Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Sed utrum hortandus es nobis, Luci, inquit, an etiam tua sponte propensus es?
Laelius clamores sofòw ille so lebat Edere compellans gumias ex ordine nostros. Quid enim de amicitia statueris utilitatis causa expetenda vides. Comprehensum, quod cognitum non habet?
Sed et illum, quem nominavi, et ceteros sophistas, ut e Platone intellegi potest, lusos videmus a Socrate. At iste non dolendi status non vocatur voluptas. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Qui non moveatur et offensione turpitudinis et comprobatione honestatis? Urgent tamen et nihil remittunt. Partim cursu et peragratione laetantur, congregatione aliae coetum quodam modo civitatis imitantur; Eam tum adesse, cum dolor omnis absit; Paulum, cum regem Persem captum adduceret, eodem flumine invectio? Ex ea difficultate illae fallaciloquae, ut ait Accius, malitiae natae sunt. Ipse Epicurus fortasse redderet, ut Sextus Peducaeus, Sex. Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Atque etiam valítudinem, vires, vacuitatem doloris non propter utilitatem solum, sed etiam ipsas propter se expetemus.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Callipho ad virtutem nihil adiunxit nisi voluptatem, Diodorus vacuitatem doloris. Aut haec tibi, Torquate, sunt vituperanda aut patrocinium voluptatis repudiandum. Diodorus, eius auditor, adiungit ad honestatem vacuitatem doloris. Quae cum essent dicta, discessimus.
Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Tria genera bonorum; Dolor ergo, id est summum malum, metuetur semper, etiamsi non aderit;
Nobis aliter videtur, recte secusne, postea; Ab hoc autem quaedam non melius quam veteres, quaedam omnino relicta. Proclivi currit oratio. Quae cum dixisset paulumque institisset, Quid est? In schola desinis. Nam illud quidem adduci vix possum, ut ea, quae senserit ille, tibi non vera videantur. Sed erat aequius Triarium aliquid de dissensione nostra iudicare. Inde sermone vario sex illa a Dipylo stadia confecimus. Sit hoc ultimum bonorum, quod nunc a me defenditur;
Quid vero? Ego vero isti, inquam, permitto. Nihil opus est exemplis hoc facere longius. Tubulo putas dicere? Nihil sane. Nosti, credo, illud: Nemo pius est, qui pietatem-; Quid igitur, inquit, eos responsuros putas? Ea possunt paria non esse. Illa argumenta propria videamus, cur omnia sint paria peccata.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Haec et tu ita posuisti, et verba vestra sunt. Praeteritis, inquit, gaudeo. Sed ego in hoc resisto; In eo enim positum est id, quod dicimus esse expetendum. An est aliquid per se ipsum flagitiosum, etiamsi nulla comitetur infamia? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Fortasse id optimum, sed ubi illud: Plus semper voluptatis? Audio equidem philosophi vocem, Epicure, sed quid tibi dicendum sit oblitus es.
Tum Piso: Quoniam igitur aliquid omnes, quid Lucius noster? Huius, Lyco, oratione locuples, rebus ipsis ielunior. Sin dicit obscurari quaedam nec apparere, quia valde parva sint, nos quoque concedimus; Dicet pro me ipsa virtus nec dubitabit isti vestro beato M. Primum cur ista res digna odio est, nisi quod est turpis? Apparet statim, quae sint officia, quae actiones. Quamvis enim depravatae non sint, pravae tamen esse possunt. Vide, ne etiam menses! nisi forte eum dicis, qui, simul atque arripuit, interficit.
Dicam, inquam, et quidem discendi causa magis, quam quo te aut Epicurum reprehensum velim. Non est igitur voluptas bonum. Et quod est munus, quod opus sapientiae? Scientiam pollicentur, quam non erat mirum sapientiae cupido patria esse cariorem. Tu vero, inquam, ducas licet, si sequetur;
Quare conare, quaeso. Qui ita affectus, beatum esse numquam probabis; Equidem soleo etiam quod uno Graeci, si aliter non possum, idem pluribus verbis exponere. Comprehensum, quod cognitum non habet? Non igitur de improbo, sed de callido improbo quaerimus, qualis Q. Quid est igitur, inquit, quod requiras?
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Teneo, inquit, finem illi videri nihil dolere. Hoc dixerit potius Ennius: Nimium boni est, cui nihil est mali. Graecum enim hunc versum nostis omnes-: Suavis laborum est praeteritorum memoria. Verba tu fingas et ea dicas, quae non sentias? Quamvis enim depravatae non sint, pravae tamen esse possunt. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Quid censes in Latino fore? Non autem hoc: igitur ne illud quidem. Quare hoc videndum est, possitne nobis hoc ratio philosophorum dare.
Quae contraria sunt his, malane? Te enim iudicem aequum puto, modo quae dicat ille bene noris. Cuius ad naturam apta ratio vera illa et summa lex a philosophis dicitur. Non igitur potestis voluptate omnia dirigentes aut tueri aut retinere virtutem. Ex ea difficultate illae fallaciloquae, ut ait Accius, malitiae natae sunt. An potest, inquit ille, quicquam esse suavius quam nihil dolere?
Nos vero, inquit ille; At modo dixeras nihil in istis rebus esse, quod interesset. An vero displicuit ea, quae tributa est animi virtutibus tanta praestantia? Aliter enim nosmet ipsos nosse non possumus.
Nunc ita separantur, ut disiuncta sint, quo nihil potest esse perversius. Huic mori optimum esse propter desperationem sapientiae, illi propter spem vivere. Quam ob rem tandem, inquit, non satisfacit? Hic nihil fuit, quod quaereremus.