He's the best. The one thing he said I'm not sure has come true is about the cash flow thing. We've tried to shut down the Russian banking since the war began. Some say it's working some say no. Of course maybe our not so smart politicians haven't done it the right way? We'll see but I'd never doubt Prof Kotkin. Luv him.
@@richardhausig9493 hmm ye but not not tried hard enough. We needed to cut them off SWIFT and go after all their london, new york, luxembourg etc assets. We have to some extent but not full on
@@michaelcrockis7679 Great quote, but you get the impression with Kotkin that he means it, lol. He's wrong, he's a Great speaker specifically Because he's not polished and pretentiously academic about it, and he's wise enough to be modest. Big fan of this guy.
Same here, but his writing skill is in a different world than his lecturing. His lecturing is passable, and good because he's informative, but his writing is top notch.
I can't get enough of his teaching. I also am reading one of his books. I'll read more, but I'm so dyslexic that it will take me seemly forever to get though Stalin Vol. 1.
0:19:09 - -------------- 0:19:19 - 0:19:28 - the Rule of the Few in the Name of the Many -------------- 0:20:02 - Attribute 1 : 0:20:50 - Attribute 2 : -------------- 0:23:37 - Attribute 3 : Control over Life-chances 0:25:45 - Attribute 4 : The WELL or the Idealogical piece : Invent powerful narratives to enforce dependence -------------- 0:27:40 - All together : Modern Authoritarianism . . . Overlap with Totalitarianism 0:28:00 - Accordion -------------- 0:28:40 - Attribute 5 :External : International System : Conducive or Corrosive of Authoritarianism 0:29:45 - Our Instruments [external to authoritarian countries] abused by as we allow them to be vulnerable -------------- 0:33:12 - A Russia Policy of U.S.A. 0:35:15 - Policy for World Betterment keeps Russian damage Control a component -------------- 0:36:36 - Versalles Treaty 1919 : Peace was punitive 0:38:00 - Both arguments in common discussion about the 1919 Treaty are wrong. Why ? -------------- 0:38:35 - Treaty was against Germany w/o Russia
Love how Kotkin forcefully corrals his audience, in this case CATO bigshots, into a pen where he treats them as unwilling learners. Kotkin recognizes that not only are these audiences stupified by what they think they already know, they are not really open to learning anything that challenges their existing world view. Hence he treats them to a review of where they are wrong.
@@phillipleconte3715 - I do like educational discipline, I like everything about Kotkin's lecture style. I disagree of course on various points when he makes implications about US policy, but he's a most valuable jewel of academia. I was very pleased to find I am able to claim we are in natural agreement that; when one reviews Stalin, greatness surpasses all other qualities, and the trope of his evil is a tiresome and dull parroting of the least important of his qualities. In lecture he puts this across well, in interviews the interviewer inevitably rotates around the tired and rather useless "Stalin as evil guy" trope. Lesson there in how poorly thought out popular negatives hold people's minds so effectively.
@@774Rob breathtaking, in that, like Stalin, he ended lives. stalin was a blight on humanity...life around him literally died. i encourage people to read "koba the dread"...(forgive me if my cheeky comment sounded like an admirer. )
In the early 1980s, I was in the USN and a Soviet fighter buzzed our ship. Evryone on deck threw whatever they had in their hands in front of it, nuts, bolts, shackles, wrenches, etc... The captain got on the 1MC and freaked out on us, saying that we were going to cause an intermational incident. The jet came back again, once, but not nearly as close as the first time.
When he told you about the 25 years of behavioral that the Russians would do to get the approval of the West, and everybody listened, I realized the low standard of this crowd.
@@TheDavidlloydjones I was just thinking before I saw your comment: This guy is possibly the very worst public speaker I ever heard, but also my favorite. There are countless reasons for the former, but I think the one core reason for the latter is that I trust his judgment-and the subjects he speaks on (notably, Joe Stalin and his regime) are almost impossible to judge wisely, fairly and insightfully. Balanced, yet with his moral compass fully functioning. Given Stalin's central role in 20th century history, that suggests that Kotkin might be the most reliable source for understanding our times (in the area of global politics).
@@vanhowell3011 Van, Well said on all points. Oddly, when I upvote you, with the thumbs-up symbol above, it shows zero. I wonder whether this means somebody before had left a negative balance with a downvote in the barely an hour since you posted. Anyway, best wishes and agreed. -dlj.
@@NikolaAvramov Oh boy... 😅 It's always a sign of great intellectual prowess when you have to equate your insightfull academic to the top nazi propagandist.
S.K. was right about Russia but wrong about Ukraine. He was right about the potential efficacy of more serious sanctions but skipped the reason they were not imposed, which was our greed, our corruption and our addiction to the easy money that oligarchs were stealing from the Russian people. Kotkin is still better than whoever was coming is second. However, Donald Trump turned out to be much worse than Kotkin intimated and fascism is far more of a threat to America than will ever be seen from Hoover Tower, where I grew up riding my horse to swim in Searsville Lake.
This is marvellous,and so illuminating about how we are where are.I think Stephen is by far the most interesting giver of talks and lectures that I have ever had the pleasure to see.Thank you Stephen,and thank you Nathan for posting.Just bought the first two volumes of his Stalin trilogy,which I am about to start.
Professor Kotkin , wonderful presentation, exact, concise presentation of both history and political reality of the present day situation. His analysis of the complex situation is superb.
There is a biography by a woman from an emigree Irish family that made a career in the French Military. It chronicles the destabilization of France by her intellectuals, the French revolution and the wars under Napoleon. It is an interesting chronicle of social destabilization and parallels the Russian experience. The process is well understood.
Kotkin did this lecture years ago. He got two big things right: 1) Russia is not as strong as we thought 2) the way to combat them is targeting their cash flow
FROM CROATIA: Congratulations on the outstanding lecture. Rarely has anyone studied socialism and communism so deeply while drawing simple conclusions. It's comforting to know that there is someone in the USA who analyzes our situation so well, so that true politics can always rely on such a scientist. Thank you very much.
Kotkins confidence in his research and wonderful ability to communicate his ideas makes him a great speaker and I would think a great writer...(I have yet to read his books on Stalin)..and I hope to read him
40:50 This point was explained by the great Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner. He explained that Yeltsin did not even ask for Crimea to be returned to Russia when he conspired with the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to secede from the Soviet Union and begin the breakdown of the USSR, because Yeltsin was anxious to get rid of Gorbachev's leadership over him. It's funny that Yeltsin shamelessly demanded Crimea back after he himself gave it up.
The picture upfront does indeed show sosiopathic stare. Regular folks will know they are looked at but will refrain from glancing back as a sign of " I get back at you".
Need to learn about levels of abstraction not to get fooled so easily "When we say, then, that “Bessie is a cow,” we are only noting the process-Bessie’s resemblances to other “cows” and ignoring dif- ferences . What is more, we are leaping a huge chasm: from the dynamic process-Bessie, a whirl of electro-chemico-neural eventful- ness, to a relatively static “idea,” “concept,” or word , “cow.” The reader is referred to the diagram entitled “The Abstraction Ladder,” which he will find on page 169. 1 As the diagram illustrates, the “object” we see is an abstraction of the lowest level, but it is still an abstraction, since it leaves out characteristics of the process that is the real Bessie. The word “Bessie” (cow1) is the lowest verbal level of abstraction, leaving out further characteristics - the differences between Bessie yesterday and Bessie today, between Bessie today and Bessie tomorrow - and selecting only the similarities. The word “cow” selects only the similarities between Bessie (cow1), Daisy (C0W2), Rosie (cows), and so on, and therefore leaves out still more about Bessie. The word “livestock” selects or abstracts only the features that Bessie has in common with pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. The term “farm asset” abstracts only the features Bessie has in common with barns, fences, livestock, furniture, generating plants, and tractors, and is therefore on a very high level of abstraction. " "Language In Thought And Action" - by Hayakawa, S. I. archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.30957/page/n177
Dear Alec, lets not split hairs. legal agreement notwithstanding we should not underplay the magnanimous gesture and spirit of the agreement. a handshake and gentlemanly understanding leaves a lot unsaid but presupposes a degree of moral compliance.
The CATO Institute think tank has done an enormous amount of damage to the USA. It's influence on conservatism and government is terrible. This lecture, however, is outstanding, as is Mr. Kotkin and his work.
Kotkin would say that if this is true then the failure of the CATO Institute says more about the problems with US society than of the CATO institute itself
Very sad news that third volume of Stalin is so far away. Maybe two separate volumes on WWII and early Cold War and aftermatch would be better solution 😂
Why stop there?? Anatoly Chubais, Boris Berezovski, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Petr Aven, Vitaly Malkin, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Arkady Rotenberg....
Always one JEW obsessed idiot with a boring conspiracy. Yes JEWS sometimes do well. The vast majority of successful Russians are not JEWS. Feel free to be an idiot.
Thanks you, very informative. I hope all of our elected reps in Washingto DC are watching it this weekend. Why not publish this talk as a third book, keep working on WWII book.
"Communists battled fascists for supremacy" The thing that never gets explained is that Fascism was a result of the spread of Marxism. The Marxists actually created the counter ideology by default. If it hadnt been for Marx we would have seen neither
@Ron Maimon Marx was wrong. Marxism is an ant farm ideology but humans are not ants. Hitler and the nazis rose directly as a result of marxism in 1920's Germany.
@Ron Maimon Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Identity politics is an ant farm ideology you Jackass. BTW Socialism fails the moment ONE MAN stands up and says "I dont want to be a socialist ... I want more" Then the state has to oppress him, it has no choice as it must re enforce group think
Love listening to Kotkin and have enormous respect for him. But he makes a point that contradicts one of his more recent sessions on Uncommon Knowledge (5 Questions with S.Kotkin). In that episode from about 6 months ago he was very dismissive of the economic sanctions as a weapon against the Russian regime, saying such sanctions never work. Yet here at 23:05 he makes the point that economic sanctions are a key factor in cutting off the cashflow needed to sustain a modern authoritarian regime like Putin’s Russia.
It's a real shame that Joe Pesci doesn't really seem to have very many, or any, good lines in his movies for Stephen to turn into jokes in his lectures.
I live in Vienna were Sberbank Europe is seated. It was said it was closed but there are still signs on their building. SE is a 100% subsidiary of Sberbank consisting of the former CEE daughters of Austrian Volksbanken. Jeff Nyquist quoted a former KGB officer that all Austrian bank directors worked for KGB. There is some plausibility in it for me as I investigative covert Russian influence. Chairman of SE's board of auditors always was Siegfried Wolf who knows Putin and is partner to Oleg Deripaska. SE's laywer is Cerha Hempel in Vienna where Edith Hlawati was partner who is now head of ÖBAG, company for administrating state enterprises and state shares. An important part is OMV (oil company), a partner of Gazprom.
As a largely libertarian-minded American, I am closer to Kotkin's general worldview than to Timothy Snyder's. However, like all of us, both have strengths and limitations. Kotkin observes well some of the paradoxes inherent in Russia from a [very] American perspective (in an FPRI champagne brunch talk); Snyder (in a talk in Ukraine called "Ancient is Modern") seems to get a bit more inside of Russian culture and philosophy, though even at that, he takes only a glancing blow off of a central reality: the core of Russian (& Putin) identity -- at least from antiquity -- as located in the Eastern expression of the ancient Church. (I'm interested in how the several generations of communism, followed by openness to western culture, have affected this, but I understand restoration is ongoing...?) It's interesting that the MC of this talk observed that this "Bolshevik revolution anniversary lecture" (presumably around the date of the October events) was timed with [Western] All Saints' and All Souls' day observances. Though his rare reflection on the connection between faith and civil life is welcome, our collective western myopia (around Reformation/Enlightenment) shows itself in moments like this -- in ancient Eastern practice, these observances take place in the spring -- more Bloody Sunday than Lenin-on-a-train ☻ .
You know what ..if Stephen Kotkin was my teacher fot all my subjects growing up through high school I would be a world renown scholar right now instead of a struggling heroin addict with failing health at 54 years old ...that was a partially fictitious statement but the overall point remains.
The West has essentially co-conspired with the Russian gangsters through the corrupt banking system. I have seen it first hand. Stephen is a wonderful thinker. I love his ""Texas is to Mexico as Crimea is to Ukraine" analogy. As a mathematician I live with the concept of an isomorphism which describes essentially identical structures (the labelling is irrelevant). Not many historians really get the concept of an historical isomorphism but I think Stephen gets it intuitively.
The international banking system is always 'corrupt' by definition because different cultures have different ethical values. Putin is no different to an African dictator who owns properties in London, New York and Paris. He's just white. If they do pursue the Oligarchs financially there will be many other despotic heads of state looking at this with interest. I am sure the Chinese can offer full banking facilities.
I heard someone at a town hall meeting years ago make an interesting assertion. I don't know if it was original to him, but I have thought of it often: "Liberty is freedom under self-control." Hmmm...
@@tuck-brainwks-eutent-hidva1098 Marx said, Freedom is a conscious necessity! Whenever, when do you achieve self-control? when you are conscious of reality and necessity!
Absolutely -- awareness of reality and necessity seem like good candidates for a list of "prerequisites for self-control," but I doubt they are the only ones. (Personality stability, maturity, etc.) The speaker's point (@ the town hall meeting) was, I think, that freedom devolves into license, not true liberty, without self-control...?
Dr Kotkin notes aspects of authoritarian structures that are eerily familiar to those of us that live in the West. Authoritarian entities that are repressive, but not too effective, is exactly what Sam Francis was describing with his concept of Anarcho-Tyranny. Control over “life chances” exists in the West as well. If you are guilty of WrongThink, or if you associate too closely with those who are, and it becomes known, you can be de-platformed from social media, denied access to credit, or a university education, and ultimately, your means of employment.
Buzzing aircraft in international airspace is not against international law and NATO countries do it too. Kotkin would start WW3 with this bad idea of shooting down intercepting aircraft.
@@NikolaAvramov That's a hysterical conclusion you draw from a quite simple thought development. Not sure I agree Kotkin's idea is the sensible thing to do. But the real lunatic is the one believing it would be justification for a nuclear response.
Brilliant on sociology and geopolitics Mr. Kotkin. Poor on US economy. For instance: "We going to evict Chinese student's from the US universities..." Well great, instead of US schools, Chinese student's are simply go to UK or Australian universities and never come back to US. Meanwhile in USA: still in 2018 state founding for higher education was down 13% from before the world's financial crisis (2008). As government subsidies fell, schools immediately turned into a new subsidy - international tuition. 85% of US students receive some kind of financial aid ($15000 on average), international students almost always pay the FULL PRICE. For instance - In 2018 at Michigan State Uni, in state freshmans pay 25k/two semesters, while international students pay 60k/2semesters. Every year, Chinese students contribute $15 billion to the US economy. More students come from China to America than the next 5 countries combined (Including India). In other words, evicting Chinese student's from the US universities you are going to dramatically harm all US schools. Who is going to compensate the loss of those 15 billions? US taxpayers I guess? Meaning US universities will have to drastically rise their already impossible rates? Do that and wait what young voters will tell you next. It's too late to play this game. And you are absolutely right - we are the only thing that can bring us down.
this aged spectacularly well
He's the best. The one thing he said I'm not sure has come true is about the cash flow thing. We've tried to shut down the Russian banking since the war began. Some say it's working some say no. Of course maybe our not so smart politicians haven't done it the right way? We'll see but I'd never doubt Prof Kotkin. Luv him.
@@richardhausig9493 hmm ye but not not tried hard enough. We needed to cut them off SWIFT and go after all their london, new york, luxembourg etc assets. We have to some extent but not full on
He says "I'm not very good at giving lectures" . Whenever I see a new Kotkin lecture it is a happy day, he is one of the best that has ever done it.
Modesty is the adornment of the wise.
@@michaelcrockis7679 Great quote, but you get the impression with Kotkin that he means it, lol. He's wrong, he's a Great speaker specifically Because he's not polished and pretentiously academic about it, and he's wise enough to be modest. Big fan of this guy.
Same here, but his writing skill is in a different world than his lecturing. His lecturing is passable, and good because he's informative, but his writing is top notch.
I can't get enough of his teaching. I also am reading one of his books. I'll read more, but I'm so dyslexic that it will take me seemly forever to get though Stalin Vol. 1.
@@runninginsunshine24 try his unabridged audiobooks instead
I like these videos because they’re not interrupted by ads. Also Kotkin is a phenomenal lecturer.
I love the ones without ads too. It makes you feel special somehow
He's one of today's best lecturers. The very best on Russia.
He is. Simply. So. Good!
5 years ago he got things spot on. Amazingly well
0:19:09 -
-------------- 0:19:19 -
0:19:28 - the Rule of the Few in the Name of the Many
-------------- 0:20:02 - Attribute 1 :
0:20:50 - Attribute 2 :
-------------- 0:23:37 - Attribute 3 : Control over Life-chances
0:25:45 - Attribute 4 : The WELL or the Idealogical piece : Invent powerful narratives to enforce dependence
-------------- 0:27:40 - All together : Modern Authoritarianism . . . Overlap with Totalitarianism
0:28:00 - Accordion
-------------- 0:28:40 - Attribute 5 :External : International System : Conducive or Corrosive of Authoritarianism
0:29:45 - Our Instruments [external to authoritarian countries] abused by as we allow them to be vulnerable
-------------- 0:33:12 - A Russia Policy of U.S.A.
0:35:15 - Policy for World Betterment keeps Russian damage Control a component
-------------- 0:36:36 - Versalles Treaty 1919 : Peace was punitive
0:38:00 - Both arguments in common discussion about the 1919 Treaty are wrong. Why ?
-------------- 0:38:35 - Treaty was against Germany w/o Russia
superb notes, thanks!
How does anyone "transfer cash from your account to their account" ?
@@GerardVaughan-qe7mlI guess hacking
“The rule of the few in the name of the many”. That is the most profound thing I’ve heard all week
So, I have a question for you - Why is that bad?
In their name, not in their interest.
This guy is a genius. They should do a movie of him starring Joe Pesci.
That macaroni munchkin?!?!
I was literally just thinking this
There seems to be an echo in here...
Yes he amuses me.
Cracked me up this one, as usually because it´s true :-)
Love how Kotkin forcefully corrals his audience, in this case CATO bigshots, into a pen where he treats them as unwilling learners. Kotkin recognizes that not only are these audiences stupified by what they think they already know, they are not really open to learning anything that challenges their existing world view. Hence he treats them to a review of where they are wrong.
Love his threat to come down off the stage if he spots an open laptop on facebook. Man after my own heart.
@@phillipleconte3715 - I do like educational discipline, I like everything about Kotkin's lecture style. I disagree of course on various points when he makes implications about US policy, but he's a most valuable jewel of academia.
I was very pleased to find I am able to claim we are in natural agreement that; when one reviews Stalin, greatness surpasses all other qualities, and the trope of his evil is a tiresome and dull parroting of the least important of his qualities.
In lecture he puts this across well, in interviews the interviewer inevitably rotates around the tired and rather useless "Stalin as evil guy" trope. Lesson there in how poorly thought out popular negatives hold people's minds so effectively.
@@johnsmith1474 stalin was breathtaking.
@@phillipleconte3715 Was Hitler breathtaking?
@@774Rob breathtaking, in that, like Stalin, he ended lives. stalin was a blight on humanity...life around him literally died. i encourage people to read "koba the dread"...(forgive me if my cheeky comment sounded like an admirer. )
In the early 1980s, I was in the USN and a Soviet fighter buzzed our ship. Evryone on deck threw whatever they had in their hands in front of it, nuts, bolts, shackles, wrenches, etc... The captain got on the 1MC and freaked out on us, saying that we were going to cause an intermational incident. The jet came back again, once, but not nearly as close as the first time.
Finally, more Kotkin!
He's annoying as all get out, but damn, he's good!
When he told you about the 25 years of behavioral that the Russians would do to get the approval of the West, and everybody listened, I realized the low standard of this crowd.
@@TheDavidlloydjones I was just thinking before I saw your comment: This guy is possibly the very worst public speaker I ever heard, but also my favorite. There are countless reasons for the former, but I think the one core reason for the latter is that I trust his judgment-and the subjects he speaks on (notably, Joe Stalin and his regime) are almost impossible to judge wisely, fairly and insightfully. Balanced, yet with his moral compass fully functioning. Given Stalin's central role in 20th century history, that suggests that Kotkin might be the most reliable source for understanding our times (in the area of global politics).
@@vanhowell3011
Van,
Well said on all points.
Oddly, when I upvote you, with the thumbs-up symbol above, it shows zero. I wonder whether this means somebody before had left a negative balance with a downvote in the barely an hour since you posted.
Anyway, best wishes and agreed.
-dlj.
@@TheDavidlloydjones Upvoting you works okay. Cheers.
Can listen to Mr. Kotkin all day, thanks for uploading..
Another Kotkin bravura presentation I could listen to him all day .His books are of a similar quality
Always enligtening, a real scholar/teacher; the third volume is worth however long it takes
The best lecture I have watched/listened to about modern authoritarian systems
You can switch to Goebbels right away. You'll notice no difference and it's better to go to the source material, anyway.
Dude, you have a very low iq if you find this informative.
@@timookello3822 what would be a better alternative?
@@NikolaAvramov
Oh boy... 😅
It's always a sign of great intellectual prowess when you have to equate your insightfull academic to the top nazi propagandist.
Спасибо! Ваша лекция великолепна! Your lecture is absolutely brilliant. Your methods are the only ones that could possibly play out.
S.K. was right about Russia but wrong about Ukraine. He was right about the potential efficacy of more serious sanctions but skipped the reason they were not imposed, which was our greed, our corruption and our addiction to the easy money that oligarchs were stealing from the Russian people. Kotkin is still better than whoever was coming is second.
However, Donald Trump turned out to be much worse than Kotkin intimated and fascism is far more of a threat to America than will ever be seen from Hoover Tower, where I grew up riding my horse to swim in Searsville Lake.
Kotkin is outstanding! The best man to articulate international relations as easy as a walk in the park. Can't get enough!
This is marvellous,and so illuminating about how we are where are.I think Stephen is by far the most interesting giver of talks and lectures that I have ever had the pleasure to see.Thank you Stephen,and thank you Nathan for posting.Just bought the first two volumes of his Stalin trilogy,which I am about to start.
Amazing guy. Always enjoy his lectures
Professor Kotkin ,
wonderful presentation, exact, concise presentation of both history and political reality of the present day situation. His analysis of the complex situation is superb.
Well said
Didn't Russia count on an inevitable Western collapse once before? Didn't work out too well for them as I recall.
There is a biography by a woman from an emigree Irish family that made a career in the French Military. It chronicles the destabilization of France by her intellectuals, the French revolution and the wars under Napoleon.
It is an interesting chronicle of social destabilization and parallels the Russian experience.
The process is well understood.
Kotkin did this lecture years ago. He got two big things right: 1) Russia is not as strong as we thought 2) the way to combat them is targeting their cash flow
corruption should be treated as theft, catching thieves is good
19:10 "You think I'm kiddding??" classic Joe Pesci.
I actually looked to see if he was about to break someone's nose.
Whoa whoa whoa.
You tryn to be funny?
Funny how?
Extraordinary refreshing talk. Making the point that one has to have an end goal is so obvious but so necessary.
Real Realpolitik.
FROM CROATIA: Congratulations on the outstanding lecture. Rarely has anyone studied socialism and communism so deeply while drawing simple conclusions. It's comforting to know that there is someone in the USA who analyzes our situation so well, so that true politics can always rely on such a scientist. Thank you very much.
Kotkins confidence in his research and wonderful ability to communicate his ideas makes him a great speaker and I would think a great writer...(I have yet to read his books on Stalin)..and I hope to read him
Starts at 4:30
Great to listen to Stephen K.
@34:32 What was the word he said when referring to something taking place? Glashutten? Glashelton?
Gleichschaltung
Who knew Joe Pesci is a Russian scholar .
You know, you're a funny guy
'Joe' is probably the best Euro-Russian scholar. And the personality is top notch
Old, but good joke 😂
A tiresome "joke".
ACTUALLY SERBIAN FROM KOSOVO
Professor Kotkin, at the end of your lecture I rewound it and watched it again. Cheers.
This is so great to hear this clarity and understanding !!
Thanks for posting this.
I couldn't find any lectures on the 2nd book. Maybe it hasn't been released yet.
40:50 This point was explained by the great Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner. He explained that Yeltsin did not even ask for Crimea to be returned to Russia when he conspired with the Presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to secede from the Soviet Union and begin the breakdown of the USSR, because Yeltsin was anxious to get rid of Gorbachev's leadership over him. It's funny that Yeltsin shamelessly demanded Crimea back after he himself gave it up.
I've listened to several Kotkin talks, but I didn't realize he could meme.
The picture upfront does indeed show sosiopathic stare. Regular folks will know they are looked at but will refrain from glancing back as a sign of " I get back at you".
Relevant more than ever
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant.
I'd love to see him do a thorough analysis of the Iranian regime.
Need to learn about levels of abstraction not to get fooled so easily
"When we say, then, that “Bessie is a cow,” we are only noting
the process-Bessie’s resemblances to other “cows” and ignoring dif-
ferences . What is more, we are leaping a huge chasm: from the
dynamic process-Bessie, a whirl of electro-chemico-neural eventful-
ness, to a relatively static “idea,” “concept,” or word , “cow.” The
reader is referred to the diagram entitled “The Abstraction Ladder,”
which he will find on page 169. 1
As the diagram illustrates, the “object” we see is an abstraction
of the lowest level, but it is still an abstraction, since it leaves out
characteristics of the process that is the real Bessie. The word
“Bessie” (cow1) is the lowest verbal level of abstraction, leaving
out further characteristics - the differences between Bessie yesterday
and Bessie today, between Bessie today and Bessie tomorrow - and
selecting only the similarities. The word “cow” selects only the
similarities between Bessie (cow1), Daisy (C0W2), Rosie (cows),
and so on, and therefore leaves out still more about Bessie. The
word “livestock” selects or abstracts only the features that Bessie
has in common with pigs, chickens, goats, and sheep. The term
“farm asset” abstracts only the features Bessie has in common with
barns, fences, livestock, furniture, generating plants, and tractors,
and is therefore on a very high level of abstraction.
"
"Language In Thought And Action" -
by Hayakawa, S. I. archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.30957/page/n177
Superb lecture.
The problem with Foreign Policy 101 is that is requires common sense. ... Just how common is that when psychopaths are calling the shots?
Dear Alec, lets not split hairs. legal agreement notwithstanding we should not underplay the magnanimous gesture and spirit of the agreement. a handshake and gentlemanly understanding leaves a lot unsaid but presupposes a degree of moral compliance.
“Trashcanistan” laughed my ass off
skip to 4:10
Are you explaining the Rusia or Usa systams
Totally brilliant and funny as hell.
40:40 Crimea contained savastapol the submarine base of the Soviet union, which they built. Also, a warm water port.
This is amazing..thanks for sharing..hehe..thumbs up
President Kotkin? I would sleep soundly if the Prof was in charge...
The CATO Institute think tank has done an enormous amount of damage to the USA. It's influence on conservatism and government is terrible. This lecture, however, is outstanding, as is Mr. Kotkin and his work.
Kotkin would say that if this is true then the failure of the CATO Institute says more about the problems with US society than of the CATO institute itself
Watching this on a day that China has decided to prepare for war on 2 fronts is like dejavu
CATO is a cowboy libertarian think tank that skews right and I loved Kolkin moping the floor with false assumptions CATO likes to spew out
Good Old Catkin (David) slays the Russian Giant (Goliath)!
Very sad news that third volume of Stalin is so far away. Maybe two separate volumes on WWII and early Cold War and aftermatch would be better solution 😂
@@juanvargas9 I would have two of them 😊
I don't like Cato but I adore Kotkin! D.A., J.D., NYC
Learn so much from your lectures. Good luck with your next book.
Steven Kotkin is a national treasure.
those regimes that do't control life chances are at risk. whatever else you have to say about it this is why a UBI is essential.
There were times when the description of the Russian authoritarian regime reminded me of the current government of Mexico (2021)
You know I never liked CATO but after this lecture i will tolerate it
Jeffrey Sachs, Yegor Gaidar, Khordokovsky, Gusinksy etc.
Feel free to discuss these individuals at length. 👍 😉
Why stop there?? Anatoly Chubais, Boris Berezovski, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Petr Aven, Vitaly Malkin, Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Leonid Mikhelson, Arkady Rotenberg....
Always one JEW obsessed idiot with a boring conspiracy. Yes JEWS sometimes do well. The vast majority of successful Russians are not JEWS.
Feel free to be an idiot.
Another great lecture from Mr. Kotkin.
Always makes my day when there's new Prof Pesci
Russians are coming! Notify your homosexuals. LOL. The Sayanim hate Christian Russia.
Precious lecture.
starts at 4:15
Grasping the intro is important, your impatience is misplaced.
Hero
@@johnsmith1474 the into is your usual CATO institute neo liberal propaganda. Go ahead and listen to it if that's your thing, but otherwise skip it.
Thanks you, very informative. I hope all of our elected reps in Washingto DC are watching it this weekend. Why not publish this talk as a third book, keep working on WWII book.
Love the tempo he speaks with, I feel it's perfect for my learning as im only 72. Arohanui from New Zealand Dr Stephen.
hey raewyn, you can adjust the speed of the video in the video settings.
"Communists battled fascists for supremacy" The thing that never gets explained is that Fascism was a result of the spread of Marxism. The Marxists actually created the counter ideology by default. If it hadnt been for Marx we would have seen neither
@Ron Maimon Marx was a journalist.
@Ron Maimon What academic appoints did Marx hold?
@Ron MaimonA genius indeed: an academic with no academy.
@Ron Maimon Marx was wrong. Marxism is an ant farm ideology but humans are not ants. Hitler and the nazis rose directly as a result of marxism in 1920's Germany.
@Ron Maimon Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Identity politics is an ant farm ideology you Jackass. BTW Socialism fails the moment ONE MAN stands up and says "I dont want to be a socialist ... I want more" Then the state has to oppress him, it has no choice as it must re enforce group think
Love listening to Kotkin and have enormous respect for him. But he makes a point that contradicts one of his more recent sessions on Uncommon Knowledge (5 Questions with S.Kotkin). In that episode from about 6 months ago he was very dismissive of the economic sanctions as a weapon against the Russian regime, saying such sanctions never work. Yet here at 23:05 he makes the point that economic sanctions are a key factor in cutting off the cashflow needed to sustain a modern authoritarian regime like Putin’s Russia.
It's a real shame that Joe Pesci doesn't really seem to have very many, or any, good lines in his movies for Stephen to turn into jokes in his lectures.
Brilliant and oddly funny
'What is the private sector? It's freedom.'
God I wish there actually were a “Red Army TV”.
Actually we have red army tv, it is Zvezda means star. And is is as much full of shit as army it is.
I live in Vienna were Sberbank Europe is seated. It was said it was closed but there are still signs on their building. SE is a 100% subsidiary of Sberbank consisting of the former CEE daughters of Austrian Volksbanken. Jeff Nyquist quoted a former KGB officer that all Austrian bank directors worked for KGB. There is some plausibility in it for me as I investigative covert Russian influence. Chairman of SE's board of auditors always was Siegfried Wolf who knows Putin and is partner to Oleg Deripaska. SE's laywer is Cerha Hempel in Vienna where Edith Hlawati was partner who is now head of ÖBAG, company for administrating state enterprises and state shares. An important part is OMV (oil company), a partner of Gazprom.
As a largely libertarian-minded American, I am closer to Kotkin's general worldview than to Timothy Snyder's. However, like all of us, both have strengths and limitations.
Kotkin observes well some of the paradoxes inherent in Russia from a [very] American perspective (in an FPRI champagne brunch talk); Snyder (in a talk in Ukraine called "Ancient is Modern") seems to get a bit more inside of Russian culture and philosophy, though even at that, he takes only a glancing blow off of a central reality: the core of Russian (& Putin) identity -- at least from antiquity -- as located in the Eastern expression of the ancient Church. (I'm interested in how the several generations of communism, followed by openness to western culture, have affected this, but I understand restoration is ongoing...?)
It's interesting that the MC of this talk observed that this "Bolshevik revolution anniversary lecture" (presumably around the date of the October events) was timed with [Western] All Saints' and All Souls' day observances. Though his rare reflection on the connection between faith and civil life is welcome, our collective western myopia (around Reformation/Enlightenment) shows itself in moments like this -- in ancient Eastern practice, these observances take place in the spring -- more Bloody Sunday than Lenin-on-a-train ☻ .
Interesting analysis.. Refreshing different form the other analysis I've given my time to.
You know what ..if Stephen Kotkin was my teacher fot all my subjects growing up through high school I would be a world renown scholar right now instead of a struggling heroin addict with failing health at 54 years old ...that was a partially fictitious statement but the overall point remains.
Make him Secretary of State please.
Love this guy, brilliant lecture.
"MSNBC - better known as Red Army TV"
Cut Russian companies from Western bond and equity markets. That's the end of Putin.
Thank you John Bolton, you completely useless fool.
The West has essentially co-conspired with the Russian gangsters through the corrupt banking system. I have seen it first hand. Stephen is a wonderful thinker. I love his ""Texas is to Mexico as Crimea is to Ukraine" analogy. As a mathematician I live with the concept of an isomorphism which describes essentially identical structures (the labelling is irrelevant). Not many historians really get the concept of an historical isomorphism but I think Stephen gets it intuitively.
Because they are unreal in real life and can only be used as a teaching mechanism
true . it ws given to ukraine during soviet union as gift
The international banking system is always 'corrupt' by definition because different cultures have different ethical values. Putin is no different to an African dictator who owns properties in London, New York and Paris. He's just white. If they do pursue the Oligarchs financially there will be many other despotic heads of state looking at this with interest. I am sure the Chinese can offer full banking facilities.
“…isomorphism.. “ Wow. (My spellchecker just finished that for me!) I’ll be nonchalantly tossing that into my next shooting the breeze session.
So very true, from the political institutions to the financial institutions. All brass and NO class.!
thank you..
Thank you.
Very clever and interesting man
Clever...yes. Very clever at disseminating falsehoods.
Timo Okello Like what?
My Intellectual Vinny
What does he mean, “ MSNBC, otherwise known as Red Army TV?” I don’t understand that insult.
37:44 Now I really want to hear Kotkin rehabilitate Chamberlain.
best video
Please is it possible one of you the so overwise Americans could give me e definition of what is freedom or liberty? In philosophy aspects?
In our American sense, it basically means freedom *from* external compulsion or restraint, as long as it doesn't impinge upon the freedom of others.
I heard someone at a town hall meeting years ago make an interesting assertion. I don't know if it was original to him, but I have thought of it often: "Liberty is freedom under self-control." Hmmm...
@@tuck-brainwks-eutent-hidva1098 Marx said, Freedom is a conscious necessity! Whenever, when do you achieve self-control? when you are conscious of reality and necessity!
Absolutely -- awareness of reality and necessity seem like good candidates for a list of "prerequisites for self-control," but I doubt they are the only ones. (Personality stability, maturity, etc.) The speaker's point (@ the town hall meeting) was, I think, that freedom devolves into license, not true liberty, without self-control...?
@delosombres you sound like a nazi
19:13 Oh Oh!!! I got nervous.
LOL Is Samuel Huntington OK in this building. This is a different kind of lecture for CATO
can't be libertarian if you don't hear other points of view.
Dr Kotkin notes aspects of authoritarian structures that are eerily familiar to those of us that live in the West. Authoritarian entities that are repressive, but not too effective, is exactly what Sam Francis was describing with his concept of Anarcho-Tyranny. Control over “life chances” exists in the West as well. If you are guilty of WrongThink, or if you associate too closely with those who are, and it becomes known, you can be de-platformed from social media, denied access to credit, or a university education, and ultimately, your means of employment.
Becoming more familiar every day. Even in the month since you wrote this -- preach! ☻
Full of wisdom
Buzzing aircraft in international airspace is not against international law and NATO countries do it too. Kotkin would start WW3 with this bad idea of shooting down intercepting aircraft.
Depends on how close they get
Drink everytime he says OH kay
Please more ... Stephen K!!!
The analysis is logical enough but based on problematic (many would say false) assumptions. This undermines the validity of the whole lecture.
Cato: "Besides, Carthage should be destroyed".
The Cato Institute: "Besides, Russia should be destroyed".
It's fitting with the theme, I guess.
@@lumeronswift
The lunatic is literally advocating for a nuclear war in 50:02
Best not to mention the assumptions deemed problematic off course...
Wouldn't want them to be scrutinised.
@@NikolaAvramov
That's a hysterical conclusion you draw from a quite simple thought development.
Not sure I agree Kotkin's idea is the sensible thing to do. But the real lunatic is the one believing it would be justification for a nuclear response.
Brilliant on sociology and geopolitics Mr. Kotkin. Poor on US economy. For instance: "We going to evict Chinese student's from the US universities..."
Well great, instead of US schools, Chinese student's are simply go to UK or Australian universities and never come back to US. Meanwhile in USA: still in 2018 state founding for higher education was down 13% from before the world's financial crisis (2008). As government subsidies fell, schools immediately turned into a new subsidy - international tuition. 85% of US students receive some kind of financial aid ($15000 on average), international students almost always pay the FULL PRICE. For instance - In 2018 at Michigan State Uni, in state freshmans pay 25k/two semesters, while international students pay 60k/2semesters.
Every year, Chinese students contribute $15 billion to the US economy. More students come from China to America than the next 5 countries combined (Including India). In other words, evicting Chinese student's from the US universities you are going to dramatically harm all US schools. Who is going to compensate the loss of those 15 billions? US taxpayers I guess? Meaning US universities will have to drastically rise their already impossible rates? Do that and wait what young voters will tell you next. It's too late to play this game.
And you are absolutely right - we are the only thing that can bring us down.
Chinese student's what?
Yes. First question: 3rd book.