Bear-baiting and de-nazification

In  George Kennan's Op-Ed article in the New York Times shortly after Bill Clinton's second inauguration (25 years ago), he wrote (prophetically) that

...expanding NATO would be 'most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era;' ...[and] that such  would inflame nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion and have adverse effect on development of Russian democracy 

I first mentioned this article on 27 February, in this post, writing:

<pre-script>
His opening paragraph argues:

Later in the same article he writes:

Such a decision [expanding NATO] may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking. And, last but not least, it might make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to secure the Russian Duma's ratification of the Start II agreement and to achieve further reductions of nuclear weaponry

Nobody in their right mind... [HD October 2022: I've omitted a predictable sideswipe at the once and future King of Trumpery] ...could defend the fiendish excesses of Putin, but one couldn't say NATO  hasn't been coat-trailing for the last 30-odd years. Well, now the wounded and caged bear has lashed out, just as Kennan predicted. And the West looks on in horror mixed with shocked fascination, just as the crowds did in former times at many another bear-baiting. (In that case the smart money was on the dogs, but this time I'm not so sure....) 
</pre-script>

Two days later, according to this timeline (though other sources put it a few days earlier [to say nothing of Crimea, which brings it forward a few years]) Putin started his Special Military Operation...

<tangent>
Incidentally, Google reports for me (your mileage may vary) 

About 117,000,000 results (0.44 seconds) 

           for special military operation and peace.

You heard it here for the 17 million and oneth time, folks.

</tangent>

...which has stirred two memories in what passes in my case for a mind: 

• A BBC TV programme now available (for those who in the lottery of life have the Golden Ticket, otherwise known as a Blue UK Passport [..."without let, hindrance, or paywall"?]) on iPlayer, called The Rise of the Nazis
• A discussion on the radio (maybe on Start the Week; it'd be good to give chapter and verse) that mentioned the interesting (and disturbing) fact that political predisposition affects what you see. (Come to think of it, last week's Americast is a more likely source.)

The TV programme (a less-than-brilliant three-parter, that I'm not sure I'll stick with) showed Hitler in his bunker with less and less grasp on reality and increasingly hell-bent on vandalism for vandalism's sake, and the Nazi faithful encouraging and facilitating his excesses. This is what real Naziism looks like, and Putin seems to be in its thrall.

But why? That radio (or podcast) discussion gives a clue. It cited a peaceful demonstration (documented and filmed as peaceful), and the holders of the opposing view, shown the same footage, reported seeing broken windows and burning cars. Perhaps Putin believes his psychopathic misconceptions.

Amuse souris

I saw this recently. 

The source claimed it came from a 1920s ad. I'd prefer an actual publication date, but Tweet-consumers can't be choosers I do like "linguistry" though.

By the '50s, language learning had come on apache (excuse my spellchecker). My oldest brother, in the '50s, prepared for a trip to Spain with the help of records (perhaps an early LP, perhaps 78s in a real album) featuring an American voice that kept saying "Do not be embarrassed if you make errors." (I wonder how the user was supposed to know they had.)

Recording was the answer, and 20 years later, in a language lab on  the Sidgwick Site.... [HD: stay tuned]

That's all for today. Time for choir.

b

Update: 2022.10.16.17:30 – Added PS

PS: My "Recording was the answer" was somewhere bertween naive and over-optimistic. I've written elsewhere (not sure where) that acquiring a mother tongue involves suppressing the ability to distinguish between speech sounds that don't make a difference in that language. So the amount a learner of a second language can glean from a recording of their own voice is limited.

And that memory of the language lab at the Sidgwick site is not worth recalling (or recording).