ConchitaWurst, an Austrian transvestite who just won the
annual Eurovision song content, is now an active participant
in the emerging ideological war between Russia and the West.
For Putin's Russia, ConchitaWurst is a Tool Like No Other (Le Figaro, France)
"Unlike the real Cold War and Soviet propaganda, Putin doesn't
need to slavishly relay his message through the communist parties of the West.
It is enough for him to score points directly with a large segment of the
population that doesn't swoonbefore the
singing of ConchitaWurst,
and who don't see the defense of homosexual marriage or the advertising of more
unbridled sexual behavior as a priority for our civilization, which is
struggling to address other more pressing issues."
The confrontation with the Kremlin over Ukraine
remains muted because Europeans don't want burn their bridges with Russia and
jeopardize their economic interests. Vladimir Putin has understood that well
and won't fail to push his advantage. But away from maneuvers on the ground in
east Ukraine and Crimea, away from the symbolic sanctions imposed to mark the
occasion, is another battlefield where a war is in full swing. It's a war on
ideological terrain that had been deserted for a lack of combatants since the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the KO victory of capitalism over Soviet
communism.
For a time, with the triumph of democracy and
the rallying of China to the market economy, liberalism became the new global
religion. Francis Fukuyama could proclaim "The end
of history." The West, led by the American hyper-power, could
dream of imposing its model of society on the entire planet. However, since the
(economic) crisis showed the weaknesses of the democracies and the emerging
countries lifted their heads, the competition has also involved the domain of
ideas.
The Kremlin does not have, as it did in Soviet
times, universalist ambitions. It does not seek to restore the totalitarianism
of Stalin. Vladimir Putin does not intend to propose a system of government for
the well-being of humanity. But the master of the Kremlin has constructed a
very specific doctrine, made up of a mixture of great Russian nationalism and
nostalgia for the "epic" Soviet story, the Great Patriotic War, the
empire of brotherly nations, the Russia of Russians ... all wrapped up in an
alleged defense of Christian values against the moral decadence of the West.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
The Eurovision song competition, which saw last
weekend the victory of Austrian transvestite ConchitaWurst, has become the first comical weapon for a
heated exchange in this new ideological Cold War. The annual show, intended to
celebrate the unity of European nations, has an outrageous side that couldn't
better serve the propaganda of Putin's lieutenants. For Russian Deputy Prime
Minister DimitriRogozin, the
drag-queen's Eurovision coronation points to "the future of Europe,
"where there are "neither men nor women, but only 'that' ...,"
according to the profound thinking of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
The comments are as extravagant as the applause of all those who wanted to see
a triumph of our fundamental freedoms in the consecration of the bearded diva.
Unlike the real Cold War and Soviet propaganda,
Putin doesn't need to slavishly relay his message through the communist parties
of the West. It is enough for him to score points directly with a large segment
of the population that doesn't swoonbefore the singing of ConchitaWurst, and who don't see the defense of homosexual marriage
or the advertising of more unbridled sexual behavior as a priority for our
civilization, which is struggling to address other more pressing issues.
In most of the countries headed to the polls on
May 25 for European Parliament elections, the Europhobic parties, right or
left-wing, have expressed their sympathy for the nationalism of Vladimir Putin.
This flatters their nostalgia for the "man of providence," and
doesn't seem to disturb their sense of so-called patriotism. In the name of
this same misguided nationalism, anti-Americanism, always widespread in French
society, as resurfaced.
Conchita is waiting for Ukraine! May 11, either
you go to the
referendum, or the blue beard comes to you!
It is the same in Germany, where Angela
Merkel's extreme caution is reinforced by polls that show a majority of her fellow citizens are against a strengthening sanctions
against the Kremlin, and are more disposed to Berlin returning to its intended
place - halfway between Russia and the West. There is an echo of the Cold War
debates on détente, and
the dawn of new controversies between allies that Vladimir Putin will know how
to profit from.
