Archive for the ‘revolution’ tag
Why Revolutions Fail #
When considering the under-noticed anniversary of Burma’s 1988 uprising, The Economist’s Asia.view column hits a sensible point I’d never considered:
No, the reason the revolution failed was simple: the army was prepared to kill as many people as it took to thwart it.
So long as a state apparatus is strong and remains cohesive, it’s hard to imagine how any citizen uprising can end authoritarianism.
Russian Dissident Edward Limonov #
In light of the Russian election, Andrew Meier’s profile of the charismatic — and odd — dissident Edward Limonov is both topical and entertaining.
Limonov has helped to import a new word from English into the Russian political vernacular: luzer. As a politician, he is, to put it charitably, feckless. “He has no hope of gaining state power,” says Alexei Venediktov, the director of Ekho Moskvy and one of Russia’s sharpest political journalists. “But that’s not what motivates him. Limonov loves the street, and like any fighter he needs an arena.”