really outside of a, in a very kind of jello like emotional construct, which is constantly changing its kind of messages. But the emotional structure is very similar. Yeah, it's interesting because you also mentioned identity, which I think is the other half of this story. Because I think that what creates the vacuum is the destruction of both identity, a sort of sense of communal identity, and meaning, and its replacement with one thing, power, a sort of raw power that can define both identity and meaning and is foundational to both. Yeah, and I think that's pretty evident from Russian foreign policy. When in 2011-12 there's huge protests demanding reforms in Russia and concrete reforms and reforms which will end up loosening the power of the Kremlin, whoever's in there. Putin's response is to set off on a bunch of imperialist adventures, and they are all about that. Let's compensate because people do need meaning. Again, none of those things go away, by the way, even when you stop (45/57)
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