Scott Greer om intervjun med Putin

"But the people who enjoyed Putin’s monologue are not his intended audience. The Russian president wanted his interview to be a chance to speak with ordinary Americans. He chose the wrong way to reach them.

Not only do Americans know little about Eastern European history, they know little about history in general. And they don’t care about this ignorance. Americans are a people who left the past behind. That’s part of the new American identity.

This is different from Europeans, particularly those in the East. Their identities are intimately tied with events in the distant past. Serbs, for instance, are obsessed with battles and humiliations that occurred in times before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. In the 1990s, Americans could never grasp why Serbs would be so fixated on Kosovo. Yanks certainly couldn’t understand the vicious ethnic hatreds of the region either. A leader like Slobodan Milosevic justifying modern actions with appeals to a 14th century battle could never be comprehended by Americans.

The past is still very much alive in Eastern Europe. It animates the war in Ukraine, regional fear of Russia, and Putin’s ambitions. The strong ethnic identities and hatreds are kept alive by a strong remembrance of the past. Many of the events that drive these passions occurred before the Declaration of Independence was even signed.

Americans, on the other hand, are very different. We left our ethnic traditions and animosities back in the Old World. Many of us have been here for centuries and lost all ties back to Europe. Even more recent arrivals don’t have a sense of the old ethnic identity besides a shirt that declares “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.” Ethnic animosities are a trait of the newer immigrants. Heritage Americans don’t exhibit it."

Just one third of Americans have enough historical knowledge to pass a citizenship test. The majority of Americans can’t even identify who we fought in World War II.

This doesn’t really bother the majority of us. That’s because we have a new mythos that’s replaced actual history. Marvel, Star Wars, and other popular franchises serve as our reference points for world affairs. When the Ukraine War broke out, many commentators explained the conflict through the lens of The Avengers. Harry Potter references were frequently deployed by politicians and media outlets to showcase the alleged evil of the Trump administration. Past political leaders utilized allusions from the Bible, classical works, and American history to illustrate their points to the public. Now our leaders cite Spider-Man and Voldemort. World War II is the only historical event most Americans are familiar with due to its inclusion in comic book films and video games. The Nazis stand as the ultimate bad guys in American mythology–our countrymen just might not know which country they ruled.

If Putin really wanted to reach the American public, he would’ve portrayed the Ukrainian conflict in terms drawn from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Reviving our heritage is a critical task for our side. Only a people with a past can have a future.