by Vladimir Golstein

Brown University

In 1928, almost one hundred years ago, French intellectual, Julian Benda wrote this amazing book on the subject. A true Tolstoyan, he starts his study of this treason with quotation from Tolstoy.

Tolstoy describes two military officers, one of whom reprimands another for giving a brutal order to punish a soldier for some minor misdemeanor. Have you read Gospels, the officer asks. To which another replies, Have you read the Military Rules Book?

For Benda, the treason consists in the fact, that more and more intellectuals, keep on reading Military Rules Book, but ignore Gospels and other higher truths. Rather than appealing to the feelings of humanity, brotherhood, solidarity, son-ship to our common father, intellectuals read modern manuals, and push them further and further.

Nationalism, class and race warfare, religion, gender. Anything that can divide us further, now gets more and more intellectual support from intellectuals.

Rather than pouring cold water on common passions and obsessions, intellectuals pour gasoline, finding more and more examples or theories that would fuel these passions further.

For Benda, writing in 1928, these intellectual traitors, did all they could to support WWI, and now fueling another one, which he predicted with chilling precision.

A while ago, I published an article about Mikhail Bulgakov (author of Master and Margarita) and his horror at Ukrainian nationalism which he witnessed first hand living in Kiev on the eve of Revolution and civil war, and his anger at teachers, book-keepers, and other educated people, like Petliura, who were instrumental in organizing brutal civil war, and Holocaust before Holocaust, which took place on Ukrainian territory in 1920s.

Not much had been changed since then. I am afraid, it is the same type of semi-intellectuals, treasonous intellectuals for Benda, who keep on running things in Ukraine and elsewhere. The same promotion of hatreds, and anger, and everything else that can divide people.

Why do I say this? Say, when there is a war going on, any real military person would spent money on military targets. OK, some bastards would hit civilians to generate panic. We don’t need to approve it, but we understand it.

But look at recent attacks that happened on Russian territory. Murder of Dugin’s daughter, murder of a blogger and writer, Tatarsky, attempted murder of another writer, Prilepin, and murder of his driver instead.

What sane military guy gives orders like that? Only demented intellectuals, who came to power, and want to punish or intimidate other intellectuals. These expensive operations have zero military value.

In Lithuania, one crazy Russian intellectual and hater of Putin, pours ketchup on the face of another crazy Russian intellectual and hater of Putin, Shenderovich, for not hating enough.

Same happened during the festival of poetry in Estonia university town, Tartu. Let me repeat again, festival of poetry, when one demented Jewish Ukrainian anti-Putin poet, demanded that the festival dropped another demented Jewish-Israeli anti-Putin poet, Linor Goralik, for writing poetry in Russian.

Treasonous intellectuals came to power, and the result is ugly.

Needless to say, that the same breed of treasonous intellectuals, articulates neo-liberal and neo-conservative positions, and drives this country to more and more hatred, paranoia, and violence. They are not ordering hits on each other, yet, nor do they create kill lists, as they do now in Ukraine, sponsored by interior ministry and courtesy of the latest American technology, but we all know that Ukraine is a laboratory, where western intellectuals have a free run for their treacherous ideas. If it work there, expect it to hit the fan at home.