Сидя на красивом холме ...

[watertank]

It still surprises me when a trivial call or an e-mail to a first-line customer service rep, followed by an unconditional removal of the offending post by the author, is nevertheless presented as a political and moral victory over "those liberal scumbags". A simple act of talking politely, as an equal, to people on the other side of the cultural divide seems to require such an enormous mental effort that even the smallest achievement is perceived, or has to be "sold" to the internal audience, as a triumph. Probably it is a personal triumph over one's own siege mentality and it has to be respected. But I wonder how long it is going to take the "glorious victor" to recognize it as such, no more, no less.
On a lighter note, isn't it great fun to see a totally new social system starting to emerge out of nothing! Also, which country is going to become the Switzerland of information?
Is it going to be the second wave of globalization, or something that would counteract its purely economic consequences?