Western-ization
At first glance this seems like a scene from a bad B-movie western. And that’s pretty much what it is: as the hero prepares to ride off into the sunset after shooting down the bad guy, the saloon woman weeps and the good citizens tend to the dying man. The mythology of the Wild West rides again. But isn’t that Ronald Reagan in the lead? Perhaps there’s more to this than meets the eye. Sure enough, seen from a distance we see the vestigial image of that former scourge of the West, Vladimir I. Lenin. I thought we laid him to rest a long time ago. But no, this isn’t about the American West, it’s about what’s happening to Russia and a lot of other former East bloc countries. The larger-than-life myth of Lenin hasn’t been replaced with one of a wise and benevolent capitalist democracy. It’s been replaced by the myth of the wide-open grab-what-you-can Wild West of a Ronald Reagan or John Wayne movie. So the poor Russian people have relinquished one false myth only to be sold another. And now we seem to be about to re-experience the old bugaboos because of their re-awakened national ardor which is another reflection of our own jingoist posturing.
