In honor of the gentleman from St. Petersburg who just tried to tell me (on Facebook, of course) what kind of music I, a real American country boy should listen to, I will be listening to Merle Haggard all day today, from dawn to dusk.

The sheer snobbery and arrogance of the Petersburg intelligentsia never fail to amaze me. I would imagine even the Queen of England is more down to earth, friendly, and tactful than the “most educated people” on earth are.

Please refrain here from making comments about the late Mr. Haggard’s politics. They are no mystery to me, since I was born and grew up in the same country as he did. I was not a fan of his politics most of the time, to put it mildly, but I am a fan of his music.

The extent to which Putin-era Russians, from high officials to friends of friends, stick their often wildly ignorant noses in other people’s business is a measure of just how completely they have lost control of their own country’s politics, culture, history, literature, cinema, art, language, music, you name it.

If you do not speak and read Russian, thank Allah for His mercy, because it has not been an edifying spectacle at all observing the blackest reaction nearly everywhere you turn in the “Russian world,” high and low, for the past twenty years. {TRR}

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia