The King and the Jester

What do Kolesnikov's writings tell us about Putin's character

People love to be seen and hate being seen through

The media and the academia are obsessed with the unimportant. Once you interiorise this principle, their obsession with "Putin's philosopher" Dugin becomes almost forgivable

There's no philosopher at the Putin's court

The king doesn't need a philosopher

He needs a jester

Fixation on a supposed "philosopher” in Kremlin almost forgivable, considering that the dominant Western discourse on Russia is mostly a projection of Western intellectuals. They project their fears, yes. But also their hopes and dream

Big sage, tiny king. Projections, projections…

Being the King's Philosopher, a brain behind the tyrant, has been a wet dream of intellectuals at least since the days of Plato. It almost always ended the same. After all these millennia, intellectuals could have learned a basic truth:

The King is in no need of a "philosopher"

A modern Western intellectual may understand it. He may know very well he will never be a grey cardinal, a power behind the throne. But the idea that somewhere in the world, in the far-off, snow-covered Hyperborea there lives a sage guiding a mighty king is too beautiful to be just made up

That is why the Western literati are obsessed with Dugin

Dugin is the proof that verbalism matters

The King's Philosopher is a made up figure. Countless generations of intellectuals tried to play this role only to find out that the king is in no need of a philosopher

What the King needs is a jester. And this is why every royal court worthy of this name had one

If the modern courts do not have a salaried position of a jester, that doesn't mean they don't employ any. It's just that modern jesters go under a different name

In this case, the favourite royal jester is usually referred to as a journalist