"the Crimeans themselves have already voted twice for their 'Crimexit' – the first being held in 1991"
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
The author is Professor of Humanities – Moscow University Touro.
If one studies the human race we are so proud of, few things are as baffling as our uncanny ability to defy logic and reason on a regular basis all around the globe.There is no corner of the earth where human behavior lacks this recurring theme. Let’s just take three socio-cultural phenomena as examples.
The first is Saudi Arabia. This country is widely recognized as the guardian of Islam’s holiest places and the protector of said religion. It is also the number one supporter of a terrorist group actively engaged in killing thousands of Muslims in the name of Allah.
By any measure this is clearly illogical.
Secondly, if one studies Cultural Anthropology one learns about a social phenomenon called “Hypodescent”. This term refers to an American practice common in the old racist South whereby a child born of an interracial relationship between a white person and black person automatically would be labelled and identified as simply “black” rather than of mixed race. The reasoning was that any combination of “white” blood and “black” blood resulted in the contamination of pure “white blood” thusly degrading the bloodline and producing an inferior member of the species. And yet in America we refer to Barack Obama – the child of a mixed marriage between a white mother and black father – as the first “black president”. Though this is clearly racist, no one dares point it out.
This is simply illogical.
Thirdly…In Great Britain recently the majority of people voted in a referendum to leave the European Union - the so-called “Brexit”. Viewing this example of direct democracy in action the EU naturally recognized the results of the vote as reflecting “the will of the people”. Similarly, two years ago in Crimea a majority of people voted in a referendum to exit from Ukraine – a “Crimexit” if you will. However, the same EU did not recognize this particular referendum as reflecting “the will of the people” even though the vote was not even close.
Currently, there are guardians of democracy in the UK and Europe who are calling for a second referendum to determine if the majority of people “really, really, actually want to do this Brexit thing”. According to their logic, a second referendum is needed to fully confirm that the true “will of the people” is clearly known – a “second opinion” as some are calling it.
If one examines closely the parallels here, one sees that in actuality, that the Crimeans themselves have already voted twice for their “Crimexit” – the first being held in 1991. (At the time the government of Ukraine simply ignored the results of the vote).
The problem is that the guardians of democracy in the UK and Europe do not recognize the results of two referenda in Crimea thereby contradicting their own logic and reasoning with regard to “true democracy” being dependent on two votes.
So illogical…
Is it any wonder that intelligent beings in the Cosmos are so far away from us?
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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