It’s difficult to characterize Tsar Alexander, because it seems that most of his mental energy was caught up in creating narratives about what kind of person he was, and not so much on what he did or how he behaved. Alexander had 8 or 10 of these narratives going through his head at the same time, and wasn’t particularly bothered when they contradicted each other.
Alexander considered himself a true “Enlightenment Monarch,” and told anybody who would listen that he believed in a limited, constitutional monarchy, and wanted Russia to have elections, and a parliament, and independent courts. At the same time, he ruled Russia as a tyrannical dictator, which was justified in his mind because he believed that he was God’s chosen instrument on Earth. These two thoughts are not compatible.
But Alexander did not see a contradiction. He would simply switch between these two modes of thought depending on who he was talking to and how he felt that day.
Alexander believed himself to be the most honourable man in Europe, a man who revered ritual, and tradition, and justice. Simultaneously, he believed that God made him Emperor of Russia for a reason, and if he needed to go back on his word and use brute force to implement his will, that was all part of God’s plan.
These contradictory beliefs made Alexander impossible to deal with. His positions came off as utterly random, and they could change at any time depending on his mood.
Oh for sure – in the context of Tsar Alexander, he likely grew up being told from birth that it was his divine right to rule, whilst at the same time he wanted to be in with the trendy European crowd promoting democracy. I can totally see how someone might have these two halves of themselves that they cannot totally reconcile .
Musk, I believe, truly does care what people think of him. There was a time in the early 2010s when he had a trendy wife, was promoting open source specs for E-cars, and was doing as much as he could to signal to progressives that he was their man.
Only once it became clear that he could not live the consequence-free rich-man lifestyle with all of its abusive horrors and still be revered by the progressives, is when he ran like a crying infant to the skirts of its mother towards the conservatives. He ultimately wishes to be loved and respected by the in-crowd, doesn’t matter what they stand for.
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Reminds me of Castlereigh trying to deal with Tsar Alexandar I at the The Congress of Vienna (1814)
https://youtu.be/QtOXq9SwarQ?t=1061
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Oh for sure – in the context of Tsar Alexander, he likely grew up being told from birth that it was his divine right to rule, whilst at the same time he wanted to be in with the trendy European crowd promoting democracy. I can totally see how someone might have these two halves of themselves that they cannot totally reconcile .
Musk, I believe, truly does care what people think of him. There was a time in the early 2010s when he had a trendy wife, was promoting open source specs for E-cars, and was doing as much as he could to signal to progressives that he was their man.
Only once it became clear that he could not live the consequence-free rich-man lifestyle with all of its abusive horrors and still be revered by the progressives, is when he ran like a crying infant to the skirts of its mother towards the conservatives. He ultimately wishes to be loved and respected by the in-crowd, doesn’t matter what they stand for.
K is helping a lot here…