Wednesday, September 10, 2008

My Wife and NATO

Our regular reader and commenter Ypp offers this brief meditation on the analogy between family dynamics and international relations.


My Wife and NATO
By Ypp


The more I think about my relations with my wife, the more it seems to me to resemble the relationship between Russia and NATO.

I am a big hairy man, almost like a bear. Since we got married, my wife has always been fighting for independence and for her rights, though I never tried to deprive her of her rights. At the same time, she tends to grab more and more power, and it seems to me that she disregards my opinion. That’s because she is an active person who likes challenge and wants always to be the first.
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From time to time I get angry about her behavior, and start a loud quarrel. I say some unjust words and threaten to end our relationship forever. She replies angrily and we stop talking to each other.

After some time has passed, I realize that she did not have any intentions to openly fight with me or break up our relationship. That her anger and hatred are because she really thinks that she is unprovokedly attacked and has to defend herself. Also I understand, that by grabbing power and disregarding my opinion she did not want to harm me — it is simply her regular mode of operation. Vice versa, she did it all for my own good. And finally I recall that she really did a lot for our family economy, and forgive her. I can even admit some fault of mine, but she never does.

After such a quarrel, she treats me more respectfully for some time, and even does some cleanup. However, as soon as our relations normalize, she starts to grab power, to disregard my opinion and stops cleaning up. Thus, Peace prevails.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

In other words, Russia is an abusive wife.

Unknown said...

Ypp called himself "almost like a bear" i.e. Russia. His wife is clearly NATO.

Czechmade said...

With Russia you have one more case like muslims - a system-belief of "pouvoir pour la pouvoir". It is amazing how fast some commentators are ready to sell russias neighbours - in order to placate them and allegedly to involve them in our cause.

Russia would wait - even sponsor our troubles - until we ask for help "humiliated" as the islamic wording has it for dhimmis.

You fall in the same trap as your govs did regarding the Saudis et all.

Alfonso decides on his own what peoples are more or less "Russians", so that they should be incorporated into Russian empire...

Pro-russian commentators sell/kill the democracy in a second. Amazing.

"Try to help dismantling it....somewhere abroad" and keep it in turn here trembling with fear".

You cannot please more some distant totalitarian mind.

Czechmade said...

Sorry - le pouvoir as in l´art pour l´art.

Consider that Russians would be unable to explain "why they need the power". A substitute for something we have and they are not allowed even to dream of? Probably.

laine said...

"fighting for independence and for her rights, though I never tried to deprive her of her rights."

The analogy doesn't hold water unless Ypp is in fact a known wife beater who has invaded neighbors' homes and killed or locked up the owners claiming they invited him in and he needs a buffer of security around him.

The amount of support given to the bully and his murderous power grabs while kowtowing to his laughable pretense that he is in danger from those he outweighs like a bear to a mouse is simply bizarre.

The fury of the bully's defenders and their willingness to hand his victims back to him on a silver platter is shameless. Invite poor misunderstood Russia into your own borders, not someone else's and live with the consequences yourself.

Paul said...

Hey YPP,

I liked your analogy. I don't know that it exactly fits, but I get the idea and I like the fact that we can talk and have some dialog. Perhaps over a pint of ale.

Keep up the dialog. We need to maintain the conversation.

Adam said...

Don't take this too seriously. I thought this was a fun post.

Anyways, if we are going into analogies... My take is Nato and Russia are awkward exes. They were married out of expediency because of Germany then divorced just as quickly.

The abusive husband Russia made sure during the divorce than many acquaintances and friends of the wife sided with him(Poland, and the rest of E.Europe) to the chagrin of the wife. For the next 60 years the fight a very nasty and public divorce to settle once and who gets the majority of the assets.

The wife bring in a new lover (US) to ward off the abusive husband even letting the lover have a room in her house for protection(bases in continental Europe). However this further inflames the husband.

After 60 years the wife wins the court case with the help of her lover brings the husband to his knees. The husband becomes a vagrant and a mess for almost 20 years and then recovers by winning the lottery(gas prices). Then the resurgent husband resume his bashing of the wife for his grievances legit or not.

Meanwhile, the lover is deciding whether its worth it to defend the divorced wife because she constantly badmouthed the lover during during and especially after she won the divorce case. Now she is begging the lover to come back, but the lover is having second thoughts because the wife isn't as pretty as she used to be and because the lover has new mistress who are more accommodating.

Aww how oversimplifying gives people another perspective.

Ypp said...

Hi Paul
I'm glad you liked it. I think you should be married to get this post. I had another one on the same topic, but Baron said people would not understand it. I believe that the analogy is deeper than some may think. Because psychological attitude matters.