Tucker Carlson’s recent trip to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin included a series of side trips meant to demonstrate Russia’s ascendancy over America. From beautiful subways adorned with artwork to oh-so-affordable grocery stores, Carlson took his viewers on a ‘truth-telling’ mission meant to unveil how wrong our leaders are about this despot-led regime. Russia, according to Carlson, is clean, empty of crime and (would ya have guessed?!?!) incredibly affordable.
I spent a summer in Russia in 2002 and saw the very same opulent landmarks that Carlson speaks about. I visited the subways and also the many palaces and summer homes of Russian tzars with fountains and marble hallways. But unlike Carlson, I also saw the other side of Russian life – the elderly begging on the street because the lack of a social security system to care for them, people having to conserve hot water because it was only on for two weeks each month, the enormous gap between the wealthy and the poor. While Russia is full of grand architecture and ornamentation, it is also the home of incredible poverty and mayhem. Moreover, as we learned last week with the death of Alexei Navalny, Russia is also the home of Vladimir Putin who continues to rule with an iron fist, to murder all who oppose him and to invade neighboring nations.
In this week’s Torah portion, we read about the elaborate garments that the priests are told to wear which include gold breastplates and jeweled tunics. The priests are told to dress like royalty in order to convey a feeling of sanctity amongst the Israelites. In his commentary on the portion, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks notes that the very same Hebrew word for garments is also the word for betrayal. Sacks explains that the word-choice is an important reminder that “clothes have to do with surface, not depth; with the outward, not the inward; with appearance rather than reality.” With his commentary, Sacks warns us – the outward can be deceiving – it can turn our attention from that all that really matters.
It was Joseph Stalin who oversaw the creation of those elaborate subways that Tucker Carlson marveled at – a dictator who slaughtered his opponents and ruled as a tyrant. Stalin used the subways to idealize Soviet life. As the Great Depression was devastating the American economy, he wanted to emphasize communism’s superiority over capitalism. But in building that subway, Stalin needed to feed the workers. And so he stole from area farms — leaving the people on the farms to starve.
The beauty of that subway—like much of the beauty in modern-day Russia—hides a ruthless and unsavory reality.
Tucker Carlson did not remember how beauty can be illusory. And in his effort to uncover what he termed the deception of the western media, it turns out that Tucker was deceived himself.