Breaking Cement [ book review]

As a serial protestor who admires Pussy Riot, I eagerly signed onto a waiting list at SF Public Library,
for a chance to borrow Masha Gessen's 2014 book:
WORDS WILL BREAK CEMENT: The Passion of Pussy Riot.
When my turn came, I expected to be inspired by the bravery of three women who went to prison for daring to mock Russia's kleptocratic Tsar Putin
and his imperialist church.

But I was surprised to learn that journalist Geffen is also a philosopher, an heir to George Orwell.
She declaims: "In all societies,
public rhetoric involves some measure of lying,
and history -- political history and art history --
is made when someone effectively confronts the lie."
[- chapter 2; citing Aldous Huxley and Yevgeny Zamyatin].

Please resist any temptation to pigeon-hole her view into any of the "isms"; even anarchism.
There can be no Gessenism; just as Marx was no Marxist, and Jesus no Christian.
Subversive ideas want to stay free and fresh, not to be embalmed into ideologies.

Gessen also gave me glimpses into attitudes and emotions of the post-Soviet
intelligentsiya, since she herself is amphibian -- fully American and fully Russian
[ like Emma Goldman?].

I'm still reading this great book; and may post more comments later.
Meanwhile I commend it to freedomseekers of all genders, all ages, all nations.

SVOBODA!!

- Tortuga Bi LIBERTY,
San Francisco
.............