The Value of Putin | National Review Online
"He ends up existing to warn us in the West of what we are not, and to demonstrate that in a strange sort of way our loud principles without toughness are not much better than his toughness without principles. In that regard, he gives us a valuable look into ourselves — we the hollow men, the stuffed men of dry voices and whispers."
"And is not the triple-talking postmodern man often as empty as the premodern brute?"