Thank you.

It was a test. You see, I AM Seer.

You are the only one who has posted about this and have repeated an accusation. You say it isn't important enough to verify the accusation yourself, but its important enough for you to make such an accusation.
If you wish to make that known (assuming its true) then you need some evidence. All you have done is to offer an unsupported opinion based upon hearsay. I have not seen any specific evidence of statist bias on the part of the admin of this site. Everyone who posts here probably has some kind of bias. Could some of them be agents of the deep state? Certainly that is possible. But to make an accusation as you have you need evidence, not hearsay. Of course, you are welcome to offer your rational objective opinions ;^)

It is not that it is important to me; it may be important to others, and that importance would include the news, or perhaps rumors, of infiltration.

If, indeed, there has been infiltration---trolling---those involved would certainly not care for the world to know about it, wouldn't you think?

If it is important to you, you should write a note to the admin and find out why.

Someone important on the international stage, when introduced to this comment, suggested that it has been blocked from view because the Gulch has been infiltrated by those in the "vile entanglement of Leftism and Global Deep State", and/or their cohorts the Neo-Cons. This person was quite impressed with both the content of the topic and the comments posted thereto. Also its pertinency.

You should have finished it. It's a great movie with some very poignant moments.

Interesting point. European history is, if anything, brutal beyond compare. Lest art in the broad sword than the scimitar. A European castle is, if anything, sheer brutality, compared to the mosques. So, you could be right!

I am then reminded of how Britain used opium to control the east.

What I see in Zaroff is a desire to achieve and excel coupled with a fundamentally flawed philosophy that regarded man as no better than beast. Zaroff saw little beyond bestiality (and here I don't imply a sexual connotation but merely a raw animal nature). I think one of the grave flaws was not to see how reason sets apart man from all other beasts and how by very nature of that reason he was denying his own humanity as he simultaneously denied it in others.

The other thing that strikes me in this story is Zaroff's cowardice (he had the only firearms and he had hounds). If he was truly a competitor of like vs like, he would be seeking to take on the mind of man. This isn't a chess match of intellectual superiority at all, but a rigged contest based on superior tooling and arbitrary limitations. To me, Zaroff is a weakling - able only to dominate others through situation.

I have read this story and like it, both from a literary standpoint and philosophical as well. But I don't necessarily read political structure into the story at all. It is a story of human nature. It is a story highlighting the brutality which underlies us all and which if not tempered by respect for rights and the philosophy of humanity (not to be confused with humanism. Here I am simply referring to the identification of Man as a unique and reasoning creature by which Reason come natural Rights) can turn to a different end.

Thank you for bringing it up, nevertheless. +1

Obama should have read this story. His understanding of international gamesmanship would have been helped by reading it.
An old Cossack song 'Oy da ne vecher" is part of Russian culture. You look it up on You Tube and it is sung everywhere in Russia.

we raised our family and had our business in Colorado Springs for over 15 years. huh. small world. anyway, I ultimately thought the story was about colonialism/elitism. there are always stories about "The Game"-I think of the movie by the same name-Michael Douglas I think. Ultimately even at the highest levels, these individuals are second handers-no better than 2 bit clever grifters. Bernie Madoff comes to mind. But capitalism is not the fertile ground for such people. Cronyism and socialism are fertile grounds for that kind of thinking

I also read this story a long time ago. In some ways it reminds me of an Arthur C. Clarke short story called "Hate" (also known as "At the End of the Orbit"). I tried to find a link, but haven't been successful yet.