This seems to have begun with feminists, but teaching women to trust their feelings, that feelings are truth, couldn't be kept just in the women's locker room. It has spread into the men's as well and is now also an affliction of some of the younger men.

I have learned this from readers' emails. Some are puzzled by what seems to them to be a switch on my part from being for Putin to being against him. They want to know why I stopped liking him. In other words, they interpret my growing concern about his policy as an indication that I don't like him anymore.

I am writing about Putin's policy, not about my feelings for Putin. His policy of ignoring provocations made perfect sense for a while. It demonstrated to Europeans that Putin, unlike Washington, is level-headed and non-confrontational. Putin's openess and responsible behavior was contrary to the image of "Russian threat" that Washington had put in European heads. The hope was that Europe would switch from being an enabler of Washington's aggression to becoming an obstacle to it.