I wasn’t prepared for what I saw on February 24, three years plus two days after after one man, Putin, launched his “special military operation” in Ukraine, which in reality is a war, although, by law, Russians can get 15 years in prison if they say, “war.”
To set the stage: The great educator Kurt Hahn had no use for modern schools that sheltered the pupils, calling them, in my words, gleaming great ships with no crew (no student involvement) At his boarding school, a few years after Prince Philip (later the husband of QE II) had passed through, the leader of the student body was, as best I recall, chatting with friends when, in the background, a boy was carried kicking and screaming towards the pond. The leader kept talking for a bit, then ran over to stop the injustice. Later, he was firmly disciplined by Hahn… for not acting instantly.
In fairness, most people don’t usually act instantly. I know this because an admirer of Hahn, as he wrote in the monthly Readers Digest feature, My Most Unforgettable Character, had to stop telling the story at parties because listeners thought Hahn was too harsh.
Sometimes we don’t learn to act fast unless we have been shamed and brought up short by “a headmaster.” Or given permission to act, ordered to act, by, for example, a marriage counsellor or a Human Resources executive. Right action is not exactly natural.
I remember it took me a while, as a permissive, freedom loving, “live and let live” sort of guy, to learn to act fast when a developmentally delayed client, in speech or deed, was “inappropriate.” Similarly, as a junior noncommissioned officer, (NCO), I swiftly needed to get my speed up to act and react instantly.
Even a democratic head of state can be slow. In the recent memoir of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Freedom, she confessed that when Donald Trump was rude, she did not confront him. Because, she said, he took her by surprise: she was “expecting him to be normal.”
Tonight I saw a head of state, seated beside the so-called “leader of the free world,” Donald Trump, reach out to touch Trump’s arm, after Trump misspoke, to instantly correct him. Such courage, when Trump is known to be, and rigidly controls the Republican Party as, a petty person of extreme vengeance.
I am not surprised Macron has become leader of France. Somewhere along the road he learned to react instantly to do the right thing.
A Russian dissident once said, “One man who speaks truth can bring down a tyranny.” Alexander Solzhenitsyn also said “Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence.” As Putin knows.
As for Trump, I have lost count of the number of times this year (not before) that I have read he is “transactional.” I didn’t even know that term until years after I had a university degree. As I understand it:
Small children do something because of “consequences” : a girl will not go into the cookie jar from fear of punishment.
Teenagers do something as a “transaction”: a teenager says, ‘I will do this if you do that.’
An adult does something because it is right.
Maturity is a one-way street. At our level, we can look back and know a teenager, but a teen can’t look forward and know to do right from values and principles. Nor can Trump understand why Macron would give money and weapons to Ukraine as a grant instead of as a loan with a price tag.
To me, Trump ceased being any sort of world leader when, during a world crises, he lied about covid-19. The United States had a much greater casualty rate than Europe or Canada. Now he won’t lead the free world against Russia—He cannot think to do the right thing.
President Macron led by example, for the sake of us all.
… …
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Sean Crawford
Canada
February the 25th,
2025
Footnotes:
~Regarding “transactional,” I am grateful for best selling author Mark Manson’s web article, that can be read or listened to, How to Grow Up: A guide to being human
~Here is a clip of my favourite Doctor Who, in the episode The Doctor Falls saying, “I do what I do because it’s right!” I think it’s a powerful scene even if you don’t know the context. Not long after this scene, he falls, and somebody he helped cries over his body, and it’s both beautiful and sad…
UPDATE:
As of a certain White House February 28 press conference, the US president and vice president showed high emotions, (not firmness like a nurse), and an inability to focus on just one topic at a time, (like an angry housewife bringing up the past and ‘throwing in the kitchen sink’) while Zelensky did not keep a social worker face. I never realized how rare my human service worker training (and experience) is. I saw Trump misinterpret with a vengeance, where he could have just chuckled and said, “We’ll see.” …And in the evening all the Fox guys misinterpreted Zelensky with a vengeance.
Wearing my chairman hat: if you know in advance that you are not respected/are thought of as weak, then you and your team must not address more than one person, and you say so when a second person, such as a vice president, speaks. But of course Z wouldn’t guess there would be a lack of good faith.
If I was training a chairman or a facilitator, then I would use the transcript and indicate with a pencil where emotion came in. Emotion, rightly or wrongly, usually gets interpreted as an attack (think about it). This being the case, emotion must be reduced by, say, refocusing or conscious effort or delaying, (what I hear you saying is) or going into recess.
Thinking of Zelensky: One does not lead without an ego, and one does not lead in wartime without being very tough. (I myself cannot say ‘I was wrong,’ or ‘I’m sorry,’ until time has gone by) Today, in private, Zelensky would need to vent for the sake of his ego. Later, on a stage or classroom, I am confident such a tough guy could very quickly be role play/trained into having an ability to give the White House cameras a master class in social work communication. I don’t suppose Zelensky has needed such skills conversing with a head of state on Downing Street or Buckingham Palace.
Media note: I am writing this in a hotel room where I cannot get the science fiction channel, so instead I am watching Fox “News” for the first time. An executive at Fox said the channel is not the A section, news, of a large (broadsheet not tabloid) newspaper, but the A2 section, editorial. Wow, is that ever true! If a had a transcript I would get very tired, very quickly, showing all the editorializing…. Do viewers even know? No wonder other people omit the tag “news” when saying Fox.
One hears of folks who watch only Fox. I reminded of people in Russia who watch only state TV, because the independent ones all shut down after the “special military operation.”
…Later: Wow, while Fox experts, and presumably Fox consumers, are all full of hatred towards Zelensky and respect for the president and VP, and —wait for it— claiming Z disrespected America… the consensus among world leaders, including Canada’s PM, is just the opposite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4y1mBxnP4
Man, unless you have suffered through biased commenters on Fox, you can’t know what a salve it was to finally hear some sanity from the BBC.
