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As everyone knows, the Russians thought they could occupy Ukraine just as fast as their forces could drive across the country, with girls handing them flowers, as a prelude to installing their own Moscow-leaning puppet government. (Strange to see puppets, on stage, leaning to one side) As for we in the west knowing WHY, well, that is the question. In the media I keep reading reasons I don’t believe.
Trying to “Mind read” Putin, to know what he thinks, just won’t work. Granted his communist background would have meant, as in China, saying, “Workers of the world unite!” (In equality) But as for equality with Ukraine, Putin (and China) is like Napoleon the pig, in Animal Farm. To paraphrase: “All countries are equal, but some are more equal than others.” So the “more equal” Russians will break all the international laws they think exist only for the rest of us. So uncivilized. But still—why?
Clearly, we can’t go by what President Putin himself says. All through this invasion various Kremlin officials have lied about countless things. At least, I’ve lost count, and I bet everybody else has too. Putin himself, of course, lied as he gathered his troops for conquest, by saying he had no intention of invading Ukraine. Clearly, the Kremlin is unchanged from their Soviet years. Their words are still as empty as the wind.
To best guess “why” is to use our knowledge of human nature when it comes to dictators, oligarchs, selfish royalty and all those wealthy folks of the totalitarian persuasion.
I wish I could write an original thought here today, but recently Prime Minister Boris Johnson beat me to it. That’s why I admire Boris, not for being PM, for thinking like me:
QUOTE
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Vladimir Putin decided to launch his invasion of Ukraine over the fear of having a free, democratic nation as his neighbour.
Speaking at the Conservative Party spring conference in Blackpool, the PM said “it is clear that Putin has made a catastrophic mistake” by invading.
Johnson said that Putin did not really believe Ukraine was going to join the Nato military alliance, or in the “semi-mystical guff” about “the origins of the Russian people” spouted by the Russian president.
UNQUOTE (I can’t find the quotation source)
A most embarrassing problem for authoritarian-types, as the rulers of East Germany found out the hard way, is how a state free of corruption, such as postwar West Germany and Japan, will recover from their fascist years, and cities in rubble, by racing along like a rocket sled on rails… not at all like in countries not yet free. Once the Ukrainians sent that murderous fascist leader fleeing to Moscow, Putin could only gnash his teeth as Ukrainians embraced hope and change. Their rocket fuse was lit…
Beyond economics, I know one thing for sure: What oppressors hate is when democracies enjoy freedom to tell the truth. Not to mention a free people having a healthier economy, and a mentally healthier body politic. … Among oppressors I would include Iran’s Ayatollah and the sprawling Saudi Arabian royalty. I bet the various princes as head of family don’t allow free speech within their household. Not like Muslims in America.
“Hatred of truth” is why Russia recently disrupted their western cell phone towers. Because the Ukrainians were freely handing their cell phones to captured Russian soldiers, and allowing the boys to phone their mothers. Moscow’s suppression of truth is why Russian journalists are defecting; it’s why a whole television crew, right on camera, walked out of the studio, one after another. We can see truth suppression is succeeding, like in Nineteen Eighty-four, as a young lady telephones her mother in Russia. “My city is being shelled but Mum won’t believe me.” (Link)
But the truth is getting out: The former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has put out a piece on social media addressed to the Russian people. A delightful piece, nine minutes long, that could one day be taught in college communication classes—seriously. No shouting, no contempt. Not like an unkind social justice warrior. Instead, Schwarzenegger speaks to the Russian people with liking and respect. (Web search “Arnold” and “Ukraine”)
I would hope the Russians can handle Arnold’s message.
It was Grace Slick with Jefferson Airplane who sang,
“When the truth is found to be lies,
… all the joy within you dies…”
Then again, as I hope for Russians having strength to hear Arnold, it was a writer during the Soviet era, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn who noted, “A single person who stops lying can bring down a tyranny.”
On a final note, it was Bobby (Mack the Knife) Darrin who wrote,
Come and sing a simple song of freedom
Sing it like you’ve never sung before
Let it fill the air
Tell the people everywhere
We, the people here, don’t want a war
…
God bless honest people.
…
…
Sean Crawford
Under the same sun
March
2022
Footnote:
Today I found a blog, “musings of an old fart,” to bookmark. The guy’s latest posts may be “heavy” but in his archives include lighter music related ones… Say, the way I try out any new blog is not to try to wade through it all—no way!— but merely to click on the current month, but for a different year.
For trying my own blog, I guess one might click a random “home page” of six titles.
Update, same day: In the Calgary Sun today, a guest column by Monica Hesse was headlined Schwarzenegger tries to show Russians a different kind of strongman. It includes the line “He also seems to anticipate something else that his international celebrity might count for something here. That he embodies some of the same shirtless physicality as does Putin. And that people who associate masculine strength with moral authority might be more likely the belief the words… …
The idea of the physical body is the backbone of this entire video…
Like I wrote above, Schwarzenegger’s piece begs to be analysed.
Update, next day: Here is an old public lecture with Q. and A., about Ukraine, by a prof who says that Russia and China are still in the 19th century while we are in the 21st century. He said we need to understand that they are behind the times in order to understand their present and future actions. (link)
