What is this war about?
The West justifies its huge financial and material inputs into the war between Ukraine and Russia with pep-talks about fuzzy concepts such as freedom
by which they mean the right to get richer than others, and using that wealth to regulate (i.e. restrain) the freedom of others;
and democracy
by which they mean public bodies that organize care and security but hypocritically leave everything else to the decision-making of traders, dealers, brokers, bosses, and owners.
This war is not at all about those two Western catchphrases to keep the rich on board, the middle class working and docile, and the poor out of crime. They are not under attack. No, this war is a result of three frustrations coming together in one stream of unmitigated hate and paranoia in response to Russia's anger about the non-implementation of the Minsk agreement.
Those three frustrations are
- Ukraine's inability to unify without using violence a divided country destabilized by a huge influx of foreign agricultural investment since their independence in 1991;
- The potential stagnation (by Russia) of the obvious (for the EU) expansionism of the EU and NATO eastwards;
- The U.S. obsession with showing who's the boss.
And in the background plays a role that man cannot stand nature's increasing setbacks (Covid, heat, floods, sea rise, biodiversity loss), and is losing patience with pain, aging body parts, mental limits, neighbors, partners, activists, and all those who think differently. Which means there is less and less attention and time for continually giving each other the opportunity to verbalize what's the worry. Whereas that is the most important pillar of peaceful coexistence.
(Return to the news items by closing this window)