When the old men of the past trying to survive today have lost hope and vision of how to propel society forward, they resort to the ultimate economic stimulation: war. The biggest problem with this idea today is that we are noting that here on February 28th, 2022, it seems to be becoming a real possibility that someone desperate to be a large figure in history might be considering nuclear war as his entry into the annals of those who are impossible to forget. Great wealth, commanding power, and squashing lives are routine shit for despots, but annihilation is the stuff of legends. As cliched a saying as it is, Lord Acton back in 1887 was quoted in a letter saying, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
Putler wants to be a great man, just as our last president delusionally already knows he’s a great man. Lucky for us, our former president believes that while Putin needs to prove himself on the global stage he himself is already worthy of occupying the history books in ways that will bring him immortality. Sadly, the faction of humanity that loves this kind of strong man posturing doesn’t understand history and the pain these epochs bring, so for them, this is a festival of positive revolution.
When people of wisdom and vision need to tackle the fallout of war and pestilence, we occasionally stumble into moments in history where things like a renaissance, enlightenment, or social revolution occur, but too often, this is the late response to catastrophe after people have grown tired of suffering. Have we suffered enough? We here in the West haven’t suffered at all, though to listen to the collective whine; you’d think aliens (Hillary Clinton) landed and took away our televisions, phones, cars, homes, husbands, wives, children, pets, weed, guns, and any possibility of ever seeing another sunrise. We are spoiled and petulant with a focus on the most profoundly stupid of all things.
Meanwhile, Putin is looking to expand his territory at apparently all costs, including a potentially serious impact on the population of our planet, and America is too busy chanting “Let’s Go, Brandon” to give a damn about the geopolitical shitstorm on the horizon of civilization.
This arrogant, shortsighted inner seething that America is convulsing under is exactly the environment that a would-be dictator requires to take advantage of an otherwise strong adversary. We become weakened when as feeble-minded troglodytes digging out the belly button lint of our midsection is more important than correcting the situation brought on by the pandemic and economic upheaval that has left us in desperate need of re-inventing the way we will survive and how we will shape our world of tomorrow. If we leave this process to warlords, we will reap what we’ve sown, meaning from nothing, we’ll gain nothing. But from war, we gather death.