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by Bisbee
I have friends in the Tango community here in Los Angeles that are Ukrainian. And many Russians as well. And both regularly dance with us and each other in close embrace and all that... and then Putin’s war started. And then many naturally voice outrage at Putin’s war of aggression. But there are some Russians dancers who believe Russian propaganda-news that this war was in the best interest of protecting Russian speaking Ukrainians... you get the drift.
Anyway, looking at this war from the lens of America and observing these two groups enjoying an international dance (originally from Argentina), and knowing that if everyone just shut-up and danced, really nobody would be the wiser to how lazy, ignorant, stupid, or fearful a human being could actually be: life would actually be nicer and everyone happier if folks just stopped talking. Or thinking too much. Or otherwise stopped believing that they were somehow superior in their “knowledge” (often of something extreme) but rather accepted that everybody around them are inherently the same as themselves, deserving of the same respect they themselves desire. But of course I’m describing a healthy ego...
Anyway, the irony here for me is that Russians and Ukrainians have had much longer practice at social cohesion and working together to survive mutual challenges. And they also have practice at filtering state propaganda to know BS when they see it. And yet...
My point is that the war in Ukraine mirrors the cultural war we have here in America. The same statement I made about the European war is applicable here, literally word-for-word for Jan 6 Capitol riot, Covid vaccine deniers, electric vs ICE cars... just about anything the human mind can wrap their egos around and consider themselves superior to others based on a simple idea. And this both puzzles and frustrates me to no end.
There will always be groups of lost souls that spin off into delusion which threaten the peace or otherwise challenge the idea of harmony or unity in the face of real challenges. And frankly these people are often the intelligent ones who pride themselves on their intellect so much that an argument filled with unverifiable “information” from secret “sources” and technical arguments that makes the mind do summersaults or otherwise act like mental fidget-widgets for one’s inherent anxieties to latch onto becomes ever more seductive. Recognize first that these folks pride themselves on being the select few who actually know some hidden truth, like club members of a special ring. Then find out how to reach these people to show them their ring originally came in a box of crackerjack. Because if the rational ones cannot reach the divisive ones who express both fear and superiority, I fear eventually the shooting starts.
And lighting the fuse of the powder-keg will always be a power-monger like Putin or Trump.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi