War has been mankind’s constant companion since the dawn of civilization. Whether motivated by self-preservation, greed, vengeance, vanity or dreams of glory and adventure, we have been killing each other in ever increasing numbers to the point where the more pessimistic observers of human behaviour seriously believe that we are heading for global self-destruction.
The latest war in Ukraine is but another in a long line of destructive, unnecessary conflicts spurred by the megalomaniacal ambitions of a delusional leader who has succeeded in brainwashing his followers into a genocidal crusade and persuaded them it is their manifest destiny to rule not only their peaceful neighbours, but ultimately the whole world.
The Russian imperialist mindset, developed and nurtured for more than five centuries by a manipulative and ruthless elite, has poisoned the Russian ethos and created a homo russianus that has made a virtue out of war, aggression, oppression, amorality, death and destruction. Like the perverse previous Nazi concept of “Der Übermensch”, the Russians have been led to believe that they are some sort of super race, endowed with a divine right to be masters of this planet.
They are the latest manifestation of a warped historical predilection by predatory nations to divide the world and mankind into “Us” and “Them”. To the Russians, Ukrainians are an inferior form of their “Us”, undeserving of having their own language, culture and nationhood. “Them” encompasses everybody else on the planet, not only all those in the rest of the free world that oppose Russia’s ambitions, but also their few equally dysfunctional allies that support Russia in its warped attempts at world domination. The Russians appear to look down upon both their perceived enemies and their erstwhile allies with equal disdain.
This perverse view of the world that divides it into Us and Them is a pernicious psychological and civilizational virus that is hard to resist. In all honesty, I must admit that I look upon the Russians as a form of “Them”. I find it hard to either understand or relate to what makes them think and behave the way they do. Despite my own conviction that I bear no innate bias or prejudice against any other nation or ethnic group, I cannot deny that the atrocities, death and destruction that the Russians are inflicting on my brothers and sisters in Ukraine has prompted a visceral dislike if not hate for Russia and what it represents.
War engenders strong emotions, particularly negative ones, and makes it extremely challenging to retain one’s empathy and love for other human beings, particularly when those human beings are bent on killing your friends and family and destroying all traces of your cultural identity and existence. War tends to strip us of our humanity and turn us into primitive animals fighting for basic survival and indulging in our most basic instincts and emotions. I do not want to hate the Russians, but they seem to collectively be doing everything in their power to engender that hate within me.
There had been high hopes amongst the peoples of the world that as the world wars of the twentieth century faded into history and the Cold War finally ended, that the dawn of the twenty first century would bring with it the start of a new era free from global wars and conflict. Those hopes proved to be short-lived.
Although many of the world’s large empires that had spawned conflicts for millennia largely disappeared, a few still remained, unrepentant and unreformed. Russia and China are two such powers that have not yet given up their dreams of building global empires by use of force if necessary. There is also the threat of fanatical Islamism which also has no qualms about imposing repressive Islamist rule by force and terror. Add to that cabal, the rogue totalitarian states such as North Korea, Iran, Syria and others that have no patience for human rights, freedom and democratic rule, and you have a recipe for continued instability in an increasingly fragile world.
The challenge for mankind if it is to survive for at least this next century, is for us to somehow discard this regressive notion of Us and Them and start to accept the fact that there is only Us. We are all Us, and all of Us are equal and deserving of our individual as well as collective identities. We all seem to have forgotten that this is the essence of almost all religious teaching – we are all Us, one family that encompasses all of mankind. Anyone that tries to tell us otherwise is nothing less than evil and should be shunned lest we lose our very human souls. It is never too late, except for maybe Putin who I am sure lost his soul a long time ago.
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