Ukrainians are worked up for a good reason. Russia is in the slow -mo process of destroying them. Americans are worked up for reasons unknown. Not knowing what ails them is killing Americans.Ukraine can provide a clue if Americans can tolerate the discomfort of reality.
America was born of noble ideals in the midst of the most ignoble realities. European expansionism raged. America was the ideal location for implementing its most ambitious goals. People in less cultivated regions of the world could be subjugated. People in uncultivated places could even be used as currency for achieving the higher ideals for those who mattered back then, white men of at least some means.
Those men have ruled America ever since. They were in charge as former slaves were freed and women won the right to vote. They are stll in charge as they let big business technology rule their country while the world adopts their founding values. They are as venal as the Russia that invaded Ukraine.
Russia is an imperial Johnny come lately.. It failed in its mission to turn the world into an imperial communist empire. It missed the boat in populating the world with the oligarch tentacles of that failed attempt at empire. In the US, they gripped the White House to tie the land of the free into knots from sea to shining sea. Next on the agenda was Ukraine who gave the plan a plot twist.
Ukraine shocked the world with its temrity to resist Russian invasion of its land and its violation of Ukraine’s rights. By any logical measure, no surprise was warranted. Russia had staged a dress rehearsal in 2014. The results proved promising. Under the radar, an experienced Ukrained got ready for the next round.
A Ukrainian Army was assembled, comprised of recalled civilians recruited to defend the homeland. When Russia struck, Ukraine responded with spirited vengeance.
When commanded to surrender, Unkrainianian defefenders shouted “F- you” to the Russian invsers of Snake Island. When firing a mortar round at one of the infernal front lines against marauding Wagner mercenaries, Ukrainian defenders shout “welcome to Ukraine.” Caught on video, that quickly went viral, steam gathered around the tone set by the leader..
“I need ammo, not a ride,” Ukrainian President Zelensky famously replied when offered passage to safety ahead of the Kyiv offensive. In keeping with common practice as had been shown by the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Rusxpected to easily take the capitol once the leader was in exile. The miscalculation was based on history between Russia and Ukraine.
To Russia, fertile Ukraine had always been a hillbilly relative. In that spirit, it had harnessed Ukraine into the Soviet team behind the Iron Curtain. Ukraine had won its freedom when the Soviet Communist empire went belly up. When Russia struck again in 2021, Ukraine was loaded for bear
The US, meanwhile, had suffered its first ever coup attempt the year before the Russians invaded Ukraine. That was part of a hodge podge made up of all manner of social ills all rolled into onedemic restrictions still in place clashed with hangover malaise and exuberance at freedom again fueled by Covid relief money in pockets. The culture wars weaponized by politics had Americans loaded for bear at the merest slight. Proportionality was AWOL and the biggest loser was humor along with logic..
Big crises and little had equal capacity to trigger the gun loaded for bear. Everything was dead serious, Not a joke won a chortle when the audience was loaded for bear. Worst of all, self-importance became the law of the land. It was shown up as a sham by Ukraine’s chipper reflection of American values honored under the greatest duress.
Humor is an outlet for aggression, according to the classical shrink Sigmund Freud. Self importance comes from the narcissism of isolated self-awareness. It turned nation-wide under a blustery leader during Covid quarantines. Turned against the self, aggression was self-destructive in its humor. Sarcasm and ridicule found no friends worth having. In a society loaded for bear, was a dangerous weapon elicitng the hair trigger response of retaliation. It was a nuclear weapon too dangerous to deploy. Not so in Ukraine, long denigrated by its attacker Russia.
Ukraine had a field day mocking its aggressor as it suffered heavy civilian losses under lawless attacks by Russia. Frontline soldiers fending off primitive barbarity did so with heavy hearts. Most had lost family, wives, children. When cut off from main supply lines, they fought without food or clothes until help arrived. Yet given half a chance, they grinned and gestured as they swore that the orcs would never take their homeland.
Ukraine has gathered momentum for support with its show of courage, good nature and tenacity. It has shown the world a productive use of the nergy when a nation is loaded for bear. That is a far cry from the energy produced in a nation when its leader is loaded for bear, whether Russia now or like Ukraine’s main ally the US still haunted by a former leader who was a Putin ally.
On the global stage, national personality comes through and really matters. Ukraine has proven that by its creative use of social media to showcase its talents in contrast to Russia’s crude brutality. Try as it might with stronarm tactics and fake news propaganda, Russia can’t stop its slide into ignominy in the eyes of the world. Whatever happens in Ukraine, Russia’s reputation has been damaged for generations to come. With that wide-angle lens on reality, Ukraine offers America a once in a lifetime opportinity to heal its wounded self.
The pent up aggression that now keeps America loaded for bear can be quickly discharged by helping Ukraine and the world bring a quick end to the Russian agression in Ukraine. Arm Ukraine with all the weapons it needs and Ukraine will unload on the real bear in the global room, the Russian bear keeping all the world loaded for bear.
With the Russian bear safely back in the cage it loves to begin witth, the world can get back to its real work of bridging gaps between ideals and earthly reality. The peaceable kingdom of John Lennon’s “Imagine” may be far off but democratic principles can apply. Those center on the rule of law and call for equality and resprct fot state sovereignty The principles are enshrined in the United Nations Charter, signed by all near-200 countries of the world. Aack to having fun with humor. As a soaring eagle again instead of a grizzly bear, it will appreciat s its model the US Constitution says, the ideal is not perfection but simply a “more perfect” union..
Finally, with guns loaded for target practice instead of bear, the US can go back to having fun with humor again. As a soaring eagle instead of a grizzly bear, America will apppreciate the parallel between itself and Ukraine. It will see that the fierceness of Ukraine’s fight for freedom, justice and respect on behalf of the world is as alive today as it was when America fought for those values on its own behalf.
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