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I show the flags of both Ukraine and Russia. Why I appear to support Ukraine should be obvious, though I’ll come back to that below. Why I also appear to support Russia is, at the moment, worthy of comment so I must make it clear right away that those I am supporting are the Ordinary Russian People, not the present Russian Government. I have met quite a few Russians over the years and have found most of them to be decent people, that “most” being roughly in the same proportion as (if not higher than) with the peoples I have met from other countries. [I view it as a basic truism that, in general terms (after allowing for their stage of social development), people are the same all around the world, with every country having roughly the same proportions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people.] Russia is by far the largest country in the world. Most of those Russians I have met have been either from the European side or from Central Asia. I recognised almost all of them, even those from Central Asia, as ‘European’ in nature. I fear that Russia could be entering yet another spell of having to live under a truly vile government and I really am worried for the many millions of decent Russians who may be going to suffer ever more because Putin has damaged their country so much. Most of the inevitable consequences of the invasion of Ukraine, and the consequent isolation of Russia, have yet to be seen. Russia has not yet entered a phase of full ‘Re-Stalinisation’ but I fear that it may happen quite soon.
Who is ‘to blame’ for the present war in Ukraine? Of course the main culprit is a certain Vladimir Putin. There is no question of that. However, I also blame those Westerners who led NATO to expand so quickly as to make it inevitable that someone like Putin, who had grown-up under the Cold War, would view NATO’s rapid spread across Easter Europe as aggressive expansionism. Unfortunately, there were so many Western politicians who were keen to make a name for themselves that they pressed for NATO to expand too quickly, apparently not caring that Russia would be bound to react against that. [The USA-Ukraine Charter in November 2021 was probably the tipping-point.] Having bothered to learn something about the history of Crimea, I was not surprised when Russia grabbed-back Crimea. Invading the body of Ukraine itself was something different, though the (very complicated) history of Ukraine is worthy of study as Ukraine does play a special role in the history & mythology of Russia. However, except for those who live as though the Cold War is still going on (which includes not only Putin but also some in the The West of his generation), most of the Civilised World has moved on from those times when it was viewed as acceptable that macho politicians would push their countries to adopt a macho approach to World Politics. [I’ll come back to this point in due course within Indulgences.] Much of the world is now ready for Civilisation. Sadly, there is going to be at least one more generation (perhaps many more) before the world as a whole is ready for that.
So what about Ukraine? Poor people. They are going through hell. My thoughts are with them. They deserve our support. I do believe that it is time that, at least in the wealthy countries where most (albeit not all) people are assured of basic survival, politicians should accept that most ordinary people want to move beyond the primitive ‘all about survival’ approach in which societies have for so long been driven, and move towards a state in which all people should be treated with respect and supported to live ‘a decent life’, where national boundaries are accepted as arbitrary divisions between similar peoples. Within Indulgences I will, in due course, develop that theme and comment on things like Maslow’s Hierearchy of Needs which reported on how we humans, once we can look beyond mere survival, want better things in life. For the moment, I just wanted to record my support for the Peoples of Ukraine and my hope that they, and also the ordinary people of Russia, may soon look back at this time as a low point from which they have quickly advanced into happier times.