This war is not just about Russia and the Ukraine. It is linked to all our fates.
I tend to believe the best chance to end this war is for the Russian people to see the truth behind it. If enough truth breaks through the censorship the pressure will grow for Putin to agree to a cease fire. When the three cosmonauts on the ISS show up with Ukraine colors, there is hope.
But this war is a symptom of a world out of control, where wealth continues to concentrate at the hands of a new uber class of global oligarchs… as it did in Russia. Putin is the tip of this iceberg.
In the last decades, our laws here in the US have not been shaped by the will of the people. They have been shaped by the will of corporations. There is far too much money bribing our political system. As a result the private power of super wealth individuals merges with the public in ways similar to what is happening in Russia.
Jimmy Carter was right to call the US an oligarchy a decade ago. It’s clear for all to see.
In the US, during a pandemic the wealthy used the opportunity to keep hoarding as the rest suffer. Inflation starts to rise, and people blame everyone and everybody except where much of the money is going, to corporations making record profits. Meanwhile, so many are burden with debilitating debt. So many are seeing their children do worse than they did.
Like in Russia, the only real hope of positive change is to see this truth that plagues us… that America is no longer responsive to the will of the people. Yes we have elections, but they do not result in the laws that people want or better conditions for most. They result in more hoarding, more billionaires and in turn more strife amongst us.
The malaise caused by this hoarding has led to an authoritarian impulse sweeping our nation, one that has taken control of a major party. Red states pass laws restricting the right to vote aimed at people of color, and the right to choose whom to love and who to be. Appalled, the rest fight back to protect the basic human rights of self determination, the right to vote and to control body and self. New elections on the horizon will determine if these Red State laws become national ones.
And, for now, the kings of gold are free to keep hoarding as the angry peasants fight each other in this “culture war.” That’s America in 2022.
Can we get out of this?
Yes, possibly. The war in the Ukraine has created some momentum in that direction. The alliance between Putin and American theocrats is being exposed just enough to matter. The war is exposing the dangers of right wing, racist, authoritarians across the world and it is lifting the veil just a bit here in the US.
Perhaps the GOP will come to its senses. Cultural right authoritarianism comprises about half of it. The rest that haven’t been exiled, are cowed and silenced. They will have to prioritize America over their fears and resist their political brethren authoritarians. If they do, positive things can happen.
The obscene and destructive hoarding we are seeing can be checked. New laws aimed for the betterment of all could revitalize the US. If not, and we continue down this path, it’s anyone’s guess what happens. And there are a lot of guesses out there… theocracy wins… some other sort of revolution happens… perhaps a balkanization or civil war… or perhaps techno-feudalism.
Who knows? I don’t. All I know is this path we are on is truly destructive and I truly hope this war will at least serve to wake people up here as it does in Russia.