Opinion/Editorial
HOLDING BACK THE NIGHT
Who would have thought, only five years ago, or so, that first a monumentally damaging pandemic would sweep back and forth across the country, like a series of masked tsunami waves…and then, as the waves receded, a nuclear superpower would go on the attack and endanger every man woman and child left as survivors from the onslaught of the virus and how everyone responded to it? The world has been a relatively stable mix of advanced, not so advanced and very poor countries. Only thirty percent of the earth’s human population has such regular and dependable amenities as a regular fresh food supply, acceptable medical facilities, dentistry, heating, air-conditioning and education for growing children.
Another amazing fact is that most of the species, the humans that make up that thirty percent, believe that just about everyone has what they have. The threat of nuclear war, and basically end of times, has been a part of the human belief system even before the Bible was laid down. Revelations is all about that. Not fun reading. But, since WWII, things have been pretty peaceful and the fears of human beings extinguishing their own kind, as well as themselves, receded into the background.
Smaller battles and wars have been fought, all over the same general reasons. Those reasons have not changed through time. Money and stuff. Cash and real estate. Bitcoins and toys. Most of all the subcategories that make up those two general areas are male related. The hunting and gathering part of human survival, deferred for whatever reasons to the male sex of the species, worked. Humans have survived and propagated beyond a level of biological success than almost anyone would ever have calculated. Only a thousand years ago the entirety of the human race can be fairly accurately predicted to have been less than the current population of the United States alone. With that success in mind, since the world population of today is around eight billion, why has humanity taken itself, once again, the very edge of the precipice?
The problems of social organization and order, going back to the time of Socrates and Plato, give some explanation. The key part of their comparative ‘argument,’ with respect to the potentially best form of government to control and provide for the success of a large population, involved a comment they both agreed upon. The best and most efficient form of governmental leadership would be a benevolent dictator. Neither brilliant man believed that one could ever be found. Vladimir Putin has proved them right, once again. People are being slaughtered once again because one man wants more. More of what? More of everything, and if he does not get this seemingly childish and almost undefinable reward then he’s quite assuredly thinking about nuclear war. In fact, he’s threatening nuclear war right now, as this article is being written.
The C.I.A., years ago, came up with sanctions that were considered draconian at the time, but begin to make a lot of sense in light of what is going on. The first part of sanctions, whether those are financial, supply or even communications is to boycott the country, in this case Russia. That has some effect, but has almost no effect compared to the next move. It is time for the second move. The United States must boycott any country that does not boycott Russia. Period. That includes China. The United States can take the opportunity to pull away from the rather slick and sick relationship it has had with this big country, if the Chinese are going to support the kind of genocide going on in the Ukraine.
This second part of the sanctions will work. Nobody is going to reach the Russian people to get information inside so they can get rid of their leader. The Russians have lost that capability. It’s very unfortunate, but the Russian people and the country of Russian must be brought to its knees and without risking all out nuclear holocaust, this is the only way. Companies in the United States would face the same treatment. Shell Oil decided a few days to continue acquiring discounted oil from the Russians. A spokesman indicated that the company would spend the profits in helping the refugees from Ukraine. That’s almost exactly like selling bombs to the Nazis during WWII and then promising to spend the profits on survivors of the shelling. There is a way. When you drive by a Shell Gas Station then keep on going. The USA has plenty of gas stations and they all survive at the good will of a pacified public.
The people of Ukraine are fighting to the death over there. It is high time that the USA steps up and takes some pain here to do what can be done. The USA is by far and away, by any measurement, the most powerful culture, country, social order, economy, and military on this planet and its high time it started acting like it has an obligation to be a steward to the rest of the world.
