Russia

If you were writing from the future, you would know what to do.

If you are writing from the present, which is the way most of us do it, we start to see the value of critical commonsense as a thinking strategy. When you need to accomplish a goal (intelligence about Russia) you cannot rely on what we now call HC thinking, or hyper-rote thinking.

To analyze a problem and actually solve it requires a self-reflective fundamental science, what we call critical commonsense.

Let me give you an example.

There is an article about how trustworthy the CIA is now relative to 2003 when, as we look back, we see the intelligence community somewhat corrupt and misleading (the facts that got us into the "war" in Iraq). The point of the article is the the atonement after Iraq by these communities has resulted in greater transparency. And this may be true. But the real problem is: Did they get smarter?

Let's take a look.

During the time after the 911 propaganda machine was in full swing the intelligence community scared the American public into thinking Iraq was stronger (WMDs) than it was and that we needed to act. Looking back, of course, they weren't very strong. This was the gist of the deception that we are discussing when we say the CIA misled us. The theory is that the American government wanted to lead us into war.

Today everything is different. If for no other reason, it is different because of the past. American people more so today than ever in history are skeptical of our government's intentions. I would not say it has diminished reflexive patriotism (unfortunately, see Kappernick, et al), but I will say it has grown myriad and almost schizophrenia tribes like QAnon.

So what is different about the Russian invasion? Our intelligence was right this time that Russia's intention was to annex and/or punish Ukraine. That they got right. Biden released intelligence "early" as a way of sharing the information we had openly and "fairly." Some of this was atonement no doubt, especially after the propaganda machine got a hold of the Jan. 6 fracas as it was related to Trump.

So what is different? To begin, Russia is not Iraq. But more importantly, the truth is that we have heard plenty through the "media" about Russia's intentions and their build-up and the consequent attack. We have heard about what weapons have been used and who has been killed (especially we have heard about babies, but, after all, its a propaganda machine).

What we haven't heard is why.

I don't know Vladmir Putin. He has a cool first name, but I'm not that kind of historian. I do know that our demonization of Putin is very similar to our demonization of every leader we wanted to oppose. Hussein, Bin Laden, Un, Assad to name a few. You probably recognize most of them from their time period and the deluge of "information" about them in the media. Are they good people? I'm not that kind of historian. But I can tell you that I see a pattern. And you can add finally to this list: Donald Trump.

I'm not saying the pattern is wrong. That these leaders are not sociopathic as we have been led to believe. Maybe they are. Are they good leaders? Probably not.

What I will say, related to the pattern, and following my question about "why" is that there seems to be an unspoken manipulation of our feelings about an event and a lack of information about why. So, let's look at it.

Why is Russia invading Ukraine? For my part, I can say, I'm not an expert on that so from here it is going to be speculation. But like Kirk says about Spock: Your guess is better than most people's fact.

Putin is not invading Ukraine because he is an American-hating egomaniacal sociopath. He may be all those things. But he's invading Ukraine because he believes he is right and his belief is grown from experience with the failure of Western Cultures. Instead of thinking how horrible Trump, I mean Kim Jong Un, I mean Putin is, let's consider what it is about the US that has scared the Middle East and Russia (and others).

Is it our imperialism? Maybe somewhat. Is it our hubris? For sure. But clearly what scares these people is our propaganda machine and the resulting society that is, for all practical purposes, what we call the modern free society (very much opposed, as an idea, from what the Founding Fathers imagined, by the way). We know that the new version of the "free press" is nothing like the original idea of it, for example.

How can this be? Freedom is bad? That's like saying that Jesus or the Military is bad. And we know what the machine says about that. You don't have to believe that America or that our new modern concept of freedom is all bad to question it. It's okay, it is actually what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they built the idea of the US from a history of critical and philosophical reasoning. It is hard to remember, but most of them were very critical of Christianity. What? Dialectical confrontation is good for you, trust me.

When an historically culture-rich country like Russia opposes our concept of freedom from their own version of freedom (they are not communist and the structure of their government is actually very similar now to our own, albeit with the added problem of "shadow dictatorship") maybe we should listen, if only to open our minds to criticism. Look at it like this: Would you want Ukraine to join Europe in becoming Americanized (have you been to Europe? They even have big coffees now, named after us), because that is what they perceive as happening. We are the global neighbors who pay the bills but ultimately oppose their morality. Imagine a neighbor who bribes you with buying your products while destroying your lawn. Everyone depends on the US for economic growth and a middle-class life, that is the lure. It is even happening in China. But it comes with a price. That price is not just obesity and stagnation and the environment, it is critical commonsense.

So if you're wondering why Putin is fearfully leading his country, just make sure you realize that this fear is the fear of excess. It is not just excess in terms of material goods, it is excess like what Nietzsche referred to as "decadence." He was afraid of this back in the mid 19th Century. And he had reasons.

I'm not saying don't oppose war. That is probably a good idea. I'm saying that when politicians "talk" to Putin, or if you ever get the chance to talk to Putin, remember why he's doing what he's doing and separate that from his personality, and self-analyze. Because that's the beginning of commonsense.