Ukrainian personal reflections – unplugged

In the 6+ weeks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have experienced a shattering of almost every belief in general human decency. I had never thought that I would experience such atrocities in my lifetime, and I do not normally hold very romantic views of general human goodness. I have worked a lifetime in business, so I know that there are quite a few out there, who are predominantly self-serving and sometimes borderline psychopaths; but I thought there were limits.

I regard the Russian people as neighbors and have worked with quite a few. I have been in Ukraine training people, and have had a bunch of them employed, some became friends. It is unbelievable that Russian soldiers can kill, rape, loot and destroy indiscriminately in Ukraine like this – all traces of humanity is lost, the human being is worse than animals.

How can we ever be neighbors again? It will take at least a generation.

I admit that I react stronger to this situation than the other similar atrocities committed recently in Mali, Syria, by Isis, in the Balkans and earlier on in Rwanda-Burundi. Part of that is of course the closeness, this is on our doorstep. We, through our friendship with the Baltic countries, could very well be next on the Russian list, it cannot be brushed aside. But the other part is the sheer magnitude and totality of the destruction, one of the world’s largest powers just flattening a neighbor in a blind rage.

It is very hard by now to avoid the conclusion that the Russians simply want to destroy Ukraine and preferably kill as many people with as much suffering as possible. What other agenda is plausible by now? This is unmasked evil, there is no political term or explanation for it.

In a way, I ought not to be so shocked. After all, the humanists lost all confidence in their case after World War II, when they saw the horrors of the Nazi regime and so did the political left-wing – at least those with their eyes open – when they learned about Stalin’s accomplishments, including starving millions of Ukrainians to death. Later on, we saw Mao in China killing millions of his own people to fulfill his grand vision. Now we have Kim Jong-un in North Korea. And of course, there is a host of lesser despots, dictators and autocrats competing for grandeur on the dark side of the force.

There is always someone with that little personality disorder of wanting power that gets into power. Power is intoxicating and creates a physical addiction. The despot in spe needs more of it, like kokain, in order to get the rush. After years of exercising and enjoying the power, the despot has had a profound personality change, and we have a Hitler or Putin that can only get the rush by destroying and killing everything around them while quoting Frank Sinatra:

“I did it my way”.

All these despots control their people by stopping free access to information. There is only one story available, the one delivered by the despot. When exposed to it sufficiently, people believe it. Any view, no matter how absurd, can be held, if a sufficiently large number of people around you repeat it. We call that an echo chamber.

How far are we from that in our government and in our organization, do we secretly hail and admire the strong man (or in our case lady)? Before the Ukrainian catastrophe, the scariest thing for me was that such a high percentage of Americans still supports Donald Trump. For an outsider, he exhibits all the traits of the other despots, he just didn’t get enough time to develop all his despotic skills and start killing people as well, only a few died during the storming of Congress on January 6. He certainly has completely cut any ties with the truth and just lies pathetically.

So what can do? For now, we need to stand by Ukraine with everything we can. Evil must be stopped. We will suffer in doing so. Our cozy society is gone. We will have to spend money on weapons; money that could have been spent on improving human lives somewhere.

At the personal level always stand up for truth, real truth not politically correct spin. Implement checks and balances that prevent amassing of power, so that no one with that little personality disorder can get in there and develop into a despot. Never use force against other individuals, honor your commitments and abolish any tendency to manage by fear.