What’s happening in Ukraine isn’t very good, at the moment, for Ukrainians or Russians people for that matter. Sure we all want peace etc. But I can’t stand the hypocrisy of our own western media. That and the way most people reacts like children who can’t think farther than their phones. Harsh words, for sure, and at my age I should calm down instead of writing a tantrum myself.

Putin did a 60 minute speech from his desk, adorned quaintly by a computer running Windows XP, and that speech that no one in the west dared watch was quite revealing. Without going into the details, the man has, from his point of view, cause to invade, but that’s not what I want to write about here.

What I find disturbing is the pattern. The Us vs Them. And how it changes colours but really, its the same deal making its way through the centuries with a hearty laugh.

During the Great Crusades, what was really going was that there were too many nobles and we needed to find something for them to do. This may have been one of the prime motivators for the crusades popularity: what better to stand out against your brothers than by being the one coming back alive and honoured?

Back then, what the normal folks were fed was religion based: These Are The Infidels Etc. The usual claptrap that’s still alive and well. This was how we set ourselves as better than them: we were from the Right religion. They were not. Therefore whatever we did was justified.

So the pattern I’m talking about is that first we need to find a stamp appealing enough that we can stamp all of ‘them’ and be thereafter convinced that we’re right simply by pointing out the stamp. They’re Infidels! They’re Blacks! They’re <insert here the prejudice du jour>.

Today with Putin the same drivel is at play. Today the way we bless ourselves as Being Right is through a political lense. We are from the West. The WEST! we clamour, as if this is self-evidently Better. We have free speech, rule of law, etc. All of these things are so deeply indoctrinated as BETTER in our western culture that they are second nature. Of course we’re better. Of course we have these.

But have we?

The peasants with their pitchforks from the middle ages who burned the witches, aren’t they the same ones who use social media to make people they disagree with lose their jobs and be socially ostracized? Is that free speech? Say something we don’t like or agree with and we’ll destroy you? Is that really free speech? I beg to differ.

And corruption is everywhere. It is less obvious in the day in the Western countries and for that we are envied by the rest of the world. But let’s not pretend our politicians aren’t corrupt as well. We’ve toppled presidents and dictators alike as long as we’d make money.

I could go on but the point is that we are not bloody virgins at the alter.

We have our faults.

We made Russia the enemy after the second world war because we were scared of their massive army. That’s NATO for you. Thereafter we kept them the enemy because we didn’t know if they’re political model would flourish and overthrow ours. I’m happy to report we have the most profitable political model, oh, well, that was until the Chinese a few decades ago. But we can’t discount them since they can’t do top level science like computer chips or basic research. The cultural revolution ensured what’s happening today: everyone is hustling for a quick buck. From the janitor to departmental chairs at top universities.

And yet the Chinese have to remain an enemy simply because we can’t both be rich, right? It doesn’t work like that. We need our bitches if we’re going to stay on top. Nothing changed much in that crude mechanics of civilizations.

We kept the Russians as enemy ever since because we need to be the ones raking in the money and that means making sure the other guys are poorer. Way poorer. And it worked fine. We did that to China and the rest of the world. Gaddafi wanted gold for oil not US dollars? Did it matter he had the most developed country in Africa? That you had free university and healthcare amongst countless things no one else almost had? Nope. Today Lybia is just another shithole. I had friends who came from Lybia and sure you couldn’t piss on Gaddafi but hey life was really good there.

You don’t have to scratch very deeply to reveal the bloody pirates and hypocrites we also are, like the rest of humanity, after all: let’s remain inclusive when it serves the truth, right?

Sure, we’re leaders. We have the best civilization.

Really? Don’t believe me? Then check out where the rest of the world wants to immigrate. Sure as hell not Russia or China, now is it? So yes, we do have the best civilization. Science started with us. The West. Because our religion made us aspire to the truth and made us feel guilty not to tell the truth. And, incidentally, that fits the requirements for scientific discovery, now doesn’t it?

And yeah, we made sure our new guns worked well by testing them on the natives across the world. We made the world our bitch. Because that’s what civilizations always do. Its the natural consequence of short lived intelligent organisms like us, humans. Maybe with cybernetics implants we’ll get through this, but I think the first thing that’ll get uploaded will be porn, so I don’t have my hopes up too much for humanity.

The ability for abstraction, complex abstraction that enables deep discussions and discoveries is severely limited at the average I.Q. and therefore until we boost everyone I don’t think we’ll evolve much past what we’ve collectively always done everywhere since the beginning of time: make everyone else our bitch.

But I digress.

NATO has been squeezing Russia more and more, creeping in one country at a time, and that’s enough. Enough is enough Putin told himself. He’s old. He’ll die. That’s the last thing he can really bring to the grave with him of consequence. He’s a big romantic. He sees Ukraine as the historical heart of Russia. And also the domino that’ll make every other domino fall. Fall the wrong way for him. For his tragic inability to let Godhood go and give way to the better system: ours.

You see, from his point of view, we’ve pushed and connived far enough. And he’s scratching a line in the frozen soil. And this is one dude you don’t want to mess with. He’s got nothing to lose in his mind. He’s all sold on he’s doing this for the glory of Russia and the Russian soul etc. He’d want to admit he’d deserve a Sainthood for this.

I hope I’m wrong, but really, if there’s anything we are not going to learn yet again from this conflict its that we have our fair share of shit we do we should be blamed for and having the political system and culture the rest of the world aspires to doesn’t give us the right to be such a bunch of hypocrites.