Dec. 1—It was only two weeks ago when President Biden finally refused to take the final leap with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s nuclear gamble. Zelenskyy had sworn with absolute certainty that Russia had fired missiles at NATO member Poland. The West had not let the facts get in the way of previous outrageous provocations, but this was NATO vs. Russia in direct military confrontation, two bodies with large nuclear weapon arsenals. But Zelenskyy’s bluff was called, he was exposed, and the West had the opportunity to take a clear look at what their little Frankenstein’s monster had become.
Now, the Lilliputian leaders of the West have flinched, and Kiev has plunged ahead in a wild and desperate, flight-forward mode. Zelenskyy’s National Security and Defense Council Secretaryhead Oleksiy Danilov let loose before the Kiev Security Forum, including a gathering of leaders from the Atlantic Council, NATO and the notorious Victoria Nuland: The Russian Federation “simply must be destroyed so that they cease to exist as a country within the limits in which they exist…. They are just barbarians. And when you say that we should sit down at the table with these barbarians and talk about something, I generally think that it will be inappropriate…. I consider Hitler and Putin to be Siamese twins … they are similar people…. We are different, we have nothing to do with you. You are Muscovy, you are thieves who constantly stole someone’s history. You constantly demand something, but you are not at all worthy of anyone in the world communicating with you.”
And Western governments redouble their vows, “Kiev über alles! Victory at all costs!” But this time, being fooled twice brings both shame and nuclear holocaust.
And parents wonder what they did wrong when their kid acts out some psychotic fantasy and turns into a mass-murderer.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, both the Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Deputy Minister Sergei Ryabkov, took pains over the last 48 hours to call out the fantasy-ridden illusions of Western leaders, who view warfare as a new video game. China’s semi-official Global Times celebrates the Tiangong space station, but then asks what is going on, when the U.S. wants to militarily dominate space—but fails to do the work to actually be in space. Is the U.S. going to want to use China’s space station to dominate China?
Curiously, Russia’s rebranding McDonald’s restaurants may provide a clue. They have launched a new “Happy Meal” for kids, where they’ve thrown out the little plastic toys, usually connected with some fantasy figure, and made the surprise gift for children a book of puzzles, designed to expand their attention-span and help a child form an identity that includes problem-solving, joy and self-worth. (Disclaimer: We invented that first.)
Perhaps acts of deliberate grace this December, such as singing the canon “Dona Nobis Pacem,” at home and in public, will outflank decades of rat-maze training, trigger curiosity in some as to whether someone actually thought them worthy of a beautiful act, and even trigger tears of joy in others. What else might cause people to discover they’ve been wildly wrong as to what they come to think about their own selves?
