West vs East?

No. The current state of the world’s politics is not about East vs West, North vs South, or any other direction. The state of the world has more to do with peace vs safety. Also, poverty vs wealth. Always has been, really. Check your history books.

We tend to look back on history through a distorted lens. Human nature drives people to be ‘correct’ even when they are not. Hitler blamed the world’s condition on two things: antisemitism and a bad treaty ending the first World War. He puffed up hatred among his people so he could go to war. And the hideous happened. In so many ways bad things happened.

The rest of the world felt good about the outcome of World War II. We pumped ourselves up thinking we were on the right side of history. In many ways we were on the right side of history. But not in all things. There are always the details to get right, and in victory of an awful period of war, destruction and millions of deaths, we were all ready to forget the details.

To our credit, the West rebuilt Europe and Japan and returned freedom to those peoples. The seeds of the future, however, were elsewhere. Power, wealth and hegemony created distrust, fear and resentment.

Today, Russia feels isolated from the world community. Yes, they created most of that isolation, and history shows the global community labored to include Russia, China and other powers. Their sense of powerlessness, however, remained. The resentments have built. Distrust reigns.

Russia fears NATO. NATO fears Russia’s aims. This is not about East vs West. This is about fear, isolation and powerlessness.

Surely in this modern age of a shrinking world and gargantuan technological reach, we can solve this standoff.

This argument is different from North Korea’s megalomania. North Korea is like immature child demanding what everyone else has regardless of its own neglect. Russia and China, however, are another matter entirely. At the base remains the core problem of fear and powerlessness. Pride alone drives their objectives.

Perhaps the world community can help them? And avoid the violence of war?

We have the tools. We have the will. We have the wealth to share. For all of our sakes, do something!

May 19, 2022

 

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