Buy, Buy says the sign in the shop window,

why, why says the junk in the yard.

Paul McCartney

I had two revelations from my reading of A History of Western Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell this week.

The first is that at the heart of (almost?) all scientific, philosophical and religious effort is a desire that something, anything, be eternal. We want our lives to mean something even if only that they were a necessary, albeit, tiny part of something grand and purposeful.

The second is that when we ask the question why, we either ask it teleologically, seeking first cause, or we ask it mechanistically, seeking to understand the mechanics of what we observe. The first is a process of induction of universal truths from experience. The second is a process of deduction of rules from experience. Regardless of path chosen, it is impossible to know anything in an absolute way. Consequently, certainty that there is something eternal is beyond grasp.

My wife loves to ask why and then tell me she doesn’t understand when I offer an explanation. Why would anyone like Putin exist (because absolute power makes absolute assholes)? Why would he invade Ukraine (because absolute assholes are assholes)? Why do conservatives want to destroy democracy (because absolute power is worth it)? Why do white supremacists exist (because we are primally disposed to enslave the other)? Why can’t we all just get along (because humans have never just gotten along and there are always power hungry assholes)?

“I don’t understand” she continues to say to any explanation I offer. I love her for being this way. She still has faith in humanity and it doesn’t compute when humanity is not faith-worthy.

When we were young we asked about the sign in the shop window and the junk in the yard. We also asked about the Vietnam war. These days liberals like ourselves ask why as we witness the Enlightenment Liberalist world order we have been comfortably ensconced in decomposing. We are pretty sure we won’t like it if it does decompose fully, any more than Ukrainians are enjoying bombs and displacement.

The ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles believed everything was composed of earth, air, fire and water which were moved into vortices of physical manifestation by love and strife in a cyclical manner.

Love and strife have been playing themselves out in humans since the time before memory. We are lucky if our lives contain plenty of love and strife is rarely life threatening. But it’s a crap shoot. We could as easily be Ukrainian as American. We could as easily have brown skin as white skin. And we could as easily live in an authoritarian form of government as a democratic one.

The struggle between some form of Oligarchic/Authoritarian rule and Democracy has been going on in the west for most, if not all, of recorded history. A prime example is the struggle between oligarchic Troy and democratic Athens, a contest the Trojans won, marking the end of the Athenian Golden Age. It would not be until the Renaissance that anything like that golden age (The Enlightenment) appeared again in the West.

We may eventually turn Putin back in Ukraine. But will we turn back Oligarchic Authoritarianism in the US? It’s not clear and on my bad days I despair. If Authoritarianism wins, it would be in no small measure because of Vladimir Putin. Are we going to win the battle but loose the war?

The United States has been in this place multiple times in the past. The Civil War was the manifestation of one particularly harsh turn in the cycle. So far, the people have rallied to push back the slave holders, the oligarchs and the would be despots to preserve the promise, if not execute the ideal of democracy. If Greek history teaches anything though, it’s that the only thing pre-ordained are the cycles, not the winners and losers.

The past week has been horrid. I can barely watch the news it’s so upsetting.

My wife, on the other hand, is a news junkie. She keeps it running all day long. I suspect it is the ICU nurse in her. She is used to monitoring situations that could easily go sideways in minutes. She is used to knowing what to do if they do. I don’t think she would know what to do if the US, Nato and Russia started shooting at each other. Back in the day, when I was a kid, the advice was to duck and cover.

My wife is kindly wearing earphones during the day so I don’t have to overhear the news. At 4 PM, I emerge from my studio and we watch Nicole Wallace together on MSNBC. I can handle the news if Nicole delivers it and I have a martini in my hand.

I am very frightened. Some part of me believes it is quite possible I am going to die soon.

While on Block Island, during the first few days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I was taking sunrise walks along a stretch of beach that looked out over the Atlantic to the east. I couldn’t keep myself from imagining cruise missiles streaking past on their way to annihilating my country. So much for soothing ocean vibes.

The older I get, the more afraid of dying I am. I try not to be. I tell myself to live the moments as they come; enjoy them; revel in them. It is the better way to think of things, but of course, that is not easy.

Every night I watch interviews with brave, confident, terrified, and/or desperate Ukrainians. Some of them have been on TV successive nights. Each time I see them, I wonder, will I see them tomorrow? Or will the Russians have caught up with them? It is traumatizing to watch, even from such a distance, the horrors being inflicted on the Ukrainian people. More than a million refuges. Cities being reduced to rubble. How many dead?

A great part of my despair comes from not knowing how the world exits this situation without blowing itself up. The US and NATO have been clear and consistent in saying they will not put troops on the ground or planes in the air to help Ukraine. Everyone understands that direct combat with Russia is World War III and nobody imagines that would end well for either side or humanity in general.

But, if one arms one country against another; if one organizes the collapse of that other country’s economy; if one supplies intelligence, even if it stops short of targeting that other country’s assets; if one is doing everything one can to bring that other country to its knees; isn’t one at war with them?

Nightly, the punditry asks, what is the end game? Where is the off ramp? To date, none of them has been able to give me hope there is one.

I go on being afraid.

What Volodymyr Zelensky’s Courage Says About the West - The Atlantic

There can be something a little distasteful about Western onlookers (myself included) cheering on Ukrainians for a cause that our countries are not willing to join, a stance that risks raising the price of a peace that will be paid only with Ukrainian blood. Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize this, to be inspired by what Zelensky represents, and then to be shamed by his example.

Here is a nation and a leader willing to sacrifice so much for the principle of independence and the right to join the Western world. And yet, much of the West is jaded and cynical, apparently devoid of any such mission, cause, or sense of idealism anymore. What is it that the West believes in now? When you think of the great liberal heroes of our age, Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, say, they are actually deeply pragmatic conservatives, constantly hedging, calculating, and balancing interests with little grand vision or cause to pull their policies together. There is much to be said for this type of governance: As Helmut Schmidt, the former chancellor of West Germany, once quipped, “Whoever has visions should go to the doctor.” Visions led to the Iraq War, for example. Yet conservative pragmatism is also deeply limited, allowing adversaries like Vladimir Putin to take advantage, exploiting caution and shortsighted selfishness.

What Changed Germany’s Mind - The Bulwark

Putin’s blatant and unprovoked assault on Ukraine changed that calculus. Now, no one in their right mind could possibly blame Germany, so it is finally safe to act. Germany can play a key role as a supporter of Ukraine, both by sending arms to help the poor people in Kyiv and throughout the country and by rearming itself, as Scholz has promised to do, to meet the obvious threat from Russia.

Ignore Xi Jinping’s Deceptions. China Is Struggling, Therese Shaheen, National Review, December 20, 2021…

… this is a long and interesting article that makes the case that China is not as strong as one might get the impression it is through American news media… it made its case thoroughly and if that case is correct, it makes the China-US tensions seem less worrisome assuming a world where the US and Europe are united in containment efforts…