The first thing we do about the Russian invasion of Ukraine is let Russians know that what they are doing is not normal, and that they are not part of the world community. This is not a misunderstanding. This is not a crisis. This is not an area of tension. This is a freely-made decision by a heavily armed country to invade a smaller and weaker neighbor over justifications that are too slim to even describe. To engage in "dialogue" is to give credence to series of mealy-mouthed lies. If you let someone lie without challenging them, you lie yourself, as well.
Please forgive me. I have been trying to think of a word all day. I thought of it for hours yesterday, and today I can't remember it. I have been sifting through words hoping to find it. It is a synonym for "sanctimonious", "priggish", "condescending", "prissy"--basically the attitude of acting superior over minor faults. Please let me know if you can think of this word, to be honest, I feel I am in some type of Berenstain Bears situation where I accidentally slipped into a universe where this common word doesn't exist. So lets use the word "sanctimonious" for now. Over the past few days, while Russia has decided to revert to 19th century imperial politics, they have also been sanctimonious prigs about the world's response to them. Most of the nations of Central Europe have cut off their airspace to Russia, which Russia responded to with an indignant declaration that that is a violation of "international norms and laws". No shit, Sherlock. Do you know what else is a violation of international norms and laws? Bombing and invading a neighboring country just because.
There is an ontological blackhole to be entered into, whether Russians are lying and know it, or whether they believe what they say. It is probably a bad idea to try to get into the mind of a pack of sociopaths, but I think that they do believe it, on some level. Here is the problem: Russia has spent the past few hundred years imitating and aping the institutions of the civilized world, but has absolutely no idea what that means. But basically, Russians believe that because on the outside, they have some of the trappings of a civilized country, that they have universities, hospitals, and airports, that they are a civilized country. They even have something that looks like press/media. They are little kids playing dress-up.
So the first thing we need to do is let Russians know that no, this is not normal. That they are not just a bunch of swell guys and gals who are in a misunderstanding. We need to let Russians know that they are pariahs, that no one takes them seriously, that they are not part of the world community. We need to do that economically, and we need to do that culturally. We need to let them know you don't invade a neighboring country and then get to whine about being removed from a football tournament. The doubt and suspicion that people have about Russia, as a tourist destination, as a place to invest, and as a place that produces trustworthy scientific research, will probably last for a generation, and it probably should. When a society practices radical dishonesty, it makes sense to treat that society's core values as very suspect.
Does that sound harsh? Is this at odds with our 21st century global village where we zoom around the world and where accidents of history and culture are transcended? And it is just not nice? Well, sad news, that 21st century global village was already killed, and lots of not nice things are already going on. The thing to do is to realize that the basic order of international behavior is over, and that we have to act like it does. Yes, it is unfortunate that "innocent" Russians won't get their video games or badminton tournaments or bank payments, but we are in a position where many people have needlessly lost their lives, and with a country where the infrastructure and psyches of people will both be scarred for a generation.
The word I was looking for is snippy!
Snippy!
Snippy!
The world has started to reform, now that I know this one simple word.