I am noting the overwhelming sentiment of unity being portrayed, particularly among European and mainstream American positions (along with Canada, Japan, and many other countries), against Putin’s brazen act of aggression in Ukraine:
It is as if the specter of WW2 (and possibly WW3) has awakened a massive, global immune reaction to Putin’s invasion. Suddenly, we (the people of the modern mental/rational nation-states with a concept of democracy) are all united again. It is similar to the feeling I remember being created in the media after 9/11, which “reversed into” the Iraq War. Moreover, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy and his team are setting a good example for the rest of us of how integral leaders might behave when at their best, and the suffering of the people fleeing their homes, hiding out in subway shelters, lining up at border crossings, is there for all the world to see.
Satellites in low orbit tracking convoys and troop movements. Google maps showing destroyed bridges, smoking ruins of civilian infrastructure which cost countless human hours and precious natural resources to build. Everything Russian is now cancelled. Business, sports, travel, diplomacy—switched off like that. The ruble plummeting in value, runs on banks, protest and repression, chaos and confusion. The Russian people dragged into ruin again by a psychopathic czar.
Where are we going with all this? I am a recalling a discussion some members of this forum had with Davor Löffler, which introduced me to the theory of Maximal Stress Cooperation, of which we we seem to be living through a perfect example. I have long felt that digital media in general is a militarized zone—how does this effect how we communicate, who we seem to be, and how we make ourselves known to each other in a time of war?