Prison of self

Even with doomsday scenarios unfolding, we should note that self-imprisonment is also hard to bear. For instance, one of Putin’s excuses for war was “de-Nazification”? What’s that? we had to google it. We thought it had been put to rest as an WWII ember. Yet it is making a comeback, even here in the US – Charlottesville. Like bell-bottom pants. Like that NYC black-out (in 7/77, per New York Post “even looters were being mugged”).

Putin is in prison of his own making. He thought by turning the clock back, he could return Russia to greatness. To the contrary, he instead paints himself into a corner: his judo title is being stripped off (honoring champion etc…), his amassed 10 Billion-USD account blocked i.e. no more horseback riding and bare-chested tanning. Just a self-subjugation after years of training in intense psychological manipulation ( e.g. lie detector in his KGB days!?!).

Instead, he might end up penning “papers from prison” in the Hill Country, Texas where he’ll join the old Nazi inmates – people he seeks to “de-Nazify” (bend over, newbie, says the warden, “in here yours is ours, Tsar or Messianic complex).

Couldn’t wait, he hurried to check himself into the prison of his Cold-War mindset, like a two-prong plug in a three-prong society, to steal an Andy Rooney’s expression.

At the start of START (the treaty), we all thought we could put behind nuclear arms. Today, it’s Germany who re-arms itself with an increased budget to 2% of its GDP.

As if we already forgot Dachau e.g. fenced-in, fighting for foods (scarcity) and getting tattooed – waiting for the liberating army? “Nous irons, au coeur du monde”…le jour le plus long.

It will be a long day for 3 million+ refugees, waiting to be fed, bathed, clothed (even in Moldova of all places).

There is the cold, the covid and the cover (nuclear bomb shelters).

World Wide War, with influencers like Sean Pence and Gomez (on instagram and tiktok per NYT’s Friedman – “We have never been here before”).

No precedence. The “Evil” Empire strikes back. Star Wars shield. “Tear down that wall!” Instead of drones in the air, it’s tanks on the streets. Black-out in the streets, but not on our screens (unlike the first Iraqi war, which CNN Peter Annett got an exclusive in the cover of night). This week, we watch the live press briefing by Biden, by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister – in long sleeves…we know play-by-play e.g. Russian tanks and Ukrainian resistance (a bare-hand man trying to stop a convoy of tanks, brings to mind the image of Tiananmen Square).

We know too much, acting too little and too late.

We’re immobilised by our own inertia. The black-out of the soul. Free soul. Who are you? ask Bonhoeffer. Are you free? ask Icarus before: Burn, baby burn!. Only when the self gets out of the way, gets burned up (by the Sun toward which we set our flight co-ordinance), that the soul gets blessed. Freed up to choose. Fresh choices. Clean slate.

To seize the moment in history, to own our new narrative (without the burden of ill-blessings from past parenting). Putin chose his KGB-like and soldier-like. We’ve yet figured out our choices and options. Wait, we deserve informed judgement, more information (dis-information), one more newscast, one more war, one more meeting before raising rates, raising kids or raising Hell.

Well, don’t wait. At the start of START (nuclear treaty), we all thought the same. That nuclear option would bring us to the brink of destruction (MAD). Well, the weed is growing back…like Jason of Friday the 13th, the sequence. Are you talking to me? (Taxi driver 2.0). Everything that is happening, happened before. It’s called a Deja Vu. It’s called a replication and repeat of history: our collective DNA, of collective amnesia, of collective self-imprisonment and sabotage.

Play your part Papillon! Play your part of French resistance (put on your beret). Back then, we’ve got intellectuals (Churchill and Bonhoeffer) to lead with courage and charisma. Lately, it’s Reagan and Zelensky. On selfie (never happened before until World Wide War).

Just make sure, when it’s black-out, history does not repeat itself i.e. the black-out are safe …well even for looters.