Conversation
Notices
-
Embed this notice
Given the developments in my country I feel pretty isolated in my opinions. (As in many parts of the social web.) Still people think that duck and cover will get them through the next 24 months, that there won't be a massive land warfare over Europe, that "we" can get around hefty and speedy armament and preparations for the war that comes (while at the same time correcting the follies of the energy transition that puts pressure on our industries). Still people think that offering Putin some land that isn't theirs will make the threat go away. This will be a major European war and its incomprehensiveness is only in part explained by our perplexity that this time it's somebody else who simply decided to kick a whole continent into the abyss. That is, our helplessness results only in part from our incomprehension how somebody else whom we cannot control could act that way. That we're on the receiving end. But instead of facing this predicament we still think that looking away will make the threat go away, that closing our eyes will make us invisible. This war will not go away. And we're not prepared for it. Worse: We don't want to prepare. I don't just feel helpless because of the actions of a Capo di tutti i capi of a mafia organisation that poses as a nation state. I feel helpless because the citizens of my country like to fight and argue over irrelevant stuff, politicians don't order the weapons industry to produce in overdrive, heads of the armed forces don't insist on urgent recruitment and training, and obviously, politicians confine themselves to token politics instead of supporting Ukraine with all they've got. Again, like in the early days of the war in February 2022, I feel how the graves open up again and the memories of the trenches of Verdun, of the encirclement battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Berlin return like lilac scent in a summer’s garden. We're already beyond those last glorious and joyous flares of a bright future (which in fact have only been the first muzzle flashs of the approaching canons and rockets). We don't seem to see that combat already reached our streets. Or we misinterpret the combat that we see. Because we don't look. Because we don't grieve.
#talkingtomyselflettingyoulisten