This past week, we finally got around to watching “Don’t Look Up,” which everyone else saw two months ago. This is not a movie review, so I won’t go into what I loved about it – but I do think that it’s interesting to note the difference in reception between professional critics and the general public: the general public liked it a lot more than did those in the media, and apparently scientists liked it a LOT. I think the media didn’t like it because at the end, they don’t make it onto the plane with the other “important” people – but that is neither here nor there.
It is, however, interesting to think about in terms of where we are with war in the Ukraine. Who is being lifted up by the media, who is being portrayed as crazy, and who gets left out of the discussion. Many other people have pointed out the racism inherent in war correspondents’ comments about “war between civilized people!” and “people who look like us! blond hair, blue eyes …” Those comments make you think about all the wars in the Middle East that haven’t been adequately covered – and why is that? What happened in Yemen wasn’t important because a) it was our “ally” Saudi Arabia doing the bombing, and b) the Yemeni’s didn’t look European enough? What is that about?
Look, I don’t know the truth of any of this. I’m pretty sure the truth isn’t all good vs. evil, isn’t good vs. bad, but somewhere in the middle. I’m willing to believe Putin is losing his mind: I think his corruption is coming home to roost (because I think it was always about the corruption and power, and very little else). But I also think we’re getting shown exactly the narrative that plays into why THIS war is good, why it is important we care about this war above all others (and yes, there is a racist narrative that plays into this).
They have to do something to sell this war to Americans, who are infinitely war-weary after all the time Americans spent in occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 20 years.
The questions are: who is making money off of this? what is this a distraction from?
And the answers are a) the usual suspects, who made money off of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and were disappointed in the withdrawal and b) climate change, and the failure of the pandemic response.
Because it is becoming clear that we have moved into a phase of the pandemic where we just accept thousands of deaths a day as normal.
War is bad. There aren’t good guys in war. Some people will be deeply heroic, others will be deeply inhuman. Those people will be on both sides. The people who live through it will have scars for life.
Putin may be the worst of the worst: he may launch nukes at us, or he may be taken out by an assassin (or have a “heart attack” at his dascha – or he may negotiate his way out of this and live to be in power a few more years. I don’t know. I do know that he isn’t the all-powerful leader who sees everything clearly and plans and plots twenty steps ahead of everyone else: that’s just his propaganda. He’s a deeply corrupt leader who is coming to the end of his days in power (I think – I could be wrong) and is reacting in ways the evoke panic rather than calculation. This is not a man on the upswing, but a man trying to hold on.
In some ways, it’s all very stupid. And people will get killed over stupidity, as they always do.
And most of us will get left behind as the elites leave us to deal with the consequences of their actions, whether they take to underground bunkers or rockets to space. They think there are no consequences for their actions: it’s all just fun and games and who gets the most toys. They will be shocked when their underground bunkers don’t save them, and also shocked when space isn’t the answer either.
I don’t know anything. I just distrust neat narratives.
Competitive Malaise 