{"id":211660,"date":"2022-05-16T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=211660"},"modified":"2022-05-17T03:17:19","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T02:17:19","slug":"political-maturity-and-rational-empathy-for-the-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/05\/political-maturity-and-rational-empathy-for-the-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Maturity and Rational Empathy for the Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thought Experiment<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the breakup of the USSR, even though Putin felt it\u00a0\u201cwas the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,\u201d<\/a> he requested that Russia join NATO and the European Union, following proposals made by Gorbachev and Yeltsin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, Russia officially signed up to the NATO Partnership for Peace, a program aimed at building trust between NATO and other European and former Soviet countries. President Bill Clinton\u00a0described it in January 1994<\/a>\u00a0as a \u2018track that will lead to NATO membership.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Reaching out after a humiliating defeat in hopes for peace, Putin was rebuffed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Note: For a brief moment after the Cold War, we had a \u201cPeace Dividend,\u201d naively believing that the hundreds of billions spent on the nuclear arms race with the \u201cEvil Empire\u201d could now benefit society. About 5 minutes later the fledgling Peace Dividend was replaced with the \u201cRogue State Doctrine\u201d and new, repurposed fear-mongering campaigns in search of the \u201cenemy du jour.\u201d In psychology, we call that \u201csymptom substitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over decades, initiatives were rejected, including on December, 2021<\/a>when Russia requested security commitments in exchange for pulling troops from the Ukraine border, and on March 17, 2022<\/a>, when Putin called Turkish President Erdogan with proposals for a peace deal.<\/p>\n

Few imagine the hopelessness and exasperation that contribute to Putin\u2019s decisions.<\/p>\n

Who might Putin be today had a partnership with the West been fostered? Would he still be the implacably evil new Hitler?<\/p>\n

\u201cAny analysis that confines itself to Russia\u2019s actions alone, or that looks no further than the inside of Putin\u2019s head, is at best a one-sided delusion, and at worst willfully distorts the facts.\u201d Tony Wood, \u00a0<\/strong>MATRIX OF WAR<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNever fight evil as if it were something that arises totally outside of yourself.\u201d \u00a0—\u00a0St Augustine<\/p>\n

See:<\/p>\n