How much sense does it have to ignore objective reality and to instead embrace a subjective wishlist of concepts creating boundaries outside of which you cannot think or speak?
This for me is the self-created miasma of myopia that western political and media elites have created for themselves.
Conceiving Putin as Hitler and the Russian military as the new Nazis is all very well and effectively shores up massive support in the western world among those who retain belief in their elites despite all historical reasons not to. But what happens when objective, on the ground, reality is completely lost sight of and a massive consensus based on the desired reality rather than the actual reality permeates and dominates pervasively?
Waging any kind of war brings with it the obvious and natural use of the information weapon, the creative distortion of reality that serves to bolster support and potentially weaken enemy morale. My contention here however is that this can only be sustained while that enemy shows any sign of being beaten.
There lies the rub.
Russia is winning.
On the economic front Russia has taken each and every blow aimed at it and has survived. More than that and much to the chagrin of western leaders it has adapted its systems to ensure they are further strengthened and made impermeable to future attacks from the West. We can add many features of the new reality which demonstrate beyond any question that Russia will ultimately be greatly strengthened, not weakened by western aggression toward it.
A fundamental miscalculation has been arrived at in the West that failed to acknowledge the reaction of much of the world to its many regime change wars of recent years. Nations attempting to build their economies and the politicians charged with doing this across the global south can surely only be doubtful regarding whether such actions can bring the stability they need. Quite on the contrary such upheavals are much more likely to bring them worse conditions and all, apparently, for the sake of the self-interests of the West.
The western political elites have found much to their dismay that those they relied upon in the global south to support them and condemn Russia are not doing so. Exacerbating this factor is a further economic factor, that Russia has many of the vital resources and products they can hardly do without. This leaves the West increasingly isolated, not Russia. In fact the prestige and respect along with its power of influence is rising, not falling.
Meanwhile a mass propaganda (or if you like an information) campaign has been mounted to promote the western view, its agenda, narratives and talking points. This has sought to create a black and white scenario absent any reference to the past whereby the West and their allies/proxies are wholly right and Russia and its allies are wholly wrong.
This is where subjective wishlist fantasy conflicts with objective, on the ground, reality.
Many pejorative things, in fact a plethora of these arrows of propaganda and viewpoint manipulation are created on a daily basis about Russia and its campaign in Ukraine, all attempting to build a certain picture that it is hoped will achieve certain aims. These comprise bolstering Ukrainian morale, shoring up to the max all opinionating that casts Putin as a vengeful, out of control demon facing imminent defeat by the plucky, infinitely brave Ukrainians who are defying all odds as a David defeating an evil Goliath and creating an overall momentum that it is hoped will lead to Russia being weakened, defeated and withdrawing from Ukraine.
The wishlist, wishful-thinking fantasy had its merits and achieved an enormous groundswell of support along with an acceptance that almost unlimited funds needed at home should instead be sent to Ukraine. However, with Russia winning on all fronts this consensus is beginning to fall apart and some rowing back on the expenditure via weaponry and financial gifts to Ukraine is now in evidence.
Everyone in the West is used to the endless series of TV and movie creations where the villain always loses in the end after seemingly unstoppable progress doing his or her evil deeds. The hero always prevails against all odds to slay whatever storyline “dragon” is involved. Reality is suspended. But life is not like that. However, in certain circumstances and especially when the full might and weight of political and media volume wishes it, a similar suspension of reality can be achieved in real life as opposed to within some Hollywood fiction.
So has it been with Ukraine. And so it was with several regime change wars conducted previously, most infamously against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. The demon must be depicted as totally black. Now of course virtually no historical leader has been totally white, unimpeded by egotistic peccadillos, moral failings or dubious ethical values in thought or deed. But those who are conceived as vital subjects for elimination by western powers have universally been depicted as being as black as night (or whatever other analogy you prefer).
Putin was not supposed to survive. This was not the movie being envisaged. Russia was meant to descend screaming to a state of abject penury whereupon all those aspects of its governance would be overturned. The western “heroes” were then to march in to save the day and rescue every princess from every dragon’s clutches or fiery jaws.
The movie projector has gone rogue. What is being increasingly seen on the screen of elite western minds is not at all what they wished for and they are having huge problems in negotiating ways to deal with this fat, with the realities they are being exposed to.
What to do?
How can all those PR realities now be negated after their careful creation? How can the expectations that everything will come right at the end of the “movie” be adjusted significantly enough to allow those things which must now be done to be done? How much lying will be exposed destroying reputations across the board with the attendant humiliation this will entail?
Western political elites WILL find ways to fudge reality and avoid the maximum humiliation that should come their way. They showed this in the aftermath of many previous inadvisable adventures they involved themselves in such as that over Iraq and its non-existent WMD. But make no mistake. There WILL be a heavy price to pay over the Ukraine debacle and the reputation of the West, already hugely damaged by the reckless regime change wars of the past will, in my estimation, be dealt a terminal blow in regard to it creating a unipolar world where it is supremely dominant.
That is arguably, ultimately the greatest and most sought for reality that will be exposed as a totally unattainable fantasy and which the global south along with Russia and China will increasingly point to as the last great delusion held by an economically dying western world.
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