Putin Smiling While Ukraine Burns
10" X 8", mixed media
In May of 2021, I posted a Memorial Day piece, asking the eternal question of when we
human beings would finally learn to stop making wars and killing each other. That posting
included a painting called The Exultant Spartan, showing a warrior who had spent the day
pillaging a conquered enemy city, and was triumphantly warming himself before the fire,
as he burned the city to the ground.
Nine months after I posted that piece, Vladimir Putin sent the full force of the massive
Russian army across the borders into Ukraine, intending to annex the entire country into
Russia, and make all of the Ukrainians submit to Russian rule. Eight million Ukrainians
have fled into other European countries, and millions more have been displaced from their
homes. Many thousands of men, women and children have been killed or severely
injured, and nothing remains of many cities and towns but bombed and burned out ruins.
This was all done to satisfy the bloated ego of one man.
We are now marking one full year since that invasion began. Things did not go exactly
as Putin planned. The Ukrainians have fought the Russians to a stand-still, but he
refuses to withdraw, so the daily slaughter continues without let-up. There doesn't seem
to be any end in sight. How many more months, or even years, of misery lie ahead?
And even if the Ukrainians do eventually manage to push the Russians off of their land,
there is nothing which can compensate them adequately for all of the misery, pain and
death which has been inflicted on them.
There is an old story which says that Emperor Nero played his fiddle as he was
watching Rome burn. The image that congers up, of an extreme sociopath enjoying
a conflagration of total destruction, suggested the above vision of Putin, admiring his
own reflection among the fires of Ukraine...... and smiling! The only things missing,
from the image are his devil's horns.
Many people still hold on to the mythological idea of the existence a humanoid
creature who is the personification of evil, living in some underworld kingdom, and
causing people to do evil things. But the real devils are the sociopaths among us,
who think only of themselves, and the ignorant enablers who follow their leader's
bidding. It doesn't matter whether it is a Hitler or a Mussolini or a Putin, they all
take power by pandering to, and promoting the worst instincts of the populous:
the hatreds, jealousies and fears of anyone they see as somehow different from
themselves. After gaining a base of support, the new great leader kills off anyone
who speaks out against him, and abolishes the free press, replacing all genuine
information sources with his own propaganda machine. After a few years of
indoctrination, the tribal instinct takes over, allowing the people to think of
themselves as somehow correct, if they commit evil acts for the good of their
nation.
This has all become a pattern of history which is destined to be repeated
until the end of time, unless we finally manage to properly educate every man
woman and child, replacing our mythologies and tribalism, with the guiding
truths of science and humanism. Socrates told us where we were going
wrong over two thousand years ago. He said,"There is only one good,
knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." That is a statement which we should
be repeating to ourselves on a regular basis.
Eugene P. McNerney
