04-03-2022, 12:55 PM
The Russo-Ukrainian War looks more like the consequences of the personality of Vladimir Putin than anything else. The West has had elderly leaders of democratic countries (Churchill during the Second World War... and even more so in 1955), Reagan, Berlusconi, Trump, and now Biden). The democratic system ensures that no man can rule alone and that a loyal opposition is necessary for keeping things honest. Berlusconi and Trump both had despotic tendencies, and those tendencies imploded. As Alzheimer's gutted Ronald Reagan, some competent people like George Shulz and Casper Weinberger did the real work and relegated Reagan to a ceremonial role. Trump's problems are those of an extreme narcissist meeting the Dunning-Kruger effect; he was too intellectually-shallow to realize how incompetent he was.
One warning about Putin is Nicolae Ceausescu, who wielded dictatorial power over more than twenty years and became increasingly erratic. Putin is now at roughly the same age as Ceausescu was when he was overthrown and killed. Both Ceausescu and Putin brutally suppressed politics not theirs and ended up doing egregious misconduct which the rest of the world condemned. Putin fantasizes himself as a chess player, but know well: in those games that end in stalemate half of all chess players lose.
Putin has no graceful exit.
One warning about Putin is Nicolae Ceausescu, who wielded dictatorial power over more than twenty years and became increasingly erratic. Putin is now at roughly the same age as Ceausescu was when he was overthrown and killed. Both Ceausescu and Putin brutally suppressed politics not theirs and ended up doing egregious misconduct which the rest of the world condemned. Putin fantasizes himself as a chess player, but know well: in those games that end in stalemate half of all chess players lose.
Putin has no graceful exit.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
