Tuesday, March 1
Forgiveness Isn't Always Required
Since the first empirically based study on person-to-person forgiveness was published in the social sciences (Enright et al., 1989), thousands of articles have been published on the topic.
Because the psychological exploration of forgiveness is still relatively new, there has been disagreement and debate on what, exactly, forgiveness is and whether it is an appropriate response in the mental health professions for people hurt by the injustices of others.
In the spirit of this continuing debate, I would like to offer my response to a recent post, “Why Forgiveness Is Not Required in Trauma Recovery.”
My intent is: If people who are traumatized or who are therapists read the essay, they may be discouraged from trying forgiveness. This would be most unfortunate if they rejected it because of incorrect information.
To help therapists and clients make as informed a decision as possible, I want to counter what appears to be misunderstandings about what forgiveness actually is and what encompasses forgiveness therapy.
Five points for your consideration
1. The author stated: “Forgiveness diminishes harms and wrongs, which can inhibit safety.” This is not correct. When people begin to truly forgive, they realize that what happened to them was unfair, is unfair, and always will be unfair.
To forgive is not to excuse the wrong, but to stand firm in the truth that this was an injustice (Enright & Fitzgibbons, 2015). Thus, the one considering forgiveness has a rational understanding that the one who did the harm could do so again.
2. As a moral virtue, forgiveness never ever should be forced onto anyone. On this point, I agree with the author. Instead, people should be drawn to forgiveness by their own free will. That is the case for all moral virtues. For example, in the case of altruism, we do not put pressure on people to be altruistic, hovering over them and insisting that they must give money to the poor.
The criticism by the author on this point needs to center, not on forgiveness, but instead on the person who pressures the unjustly injured person to forgive. The wrong here is within the person who is putting on the pressure, not on forgiveness itself.
As my colleague, Chontay Glenn, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Michigan-Flint, who suffered the trauma of sexual abuse, has said to me: “No one can be forced into forgiveness anyway because it is an internal response to an injustice....it is the healing of one’s own soul against an injustice.” READ MORE...
Ways to be Happy
There are days when the world can feel extremely chaotic and overwhelming in complexity—whether it’s politics, the economy, global issues, or just the stress you face at work or at home. Through it all, happiness is a key priority. People want joy, contentment, and satisfaction in their work and life. While happiness may seem fleeting, there are paths you can take (some that may see strike you as surprising) to find happiness.
In my research on happiness, there are some significant sources that matter most. Feeling a sense of purpose in your contribution; sustaining meaningful connections with others; having opportunities to stretch, learn, and grow; and gratitude are all correlated with happiness.
But there are also some certain pathways to feeling happy which may surprise you.
DON’T CHASE IT
The happiness paradox suggests if you seek to be happy, you’ll be less likely to accomplish it. Instead, you should seek to create the conditions associated with happiness, rather than pursuing happiness for its own sake.
This is true because chasing happiness reminds you of what you don’t have (since you are pursuing it, after all) and it focuses you on your own needs, rather than those of others—and the opposite is linked with happiness. You’re more likely to experience happiness when you’re contributing to the needs of others, rather than yourself.
The happiness paradox suggests if you seek to be happy, you’ll be less likely to accomplish it. Instead, you should seek to create the conditions associated with happiness, rather than pursuing happiness for its own sake.
This is true because chasing happiness reminds you of what you don’t have (since you are pursuing it, after all) and it focuses you on your own needs, rather than those of others—and the opposite is linked with happiness. You’re more likely to experience happiness when you’re contributing to the needs of others, rather than yourself.
SPEND TIME WISELY
If you want to be happy, you’ll also do well to spend your time on activities which are both relaxing and rejuvenating. Research at the University of Nottingham found when you spend time on a hobby you enjoy or whiling away the hours playing games, these are correlated with happiness. Taking naps is also a great way to boost your happiness.
And interestingly, research at the University of Colorado found if you set your alarm to wake up an hour earlier each day (assuming you’re getting enough sleep overall), this is also correlated with happiness—likely because you have more control over your time and because you can fill your day with more of what you love to do. READ MORE...
If you want to be happy, you’ll also do well to spend your time on activities which are both relaxing and rejuvenating. Research at the University of Nottingham found when you spend time on a hobby you enjoy or whiling away the hours playing games, these are correlated with happiness. Taking naps is also a great way to boost your happiness.
And interestingly, research at the University of Colorado found if you set your alarm to wake up an hour earlier each day (assuming you’re getting enough sleep overall), this is also correlated with happiness—likely because you have more control over your time and because you can fill your day with more of what you love to do. READ MORE...
Stress Changes Brain
For the first time, researchers looked at the entire duration of such a situation. They found not only changes in the communication of brain regions, but also a dynamic process: Different networks behaved differently during acute stress.
From this, the scientists were able to determine how susceptible a person is to negative mood and how much this increased their risk of mental illness.
Until now, experts knew little about the dynamic processes in the brain during acute stress. Research has usually focused on the brain areas that are active at a given time. Now, however, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPI) and the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Tübingen University Hospital have observed what happens in the brain over the entire period of a stressful situation, such as while solving a tricky math problem.
“Our study shows not only where changes occur, but how different brain regions interact and how their communication changes over the course of the situation,” summarizes first author Anne Kühnel from the MPI.
The results of the study were recently published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
The participants were asked to solve math problems under time pressure while inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. No matter how well they did, they only received negative feedback—a stressful situation. The dynamic response of the brain’s networks differed in the study participants.
The scientists were able to relate the responses to how anxious or depressed the participants were. It is known that the more negative a person’s basic temperament is, the higher their risk of mental illness.
“The altered communication between brain regions supports the theory that mental disorders are network diseases in which the interaction of neural units is disturbed,” says MPI Director Elisabeth Binder and continues, “The new findings are important for developing more individualized diagnoses and personalized therapies.” READ MORE...
Monday, February 28
Sending Money to Ukraine
Bethenny Frankel is sending $10 million in aid to Ukrainian citizens affected by the Russian invasion through her disaster relief initiative, B Strong.
BStrong is a worldwide initiative in partnership with Global Empowerment Mission. Over the past couple days, the “Real Housewives of New York City” alum has been sharing updates on her nonprofit’s urgency to help Ukrainian citizens flee to safety as the crisis escalates.
On Friday night, the Skinnygirl entrepreneur took to Instagram to share that BStrong has focused its efforts on helping Ukrainian women and children who fled to the border of Poland.
“So we’re really dealing with women and children at the border in Poland. We just had an incident with a woman whose husband was pulled out of the car. He was taken because he’s Ukrainian, and the men can’t leave,” Frankel said in a video shared to her Instagram Story.
“He’s never held a gun in his life, and now he’s a soldier, so she’s coming through with her family, and we have to get her family to Spain, where she has family because she doesn’t have family in Poland,” she continued.
Frankel first announced BStrong’s assistance on Thursday. The initial commitment was to send 100,000 hygiene and survival kits, sleeping bags and aid totaling $10 million. In addition, financial donations are also going to “individual cases and families through cash, cards and plane tickets.”
Frankel said the BStrong team will be on hand at a welcome booth at an entry center in Medyka, Poland, Saturday.
“Money is flying in and this is what it’s going to be used for. We’re working with the Polish government,” Frankel said. “We will have multiple computers and volunteers. People coming in will come up to us, we’ll find out if they have family, where their family is. Hotels will not be available, so we’ll give them the crisis kits, and then we will be booking them travel to get them where they need to get to. Otherwise, there will be such a backlog at these entry points, and we’ll keep growing this to multiple, multiple entry points.”
As of Friday afternoon, Frankel said donations were coming in every three seconds, and the organization has upped its goal. READ MORE...
Closing Air Space to Russian Airplanes
Feb 27 (Reuters) - Sweden, Finland and Denmark said they were preparing to close their airspace to Russian planes on Sunday, joining a string of European countries taking this measure after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The moves follow similar closures of airspace of Britain, Poland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Romania to Russia's aircraft. Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are also closing their airspace to Russian airliners, while Germany said it was preparing to do so.
Iceland has also decided to shut its airspace to Russian air traffic, Icelandic Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Gylfadottir tweeted on Sunday.
"It is now absolutely necessary to proceed with further touch measures to isolate Russia," Swedish EU Minister Hans Dahlgren told public service radio SR.
A European Union-wide ban for Russian flights could be part of a fresh package of sanctions on Moscow to be discussed later on Sunday by the bloc's foreign ministers, an EU official said separately.
Dahlgren said such a ban would be the most efficient way to pressure Moscow.
Denmark would also support a cross-EU ban to Russian aircraft, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in a tweet.
Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka said in a tweet late on Saturday that Finland, which shares a long land border with Russia, was preparing a similar closure.
Russia's likely countermeasure will heavily hurt Finland's state carrier Finnair . READ MORE...
Nuclear Forces on High Alert
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a dramatic escalation of East-West tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces put on high alert Sunday in response to what he called “aggressive statements” by leading NATO powers.
The order means Putin wants Russia’s nuclear weapons prepared for increased readiness to launch and raises the threat that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the West’s response to it could boil over into nuclear warfare.
Amid the worrying development, the office of Ukraine’s president said a delegation would meet with Russian officials as Moscow’s troops drew closer to Kyiv.
Putin, in giving the nuclear alert directive, cited not only the alleged statements by NATO members but the hard-hitting financial sanctions imposed by the West against Russia, including the Russian leader himself.
Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, Putin told his defense minister and the chief of the military’s General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty.”
“Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,” Putin said in televised comments.
Putin threatened in the days before Russia’s invasion to retaliate harshly against any nations that intervened directly in the conflict in Ukraine, and he specifically raised the specter of his country’s status as a nuclear power.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations responded to the news from Moscow while appearing on a Sunday news program.
“President Putin is continuing to escalate this war in a manner that is totally unacceptable,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said. “And we have to continue to condemn his actions in the most strong, strongest possible way.”
The practical meaning of Putin’s order was not immediately clear. Russia and the United States typically have the land- and submarine-based segments of their strategic nuclear forces on alert and prepared for combat at all times, but nuclear-capable bombers and other aircraft are not.
If Putin is arming or otherwise raising the nuclear combat readiness of his bombers, or if he is ordering more ballistic missile submarines to sea, then the United States might feel compelled to respond in kind, according to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear analyst at the Federation of American Scientists. That would mark a worrisome escalation and a potential crisis, he said. READ MORE...
Sunday, February 27
Restaurant Habits That Are Rude
No one wants to be the problematic customer in a restaurant. And since waitstaff at many restaurants have been subject to quite a bit of customer abuse during the pandemic, you may find yourself wanting to be the model diner more than ever. There are little things you can do to make the experience smoother for everyone—have your vaccination information ready if it's required, put on a mask when you're asked to and leave a good tip. But the other "polite" habits you may have in your back pocket could backfire on you and your server.
We're sure you mean well, but avoiding these unhelpful impulses the next time you hit your favorite restaurant could make life a little easier for employees.
1. You find your own seat.
You spot an empty table at a restaurant that doesn't take reservations. The host is busy seating another party, so you grab a couple of menus and take a seat. In your mind, you've taken an item off the host's to-do list and basically done their job for them—but you never know what the restaurant's system is for seating parties. Unless you're snagging a spot at the bar, you should wait to be seated until the host or another staff member can get you all set up.
2. You ignore the specials.
Hear us out—the kitchen staff have come up with something delicious (and possibly unique) for today's menu. Your waiter has memorized what's available. Don't interrupt when they launch into today's list. If you listen up, you may find that there's a dish to pique your interest.
You spot an empty table at a restaurant that doesn't take reservations. The host is busy seating another party, so you grab a couple of menus and take a seat. In your mind, you've taken an item off the host's to-do list and basically done their job for them—but you never know what the restaurant's system is for seating parties. Unless you're snagging a spot at the bar, you should wait to be seated until the host or another staff member can get you all set up.
2. You ignore the specials.
Hear us out—the kitchen staff have come up with something delicious (and possibly unique) for today's menu. Your waiter has memorized what's available. Don't interrupt when they launch into today's list. If you listen up, you may find that there's a dish to pique your interest.
3. You chat up your server.
It's always a good move to follow your server's lead when it comes to making small talk. Even if the restaurant doesn't look busy to you, your server may have other things to do. Putting in orders, filling drinks and checking on customers can be tough to juggle, so flagging your server down just to chat is one habit you want to avoid—they won't want to be rude, but idle conversation may cause them to fall behind with other customers.
4. You order from someone else.
You're ready to order, but your server is out of sight. Waving over a different server and ordering from them could seriously complicate things. Since your table now has two servers dealing with orders, you could end up with an error on your bill or your server not being aware of any special changes you made to your order. If you seriously don't see your waiter anywhere, just ask another server to flag them down for you. You'll cut down on your wait time and avoid pointless confusion entirely.
It's always a good move to follow your server's lead when it comes to making small talk. Even if the restaurant doesn't look busy to you, your server may have other things to do. Putting in orders, filling drinks and checking on customers can be tough to juggle, so flagging your server down just to chat is one habit you want to avoid—they won't want to be rude, but idle conversation may cause them to fall behind with other customers.
4. You order from someone else.
You're ready to order, but your server is out of sight. Waving over a different server and ordering from them could seriously complicate things. Since your table now has two servers dealing with orders, you could end up with an error on your bill or your server not being aware of any special changes you made to your order. If you seriously don't see your waiter anywhere, just ask another server to flag them down for you. You'll cut down on your wait time and avoid pointless confusion entirely.
5. You "help" unload the server's full tray.
Whether it's on their arm or balanced on the table, unloading the tray of food is always a bad idea. Your server has everything balanced to perfection, and snagging your dining partner's drink off the edge could send everything falling down. Be patient and let the expert do the serving. TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER FIVE, CLICK HERE...
Whether it's on their arm or balanced on the table, unloading the tray of food is always a bad idea. Your server has everything balanced to perfection, and snagging your dining partner's drink off the edge could send everything falling down. Be patient and let the expert do the serving. TO READ ABOUT THE OTHER FIVE, CLICK HERE...
King Tut"s Meteorite Dagger
Among the many items recovered from King Tut's tomb was a dagger made of iron, which is a material that was rarely used during Egypt's 18th dynasty.
That iron likely came from a meteorite, and a recent paper published in the journal Meteorites and Planetary Science sheds further light on precisely how that iron dagger was forged, as well as how it came into Tut's possession.
Tutankhamen was the son of Akhenaten and ascended to the throne when he was just 8 or 9 years old. He wasn't considered an especially important pharaoh in the grand scheme of things, but the treasures that were recovered from his tomb in the 1920s are what led to his fame.
Tutankhamen was the son of Akhenaten and ascended to the throne when he was just 8 or 9 years old. He wasn't considered an especially important pharaoh in the grand scheme of things, but the treasures that were recovered from his tomb in the 1920s are what led to his fame.
Those treasures included the famous gold burial mask (pictured above), a solid gold coffin, thrones, archery bows, trumpets, a lotus chalice, and various pieces of furniture.
These became part of a global touring exhibition, which received worldwide press coverage during the 1960s and 1970s in particular.
These became part of a global touring exhibition, which received worldwide press coverage during the 1960s and 1970s in particular.
The mummy even inspired a couple of songs: Steve Martin's hit "King Tut" (which debuted on Saturday Night Live in 1978) and the lesser-known "Dead Egyptian Blues," by the late folk rock singer Michael Peter Smith (which contains the immortal line, "Your sarcophagus is glowing, but your esophagus is showing"). READ MORE...
Lost Medieval Legends
CC-BY SUZANNE REITZ, DEN ARNAMAGNÆANSKE SAMLING (COPENHAGEN)
King Arthur’s lasting renown is one for the books. But a statistical spotlight now shines on medieval European literature’s round table of lost and forgotten stories.
An international team used a mathematical formula borrowed from ecology to estimate the extent to which medieval adventure and romance tales, and documents on which they were written, have been lost over the years. Only about 9 percent of these documents may have survived till modern times, the researchers found.
These findings indicate that simple statistical principles can be used to gauge losses of a range of past cultural items, such as specific types of stone tools or ancient coins, literature professor Mike Kestemont of the University of Antwerp in Belgium and his colleagues report in the Feb. 18 Science.
Their approach represents a simple but powerful tool for studying culture, says anthropologist Alex Bentley of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who did not participate in the study. “It’s like walking into an abandoned Amazon book warehouse decades later and estimating the total number of book titles based on the numbers of surviving single and double copies that you find.”
Much medieval European literature, which dates to between roughly the years 600 and 1450, has been lost, and many surviving manuscripts are fragmentary. Durable parchment documents were often recycled as small boxes or for other practical uses. That has left researchers unsure about whether surviving tales and documents are representative of what once existed.
Kestemont’s team turned to a formula developed by environmental statistician and study coauthor Anne Chao of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. Chao’s statistical technique accounts for species that go undetected by researchers in field surveys of biological diversity. More generally, her approach can be used to estimate the number of unobserved events of any type that accompany relatively frequent observed events of the same type.
So, for example, this formula might be used to estimate the number of undiscovered archaeological sites in an early state society where the biggest settlements have been easier to find than smaller ones. READ MORE...
Saturday, February 26
The Rustic Appeal of a Wood Stove Inside
FROM BOB VILLA...
But is it really such a good idea? As with so many other things relating to the home, the answer depends. Before going any further, be sure to do your homework.
The simple, sleek design of this wood-burning stove features a glass door that adds a warm glow to the surrounding area. It heats up to 1,800 square feet quickly, and distributes the warm air evenly with the help of a built-in blower that features multiple speed settings.
The Pros and Cons of Heating with a Wood Stove
In areas where wood is dependably available at low cost, wood-stove heating can save money over a gas or oil system. That’s never more true than for those who harvest their own firewood. Of course, it’s a lot of work to fell trees, saw them into logs, and split those logs into stove-length pieces. There are techniques and best practices here that might take the neophyte several seasons to master. You need to be realistic about your abilities and tolerance for heavy work.
Even apart from the amount of labor involved, heating the home with a wood stove takes real commitment. Every morning, you need to start a new fire. In the absence of a backup heating system, there must always be someone at home to tend the fire, lest the plumbing pipes freeze. There are good reasons for our having moved beyond wood heat long ago. For many people who enjoy a modern lifestyle, heating with a wood stove would be a monumental inconvenience.
Of course, unlike fossil fuels, wood is a renewable resource. For some, that’s reason enough to think seriously about making the switch from a traditional oil- or gas-fueled system. And it would be a mistake not to mention that there’s something deeply satisfying, on a primal level, about wood heat. It offers a connection to the land—and to human history—that simply cannot be matched by a system that’s controlled by a thermostat on the wall.
In areas where wood is dependably available at low cost, wood-stove heating can save money over a gas or oil system. That’s never more true than for those who harvest their own firewood. Of course, it’s a lot of work to fell trees, saw them into logs, and split those logs into stove-length pieces. There are techniques and best practices here that might take the neophyte several seasons to master. You need to be realistic about your abilities and tolerance for heavy work.
Even apart from the amount of labor involved, heating the home with a wood stove takes real commitment. Every morning, you need to start a new fire. In the absence of a backup heating system, there must always be someone at home to tend the fire, lest the plumbing pipes freeze. There are good reasons for our having moved beyond wood heat long ago. For many people who enjoy a modern lifestyle, heating with a wood stove would be a monumental inconvenience.
Of course, unlike fossil fuels, wood is a renewable resource. For some, that’s reason enough to think seriously about making the switch from a traditional oil- or gas-fueled system. And it would be a mistake not to mention that there’s something deeply satisfying, on a primal level, about wood heat. It offers a connection to the land—and to human history—that simply cannot be matched by a system that’s controlled by a thermostat on the wall.
Enhancing Brain Happiness
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Omega-3s are essential nutrients with benefits that extend from your head to your toes.* And how can you get more of them? You're about to find out! This episode of the mindbodygreen podcast was created in partnership with Kori Krill Oil, the omega-3 superfood with more nutrients in their natural form for superior absorption.*
To lighten your mood and melt away negativity, you have to start with basic brain health. Your brain is an organ, after all, and its proper function is the foundation of cognitive and emotional well-being. "If you get your brain right, odds are you're going to think right, you're going to feel right, and you're going to behave right," says clinical neuroscientist psychiatrist Daniel Amen, M.D., author of You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type, on this episode of the mindbodygreen podcast.
To that end, Amen shares some nonnegotiable brain health tips that can ultimately help you become a happier person. Below, find his practical advice for a positive mood long-term:
1. Cultivate purpose
A sense of purpose affects your mood in a very specific way: "Purpose, all by itself, increases dopamine, but it doesn't dump it—it drips it," Amen shares. You see, the more dopamine your brain produces, the more it starts to "wear out the pleasure centers in your brain," says Amen, and your brain craves more and more of it. While purpose does increase dopamine, it doesn't frontload your brain with it—rather, it keeps it at a steady pace over time.
Plus: "Purposeful people live longer," declares Amen. "They're happier, they have better relationships, and their overall physical health is better." And when all of those aspects are thriving, a positive mood doesn't fall too far behind.
As for why a sense of purpose enhances just about every facet of your body and brain health, Amen believes it's all about connection. "When your life is all about you, you're not connected," he explains. Whereas if you have a bigger purpose in life, you're able to see outside of yourself and connect to a larger force. "And our connections are absolutely essential, foundational to happiness," he says. TO LEARN ABOUT THE OTHER THREE, CLICK HERE...
Demonology
When I (Ed Simon) reveal that I wrote a book about demonology, I’m invariably asked if I believe that demons are actually real. “Of course, I don’t think that demons are actually real,” is the expected response and the one that I give. “I’m a modern, secular, educated, liberal, agnostic man. I don’t believe in demons and devils, goblins and ghouls, imps, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, or poltergeists either.” Yet whenever giving the doxology of all of that which we’re not to have faith in, I’m mentally keeping my fingers crossed, because so much of that question depends on the definitions of the words “believe,” “demons,” “actually,” and “real.”
Since the Enlightenment, Western intelligentsia have been the inheritors to a rather anemic model of knowledge known as the correspondence theory of truth, whereby the validity of a statement is ascertained simply by whether or not it matches empirical reality. If I say, “The dog is in the yard,” that statement is either true or false depending on whether or not said dog is in said yard. Easy enough, but then what of statements like “A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” “I think that I shall never see/a poem as lovely as a tree,” or “I wondered lonely as a cloud?”
A fundamentalist adherence to the correspondence theory of truth, trumpeted by logical positivists and other philosophical heretics, would consign John Keats, Joyce Kilmer, and William Wordsworth into a bin marked “meaningless” (even though I think we can all ascertain that there is meaning, even if it’s the “slant” truth that Emily Dickinson writes about). And so, you can imagine what is made of statements about divinity and diabology (though theology has, in my estimation, always just been a branch of poetics anyhow).
That the correspondence theory of truth doesn’t even match its own exacting prescriptions to what is legitimate or not is a bit of self-referential absurdity best passed over; concluding that as a model it’s clearly ineffectual in describing whole swaths of human experience is sufficient enough. You can see my difficulty with the question of whether or not I “actually” believe in demons—I reject the entire epistemological attitude in which the query is posed. If the question is asked in the spirit of ascertaining whether or not demons exist as tangibly as a dog in the yard, then obviously the answer is in the negative, and yet in those moments of sublime terror when approaching the core of the cracked numinous, I can’t help but know what I felt. That warped smile and those red eyes might not be staring back at me from the yard, but they’re staring back from somewhere. READ MORE...
Friday, February 25
What is Putin's ENDGAME?
Putin’s slumped posture and deadened affect led me to suspect that he is not as stable as we would hope. He had the presence not of a confident president, but of a surly adolescent caught in a misadventure, rolling his eyes at the stupid adults who do not understand how cruel the world has been to him. Teenagers, of course, do not have hundreds of thousands of troops and nuclear weapons.
Even discounting Putin’s delivery, the speech was, in many places, simply unhinged. Putin began with a history lesson about how and why Ukraine even exists. For all his Soviet nostalgia, the Russian president is right that his Soviet predecessors intentionally created a demographic nightmare when drawing the internal borders of the U.S.S.R., a subject I’ve explained at length here.
But Putin’s point wasn’t that the former subjects of the Soviet Union needed to iron out their differences. Rather, he was suggesting that none of the new states that emerged from the Soviet collapse—except for Russia—were real countries. “As a result of Bolshevik policy,” Putin intoned, “Soviet Ukraine arose, which even today can with good reason be called ‘Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s Ukraine’. He is its author and architect.”
It is true that Soviet leaders created the 1991 borders. That is also true of what we now call the Russian Federation. Putin, however, went even further back in history: “Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.”
By that kind of historical reasoning, few nations in Europe, or anywhere else, are safe. Putin’s foray into history was nothing less than a demand that only Moscow—and only the Kremlin’s supreme leader—has the right to judge what is or is not a sovereign state (as I recently discussed here). Putin’s claims are hardly different from Saddam Hussein’s rewriting of Middle East history when Iraq tried to erase Kuwait from the map. READ MORE...
About the author: Tom Nichols is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Peacefield.
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