Mariner has nagged about the decline of government, economics and society for 23 straight months, not counting other ideological issues and the always inadequate electorate. But in the last six months, setting Covid aside for the moment, the nation’s core stability is increasingly stressed. The U.S. is faced with fragile situations by Russia wanting Ukraine and China wanting Taiwan. Still the U.S. struggles with deepening populism and citizen violence.

There is a good chance Congress will fall to an oddly deranged republican party which will not be able to hold together a deepening distrust by the nation’s citizenry. Note the following chart from Gallup, an annual exercise reflecting citizen satisfaction:

Most of the satisfaction scores don’t represent a trend – it’s more like driving over a cliff.

Things seem not to be finding their way out of the maze yet.

Ancient Mariner

The red line on the map of Eastern Europe below shows the peak of USSR dominance in 1950. For decades the West has known that Vladimir Putin’s dream is to restore Russia to its largest expansion that was created by the Warsaw Pact. Evidently Vladimir thinks it is time to begin restoration.

The Russian aggression has pushed out of the news the inflamed issue of Pacific Ocean dominance vis-à-vis China. Today the issue is Ukraine and Crimea, which are immediately to the east of Poland and Romania, bordering the northern shore of the Black Sea. Crimea, already forcibly annexed by Russia, is the island at the north end of the Black Sea

One of the intellectual victories that came out of WWII negotiations, and one which sustained national independence through the Cold War, was an agreement that national boundaries cannot be changed by brute force.

Ukraine was part of Russia until it officially declared itself an independent country on August 24 1991, when the communist parliament of Ukraine proclaimed that Ukraine would no longer follow the laws of USSR and only the laws of Ukraine, de facto declaring Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union. For the likes of Russian plutocrats, this has remained a thorn in the side. Vladimir surely believes that Ukraine and Crimea have always been part of Russia and should remain so.

Economically, Russia is hurting the way dictatorships usually suffer: Government sucks every dollar it can (not unlike American private equity firms) leaving too little for the citizenry to survive comfortably. The one thing Russia cannot tolerate is to be cut off from international trade via intensely restrictive sanctions – the strategy Biden and the EU have been touting. The problem that throws sand in the gears is that the EU is dependent on Russian oil and natural gas.

What Putin is banking on is that an invasion could be accomplished in a few days before opposing nations could respond to Russia’s execution of overwhelming military force, borrowing Syria’s strategy which is to level everything without regard for future functionality; Ukrainian leaders, like the opponents of Adolf Hitler, would be summarily executed.

On paper this has merit since Ukraine is not part of NATO and is not automatically protected.

The 1950s question is whether nations will be able to enforce the idea that boundaries cannot be changed by brute force without using brute force themselves.

All eyes are on Vladimir Putin.

Ancient Mariner

It never fails to impress mariner how Non Sequitur can simplify so many complex issues into one comic frame. Here’s a great example:

Facts are immutable. That is their strength. Truth is culture, also a strength.

When facts are ignored over time, culture fills in the gaps; the longer the time, the more abstract culture becomes. Finally, disparity overcomes rationality.

The fact that the working class has not been given a fair shake when matched against the facts of inflation and loss of benefits since 1980, culture has adapted to accept this situation until disparity could no longer be denied.

Hence Donald. Hence January 6. The pandemic, a factually based circumstance, has magnified culture’s disparity a hundred fold. Today, a disparate culture is in the midst of collapse.

Who will steer culture back to a factually driven reality?

Not The House of Representatives.

Not the Senate.

Not the housing shortage.

Not global warming.

Not China.

Not Russia.

Not even the European Union.

Not big data.

Not the oligarchy.

Not even religion, which has its own disparate issues.

The United States situation has been represented accurately  by Wiley’s cartoon.

Ancient Mariner

We must be thankful, truly thankful, if we had a good, heartwarming, soul refreshing holiday season. To have been so blessed in these times is a privileged experience. Mariner had such a holiday. His son and daughter-in-law, a four year old, a one year old, a frisky dog and a cat spent Christmas week with mariner and his wife.

It was commotion and noise, of course, and special meals and decorations and presents and special conversations. It is how Christmas should be experienced. Opportunities to have inter-human experiences are growing less common. Some of it is due to the migration of children (or parents) and close relatives to distant geographic locations; some of it is due to the massive interruption of Covid; some of it is due to the powers of the internet; more common than we may think, some is due to debilitating poverty; finally, some of it is due to cultural disruption caused by a failing national ethos and the unknown future that will be created with artificial intelligence.

But it is our duty to hang on, to sustain the normal pleasures and responsibilities that come with being human. It is our mandate to be among humanity. Our saneness depends on unity amongst the species. We should take every opportunity to share time with others, to mingle, to share common courtesies and goals; to take responsibility for the human condition.

Think about this: all things are subject to evolution. Is our house the first evolutionary form that will become our Matrix casket? Will the growing, amoral reality of machines that can think live our lives for us?

We no longer have to shop outside our home. Our bills are paid automatically. We talk to other human beings on the internet rather than in person; it has become common to go to work without leaving the home; we arrange lifelong partners according to internet specifications. Our house, evolutionarily speaking, is our Matrix coffin. For most of us, that final coffin is beyond our lifespan but in the meantime, let’s celebrate face to face human interaction at every opportunity!

Ancient Mariner