…
Problem: Person or System?
In the West, at a government-level, aren’t we still systematically:
- Generating Disempowerment
- Preventing citizen self-actualisation
- Failing to fully-harness resident goodwill?
And, don’t these destabilise our societies, which makes our model less attractive, which helps sustain Authoritarian regimes, which, in turn, has allowed Putin (and, Xi) to gain (and hold) power, which, among other things, has led to the War in Ukraine?
…
Coopetitionism
[War’s Antidote]
Coopetitionism: ‘Optimal government systemisation of Coopetition’.
Coopetition: ‘Cooperation first and foremost and Competition the treasured second’.
[While nature’s Survival-imperative demands Competition – for example, one animal may Compete against another for food – there are often advantages to Cooperation.]
With society nature’s supreme manifestation of Coopetition, in modern human societies, Coopetition exists as rules-based sport and democracy and may be imagined as an efficient non-exploitative (i.e. Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS) Abolitionist) free-market economy.
Accordingly, Coopetition is nature’s morality as it encompasses the full-spectrum of consciousness-rights (i.e. human-rights and animal-rights) namely to refrain from inflicting Unnecessary Suffering.
Anti-Coopetition is: ‘the prioritisation of Competition over Cooperation’ such as war. [It also exists in nature as it is sometimes necessary.]
Coopetitionism requires Citizen Empowerment Infrastructure’s (CEI) 5 ‘guaranteed and unconditional’ cornerstones:
- Universal Rule of Coopetition-maximising Law
- Universal Liberal Democracy
- Universal Education
- Universal Healthcare
- The Universal Survival Income (USI).
[In war, these ‘rights’ are lost, which affects the most vulnerable, most. Put another way, the extent to which the disabled, infirm, minorities, women and children have ‘rights’ ultimately devolves, not to ‘role-models’ or ad-hoc legislation, but to the extent we have these 5 infrastructural cornerstones. And, with each reinforcing the other, by failing to have the full-set, we both put all of them at risk and give succour to Authoritarian-Illegitimates.]
The USI is the glaring omission, which results in Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS) – the single Big Picture major source of our culminating perfect storm of exponentiating Socio-Econo-Enviro- (SEE) catastrophes – including natural-Enviro’s climate-change and international-Enviro’s war.
…
March 18, 2022
Dedicated to Ukrainians, our veterans and our other warzone-impacted citizens, residents & offshore-detainees (notwithstanding the need to prevent a mass boat-people repeat, may 2022 be the year we resolve our near decade-long lock-up of refugees).
Hi
Via analysing – through the Coopetitionism prism – some personal experiences relating to Communism, Ukraine, crime, war and morality, this article explores whether our problem with Putin (the person) reflects a much greater systemic problem.
In 1994 (less than 3 years after the Soviet Union’s fall), the author entered the ex-Soviet sphere – first to Eastern Germany, which Putin had left around 4 years previous, then Slovakia and, finally, to Ukraine (stopping in Donetsk) …
The Soviet Ghost
Perhaps just 5 weeks after exiting humanitarian aid work in Liberia – an exacting experience – which was followed by a London debrief then winding-down via circling Scandinavia, arriving in the former East German town of Gera, I stayed with a local whom I’d met while on R&R in The Gambia.
Although the Germans had been busy re-integrating with a modern light-rail system and modern cars that made the East German ‘no-frills’ Trabant (the pride of the Soviet auto-industry) look comical, my friend – a young, smart, attractive, adventurous and private-enterprise-employed person who seemed tailor-made to benefit from the new Germany – surprised me by pining for the past.
On to Bratislava (Slovakia), perhaps it was there I first perceived the contradictive demeanour – at once, both standoffish and emotion-restrained yet also friendly, curious and hospitable.
The deeper into the ex-Soviet sphere, the more pronounced this juxtaposition – it was as though they wanted to trust (even did trust) yet were still extracting themselves from a ‘must be careful’ life-long upbringing.
After a night out and fully-fuelled, with my hotel on the outskirts of town, I decided to walk.
Meeting a friendly mangy street dog, following a bit of finger-snap encouragement, it joined me – a brief antidote for each other’s loneliness.
Walking for hours, the sun rising, we eventually arrived at the hotel. For quite some many minutes, I had been dreading this – now what? I had led it on – initially, I hadn’t expected it would keep walking then I’d become curious, ‘would it really keep going all that way?’ and then ‘how can I make it turn back and does it have anywhere to go anyway?’
[So, was my behaviour Coopetitionist or anti-Coopetitionist? And, if the latter, was it person specific – i.e. due to me – or, somehow, systemic?]
‘What have you done?’ I self-berated imagining it trudging all the way back as, blocking it from entering, those big baby eyes looked-up imploringly, questioningly.
An infliction of Unnecessary Suffering and, moreover, against a most trusting consciousness.
[I had been anti-Coopetitionist! That is, it was my fault, which meant it was person specific and yet, I wasn’t trying to be cruel. What if, instead, I had been brought-up in a Coopetitionism society in which one is systemically exposed to nature’s morality of ‘Cooperation first & foremost and Competition the treasured second’ such that it is permanently mindful? Wouldn’t that both encourage good-faith and lead those of good-faith to automatically weigh decisions through the Coopetition prism? Then, in the case above, at the outset, I may have self-questioned, ‘Is it Cooperative or deceptive to encourage it? Will it benefit both of us or just me?’ Certainly, societal systems – existing and absent – necessarily impact individuals’ behaviour so shouldn’t we take special care to optimise them?]
From my room-window, I could see the dog still there – sitting, watching the door and waiting for my return. Laying down and closing my eyes, hauntingly, it conflated with other recent, more extreme, experiences.
Following Bratislava, I overnighted in Kosice (near Ukraine’s border) – my hotel-room had 2 solid doors and intricate jail-like keys – it was more like a vault than a room – and, that evening, though chatting with an enchanting local-lady, for no discernible reason, I found myself chain-smoking – one-after-the-other – more than a pack.
Boarding a train to Kyiv, pulling-up at the first train-station inside Ukraine, our booked-out carriage was mobbed by a throng of desperate haggling hawkers who, perhaps, out-numbered the passengers.
They were just like those I’d seen in South East Asia and Africa except they were white – at the time, it surprised me how strongly that registered.
Regarding Ukrainians, to generalise, they seemed tough, sturdy, robust-bodied, resilient, handsome and beautiful – those high cheekbones – on the whole, they exuded an air of down-to-earth authenticity, politeness and honesty, which I find exceedingly likeable. [While that was a generation-and-a-half ago, it’s unsurprising the Russians (though of similar stock) are having a tough-time.]
In Kyiv, the beginnings of an open cosmopolitan international capital were already sprouting – for example, global product-signs, lots of ‘going somewhere’ bustle and a stew of different languages.
At the subway, its escalator went on and on and on until, reaching its end, another similar one began – apparently, it’s the deepest in the world (105.5 metres) doubling as a nuclear shelter. [We now see clips of civilians living there.]
From Kiev, I took the train to Donetsk (at that time, Ukraine’s fourth largest city) to stay with a Canadian friend who, as one of perhaps 6 foreigners, was teaching at a university there.
Donetsk
Arriving in Donetsk – a world away from Kyiv – the absence of modernity convinced me this must be almost just as the Soviet Union had been under its Communist system.
…
Communism, given it’s invariably Authoritarian, certainly isn’t Coopetitionist (i.e. it isn’t ‘Cooperation above Competition’) yet nor is it anti-Coopetitionist (‘Competition above Cooperation’).
On the contrary, Communism is something entirely unnatural because it attempts to eradicate Competition – i.e. in the Communist-economy, people and businesses must Cooperate and are prohibited from market-Competing.
Yet, due to nature’s Survival-imperative, there is always Competition such that it cannot be eradicated.
Hence, because people still want to Compete in the market, effectively, they are incited to Compete against the authorities – i.e. they are incited to create and participate in a black-market.
Accordingly, because Communism is so unnatural, though it has been attempted fanatically and in numerous guises, in order to maintain it, it has always devolved to Authoritarianism (and brutality), which, of course, is anti-Coopetitionist.
So, causally, how did Communism emerge?
Communism emerged as a reaction to anti-Coopetitionism’s Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS).
Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS) arose in post-Industrial Revolution societies when subsistence-farmers transitioned away from self-sufficiency to become income-earning factory-machinists, which meant they lost direct control over their survival needs.
While Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS) is abolished via The USI, due to The USI never being implemented, there emerged, among other negatives, Poverty and paid-worker-Exploitation.
Marx & Engels – oblivious to the source problem of SIS – attempted to solve 2 of SIS’s symptoms – i.e. paid-worker-Exploitation and Unemployment – which led them to invent Communism.
In their theory, Communism is supposed to:
- Eradicate paid-worker-Exploitation via the communal ownership of the factors of production – i.e. via paid-workers owning both factories and manufacturing-machines
- Provide everyone who wants paid-work with a job – i.e. a Job Guarantee (JG).
[Note: The JG, as well as being a characteristic of Communism, is also a transition-mechanism to Communism – i.e. in order to pay for the JG’s paid-work and bureaucracy, Government must tax the private-sector, which makes the private-sector less competitive, which means it will employ less people, which means there is a requirement for more JG jobs, which means more taxation and so on such that private enterprise is, progressively, all but taxed to extinction. Nevertheless, some such as the ACTU executive, ACOSS board, GetUp, the Greens and, of all organisations, Anglicare are advocating for the JG. Effectively, as we fight troublesome Communist-remnant Authoritarians, they seek Communism Mark II. Prior to the election, small-target Labor needs to be asked if they plan to introduce the JG?]
However, if, during the Industrial Revolution (c. 1760), The USI had been implemented, Marx & Engels wouldn’t have been motivated to write The Communist Manifesto (1848), which means there wouldn’t have been a Soviet Union (or, a Red China) and, therefore, no Putin (or, Xi).
…
Discovering, due to illness, my friend had been evacuated to Vienna yet expected to return soon, I moved into her standard Donetsk dwelling to wait.
Architecturally, the city had Communist-style wide avenues and drab 5-story ‘filing-cabinet’ apartment buildings. Also, in contrast to Albania, which I’d rushed through some months previous, instead of the blocks being ubiquitously ‘porcupine’-spiked with satellite dishes, there were almost no such protrusions.
Meanwhile, the first and most surprising anecdote of substance I absorbed was, virtually everyone in the Donetsk region spoke Russian and it was in Western Ukraine they spoke Ukrainian.
Accordingly, I alternated between self-learning Russian (mostly via textbook) and exploring the city.
With Donetsk a working-class industrial mining city, the only foreigners were the handful teaching at the university and some African students.
Walking around the residential areas, I couldn’t see any sign of a shop – no shop-signs let alone other advertising.
Out of general curiosity, venturing in to random apartment-blocks, I discovered most ground-floors had a simple shop of which the main type seemed to sell nothing but jarred-pickles, which, on long mostly empty shelves, seemed like Coke bottles – i.e. their own graspable trademark advertisement.
The exception to the lack of advertising was wheeled refrigerated street-trolleys selling, of all things, Mars ice-creams – previously, I’d been unaware Mars made an ice-cream.
From Eastern Germany to Slovakia to Kyiv and now Donetsk, I realised each step had progressively revealed more of the ex-Soviet sphere.
For instance, here, the ‘demeanour contradiction’ was on steroids – i.e. they were reserved yet also, at least around a foreigner, popping-out-of-their-skins.
With no supermarket in the city but a market within walking distance, it was characterised by zero packaging, basic presentation and food purchases heavily reliant on the cleaver.
Which part of the chicken do you want? Whack.
Butter portions were similarly separated from sofa-seat sized blocks before being newspaper wrapped and weighed.
And yet, there was the odd radical change – I saw the conversion of half the bottom floor of a nearby apartment block into a Ford dealership with a handful of the most top-of-the-line late models I’d ever seen – in comparison to everything else in the vicinity, they looked like Star Wars’ vehicles.
At a foundry, purposefully walking through the gate as though I worked there – ignoring several glances at my not-quite-local clothing – I saw a 3- or 4-story high crucible pouring liquid metal as workers scampered in the periphery doing whatever dangerous work they were doing.
One evening, walking through a park with a new Nigerian friend – a great guy who earnt an income by, sometimes, travelling to Germany to buy a second-hand car then driving it into Ukraine and selling it – 2 local-lads stopped us. Though deliberately respectful of me, my friend told me later, “they were saying things to him like, ‘Don’t you think I look more beautiful than you?’”
[Anti-Coopetitionist! In Australia, some years previous, I witnessed a similar event against 2 Malaysian students. So, person or system? I think system – i.e. while minds inherently function via, first, noting differences then making generalisations and, lastly, progressively adding nuance, racism’s pejorative aspect isn’t inherent. Thus, we need Coopetitionism – i.e. it’s also an antidote for racism as well as every other form of snobbery.]
With queues for everything and, often, the queues taking hours (such as for a train-ticket), informally, the locals often reserved a place in one queue before exiting to do something else – including line-up in another queue or 2 – before returning later. Thus, sometimes, lines would surge backwards, which is disconcerting for one unaware of the system.
One afternoon, while sitting at a café, a beautiful lady in a short loose summer dress walked-by when a sudden gust of wind hit. With head kept high and without either troubling her hands or missing a step, she elegantly pirouetted – the speed of rotation wrapping the material round thereby keeping it down.
One night, one of the foreign-teachers – an American, his name may have been Bob – invited me to dinner.
After a few, we decided to go out – but where?
Gedye Diskoteka?
Catching a taxi to somewhere we decided wasn’t the go, we walked until we were lost then seeing a likely-looking youth hanging on the sidewalk, using my sophisticated Russian, I asked “Gedye diskoteka?” [“Where’s the disco?”]
“Wait”, came the strained tortured in-English response whereupon he rushed-off and inside the building facing us.
Swiftly returning – from what turned out to be a university dormitory – with eight or so of his strapping dorm-mates, Bob and I joked, “they’re our bodyguards” as, creating mayhem, we all somehow packed into just two small decrepit taxis.
Checking out a couple of places, we eventually settled on a large stand-alone venue with steps leading up to a concrete veranda, which, set back from the road, was fronted by an impressive paved promenade.
With a bar on the first level and a dance floor on the second, once upstairs, losing track of our new acquaintances – whose faces, mostly unmemorised, I realised I couldn’t recognise – Bob and I started making good use of our feet.
Meanwhile, noticing we were foreigners, we started attracting a crowd, which became a ‘circle’.
In retrospect, inebriated and fired-up, we may have been over-using the internationally renowned f-word such as in, “This is f___in’ great – f___ yeah” and, as we later hypothesized, without translational nuance, it may have been misconstrued for something along the lines of, “F___ you.”
Back downstairs Bob commented, “You know, they look really pissed at us.”
“Don’t worry about it” I’d dismissed not bothering to even cursorily glance, despite the gut-feeling I probably should.
Beginning to tire, deciding to leave, walking outside and down the front steps, 2 powerfully-built men – both dressed in the local thug’s uniform of a black leather jacket – followed and then, moving in front, turned and confronted us.
With Bob conversing with them in Russian (later, I would learn it was a money shakedown), sensing a problem, I eased back a step at which one of the thugs grabbed my wrist.
[Anti-Coopetitionist! Person or system? With The USI, there’s no Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS), which means, via Poverty-eradicated, people aren’t systemically corralled into criminality; also, if The USI is substituted for Universal Minimum Hourly Wages (UMHoW), there’s no Unemployment, which means there’s also plenty else (productive rather than destructive) they can do.]
Flicking my arm to break his grip, I bolted back-up the steps, poked my head in the doorway, yelled to the bouncers then turned back intent on helping Bob.
Next thing, I landed flat on my butt on the cold concrete. Looking left I saw it was care of a third thug who, storming from inside, had kicked my legs out.
On an evening, perhaps 2 months previous, there’d been an incident, which had, very loosely, in some respects, been similar – the proudest moment of my life.
…
“I’m a black African man, I’m going to beat you, I’m going to rape you,” yelled the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) ‘peacekeeper’ (also a Nigerian) as, with his armed-buddy looking on, he dragged a terrified screaming slip of a local-lady along the Monrovian bitumen road – in my judgement, she was on the way to a beating, being gang-raped, disfigured and, perhaps, murdered.
[Anti-Coopetitionist! Person or system? Both. However, it was a crime taking place in a war context and the Coopetitionism system – as well as being crime’s temperer – is war’s antidote.]
Some moments previous, witnessing the angry soldier forcing the lady to follow him, I had diplomatically intervened.
“My man, what’s happening?” I had forcibly jovially-smiled using location-appropriate lingo.
Failing to have an effect – I had seized one of the lady’s arms, which transformed her into a ‘rope’ – a biased one – in a cruel ‘tug-of-war’.
Conscious to minimise his humiliation, seeking only to maintain the territorial status-quo, the lady and I successfully stood our ground, at which, … he promptly punched her in the jaw.
Shocked and hoping to prevent a reoccurrence, I let go as, stunned, she fell to the ground and the soldier began dragging her fragile-body across the unforgiving bitumen.
Ensconced in fear’s grip, she clawed hysterically at the road so the ‘peacekeeper’ laid into her with a flurry of vicious kicks.
“What’s your name?” I asked hoping the question’s lameness might, in his mind, switch-on a light bulb of humanity; but, it didn’t.
Calculating diplomacy had been exhausted, seeking to divert the soldier’s focus, I marched ‘into his face’ chastising, “You’re supposed to be a peacekeeper you f___ing piece of s__t!”
“F___ the United Nations!” the soldier yelled, erroneously assuming I was U.N. as, ‘taking the bait’, letting go of the lady, he pushed me in the chest to which I similarly responded.
To a cacophony of insults rasping from both our throats, infuriated, the ‘peacekeeper’ grabbed my shirt then I grabbed his and, in quick succession, first his fists then mine wound into fabric before, as though doing ‘curls’, I braced, pulled and elevated thereby holding him slightly forward such that, for a moment, he was off-balance; however, though the stakes were being rampantly raised, there was a short-limit and, with his mate to the side, I had no end-game.
Releasing my shirt and swivelling, he planted his right-foot one step-back as his hands leapt also to his right – to the rifle dangling from his shoulder-strap – mmm, forgot about that – swinging it up, the muzzle rammed between my heart-protecting-ribs, his finger already at the ready.
A skull’s depth apart, our eyes focused on each other’s then, suddenly, he wasn’t yelling so I stopped and, from the silence, his eyes transmuted from piercing protruding infernos of rage into glazed clouds of ice-determination, which, no longer focused on me or the lady or our struggle, reflected only dedication to executing his just-made decision.
In that instant – i.e. without needing to aim, how long does it take to squeeze a trigger? – with body still tense and hands still tautly entwined in cotton, accepting the inevitable, I waited for nothingness.
[In Liberia, there were incidents that affected me then and later but, for some reason, this wasn’t one of them – perhaps because, ‘it was what it was’ – i.e. it was atrocious but, compared to some of the stuff (an imagination-warping atmosphere of witchcraft, drug-addlement, rampant-child-sociopathy, direct-slavery, hard-labour, famine, collectives of serial-murderers, ubiquitous mental-illness, without-bounds-child-abuse, corporal-punishment, torture, a famous snuff movie protagonist, gruesome-amulets, skull-‘exhibitions’ and cannibalism), there was still a normality to it that, frankly, from my point of view (though not the lady’s) made it seem more like ‘kindergarten’. Besides, this short ‘disagreement’ between adults was occurring in the relatively safe and civilised capital, which we were visiting for a meeting – our real work was in the jungle, on the frontline, amongst psychopathic warlords and their swarms of machete-and-AK-wielding active-duty child-soldiers who, the biggest doozy of all, doubled (along with the threat of halting the distribution) as our security. A jungle pseudo-mental hospital where the patients were free, armed, drug-and-adrenaline charged and in-charge such that they protected us while perfecting, mostly out of our sight, their other crafts. Once, I was scared beyond the natural limit, which I only know exists because I was rocketed through and beyond it; another time, one morning, something so disturbed me (different from being scared), I was plunged into a trance in which I thought (for the only time in my life) I could discern my soul because it tried to leave – stretching, elastically, diagonally-up-and-out to separate, as though dragging in its deepest breathe, winding to its peak, its mind-voice exploded at me, “WHAT THE F___ ARE YOU DOING HERE? THEY’RE ALL F___ING CRAZY!” And, for the next minute or so, it repeated this over-and-over until, exhausting itself (and me), it slungshot back into me, whereupon I collapsed back into reality. Some of these experiences, I don’t feel I have words to, with justice, portray.]
As I waited to be mini-torp-ruptured, like a ‘no time to spare’ Batman-and-Robin scene, the soldier’s spellbound eyes had re-flicked into focusing onto something distant over my shoulder.
What, I wondered as – instantly taking full-advantage – I let decisively go and, half-swivelling, feigned curiosity.
Dazzled by the fierceness of a 4WD’s headlights on an otherwise dark road, shielding my eyes, I understood why he was distracted – at that time, Liberia was the poorest country on earth and motorised transport was rare – pretty much, they either belonged to Generals-or-above or Non-Government-Organisations. Besides, it was after 7pm curfew – yes, technically, I shouldn’t have been out.
Feeling the rifle fall, glancing back at the soldier, I saw sanity renewed and anxiousness now predominant.
With a hundred or so locals having been drawn to the spectacle and soldier number 2 still watching from the roadside, the car halted a couple of lengths in front pointing directly at us.
Hollywood dramatic – I guessed a General – with the motor left running and the powerful lights also still on, we both froze like kangaroos. Nothing happened – the suspense built – eventually, a door eased open and we heard a pair of feet hit the ground. Into the light, a figure’s silhouette slowly – calmly – emerged and then there stepped forth my colleague – apparently, the guard at our nearby accommodation had alerted him to the awryness.
With another Westerner – an experienced nerves-of-steel expert-negotiator no less – plus a vehicle involved, it was over. [No more harm came to the lady.]
…
With butt on cold Donetsk-concrete, pumped with warzone-forged anger, bouncing to my feet, I surged towards he who had dropped me, when our young student ‘head bodyguard’ intervened.
Face-to-face with his hands on my shoulders, he earnestly – desperately – pleadingly – tried to calm me yet, still yelling at the thug, I forced ‘our bodyguard’ aside when …
[I already knew these thugs were the real deal and, also, that I didn’t have a chance yet, precisely when conciliatory body-language would have been optimal – i.e. there was no lady to protect, the only damage was to pride over my feet ‘slipping’ and I’d just been given a time-out by a concerned outstanding young man – I was stuck in a routine. While I’m not a veteran and my reactions were my own, there may be some implications for The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide regarding readjustment – i.e. there’s massive ‘culture’ shock when one goes to a war but there’s also massive culture shock when one returns. In my case, I was automatically behaving like I had needed to in the laissez-faire warzone, even though the confrontation was taking place within a Rule of Law civilian context.]
With my advance having been slowed (our ‘head bodyguard’ may have joined the list of those who’ve saved me), into that time-space elongation and a ruckus of 2 score or more, via a magically appearing path, a ‘short-statured’ man (accompanied by others), strode purposefully in like he was a king in some fantasy movie.
The establishment’s manager, owner or some such, he spoke with gravity as all respectfully listened.
Though not understanding his words, I was captivated.
With my anger subsiding, Bob directed my gaze to the side of the building where our full-compliment of ‘bodyguards’ looked fearfully-on – torn between protecting the crazy foreigners and living to finish their studies, they chose correctly and it was the last time I saw them.
With the manager disappearing inside, we set-out for the roadside, accompanied by the disco’s two clean-cut Adonis-like bouncers.
Navigating the previously vacant square, which was now full of roaming black-leather-jacketed young men, the thug who’d given me the hard-landing, looked like he could be the leader. At a distance, with our eyes locked-on each other, he smilingly strutted around doing exhibition kicks like a confident prize-fighter warming-up for combat. Joining in the banter, I suddenly changed direction as though searching for an attack-opening.
However, even if it had just been he and I, all bluff, bark and b__ger-all bite, I was doomed.
Still, he didn’t know that and he seemed wary – perhaps, fear of the unfamiliar, the naked aggression, the consequences of beating on a couple of foreigners and, due to susceptibility to the cold, my multiple clothing layers, which made me look big.
Reaching the roadside, without a car in sight – let alone a taxi – the bouncer closest Bob motioned his head indicating the thugs then, whispered into Bob’s ear, “Mafia”.
[Anti-coopetitionist! And, ultimately, organised-crime’s organiser is the systems of Survival-Income-Slavery (SIS) and The USI-absence.]
…
Putting these thugs and the ‘walking through the park’ pair aside, overall, I loved Ukraine and loved its tough, resilient yet sensitive people.
Regarding whether Donetsk should be part of Ukraine or Russia, I have been to a number of contested regions – including West Papua, East Timor (pre-independence), Kurdish-Iraq, Nagorno-Karabakh, Xinjiang and the West Bank – and, in every one of them, there has been talk of that contestation – actually, it has dominated the discourse as locals often take the opportunity of a foreigner’s presence to voice their frustrations – however, in Donetsk, it was never raised – notwithstanding the people spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian, I had no inkling of anyone wanting the region to be either part of Russia or separate from Ukraine; even in retrospect, none.
Slava Ukraini.
Greatest Problem: Person (Putin) or System?
First, the ‘encroachment’ of NATO upon Russia is only occurring because Russia is Authoritarian and Russia’s neighbours are fearful of that Authoritarianism. Similarly, Putin is only fearful of NATO’s encroachment because he is an Authoritarian. Thus, the solution is for Russia to become Coopetitionist, which includes being Democratic. We can assist by becoming fully-Coopetitionist thereby demonstrating the model.
Second, in Coopetitionism theory, a sociopath is someone who is intrinsically internally motivated towards anti-Coopetitionist behaviour.
That is, they only Cooperate in order to Compete – i.e. when they do ‘Cooperate’, it’s in order to manipulate.
This is because they lack empathy, which means their self-actualisation involves maximising their self-benefit to the extent they are willing (without remorse) to sacrifice other individuals and groups.
On this basis, as is commonly being suggested, Putin appears to be a sociopath.
However, the difference between a sociopath and what is usual concerns motivations rather than rationality.
Thus, in the case of atrocity-committing Putin, while he is furious (because matters aren’t going his way), he is likely still rational, which means, as long as he is not totally cornered, he won’t start World War III and he will only use WMD’s if he thinks he – personally – can gain from it. [For instance, if the West is perceived as cowering and cowardly, depending on the unfolding circumstances, a tactical nuke or 2 in Western Ukraine is not impossible – i.e. it wouldn’t be a direct attack on NATO yet would offer the greatest warning possible, it would destroy supply lines (by creating a no-person wasteland) and leave Eastern Ukraine separated to Putin’s devices.]
Accordingly, Putin should not be allowed to keep incrementally testing limits. On the contrary, there should be push-back, which stops short of invading or attacking Russian soil – i.e. there can be a no-fly zone over Ukraine, Belarus can be extra-pressured (maybe democratised) and no Ukrainian territory annexed (including, perhaps, returning the territories lost in 2014).
Third, since Authoritarianism both facilitates sociopaths and catalyses sociopathy, even if Putin is overthrown, unless the Russian system is Coopetitionised, similar is likely to repeat either immediately (from experience of micro-scale similar situations, often the replacement is worse than the predecessor) or down-the-track. In addition, globally, there are other countries with Authoritarian systems and each feeds off the others – i.e. would the War in Ukraine be occurring and would, for instance, Myanmar and North Korea be how they are if not for the existence of the giant anti-Coopetitionist ‘Middle Kingdom’?
Thus, in addition to winning the War in Ukraine and disposing of Putin, concurrently, we must also optimise our system via perfecting our Coopetitionism model – if this had occurred centuries or just decades ago, there would be no Authoritarianism and, therefore, no Putin or Xi. Fortunately, once the decision to achieving this is made, implementing it is easy, non-sacrificial and extremely pleasant, which is sort of the point.
Thank you.
Best regards
Paul Ross
Founder, The Citizen’s Dividend Organisation (CDO)
Prospective 2022 Senate Candidate (Victoria)