With the news of Russia invading the Ukraine, my heart has been very heavy. The Ukraine has been growing up from its infancy as a sovereign nation since back in the 90’s to its own very real, very independent, country. I’m not going to rehash the many reasons that Russia has used as “excuses” to invade. You can read those elsewhere. I’m going to comment on the bottom line, primitive emotion that Putin seems to be invoking here. That is one of selfishness.
The other news of the world is that we seem to be slowly coming out of our pandemic. Mask mandates are dropping for those that aren’t immunocompromised or unvaccinated. Vaccinations and omicron infections seem to have gotten us to where we need to be, for now. This is good news. The thing that I think our collective last two years, and Russia have in common, is that word “selfishness” again.
The thing that really bothers me about Russia, is the same thing that really bothers me about a healthy adult who chose not to vaccinate. We all live in one world. Russia invading the Ukraine is about Russia ignoring the betterment of the world, and just focusing, wrongfully IMHO, on just themselves. Hurting the world in the mean time. A person who chose not to vaccinate themselves was choosing themself over the community they live in. The were, in essence, saying “I am more important than the collective I rely on everyday”.
Russia’s act will cause oil prices to go up for everybody, cause financial markets to sputter, and most importantly, cause people to die, needlessly. A person who decided not to vaccinate, yet went out into the world to buy groceries, take their kids to school, or attend a gathering, was, at a smaller level, causing the same type of ripple effects. If, every capable adult had gotten vaccinated immediately, we would have gotten to this place much sooner. And it would have been better for the world. On all levels.
Some may have a tough time making the leap from one to another. But to me, the selfishness is obvious in both cases.
I’ll leave you with this, if you were in a shipwreck, and ended up on an island, where a group collaboration was paramount to survival, what type of person would you want standing next to you? A person who choses based on the greatest good, or one looking out for themselves?
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