The world has never been united and monolithic. It was, is, and will always be divided, belligerent and antagonistic, the strongest corroboration of which is the obvious failure of the overly hopeful human attempt at felicitous and successful globalization. The only consolation here might be the thought that a globalized, monochromatic and monotonous world would be much less enjoyable than the diversified, multicolor and polyphonic one we have.
The latest pattern of mankind coming apart is its contradictory attitude toward the war in Ukraine, which is no longer qualified as just another trivial clash between two nations, Russia and Ukraine, but a real proxy war between the isolated Russia and the consolidated collective West, adamantly and iron-handedly headed by the United States.
Isn’t it frustrating that the world has all of a sudden (more precisely, since the 24th of February, 2022) found itself living between the hammer and the anvil? On the one hand, we are concerned with the idea of holding up Ukraine as a fresh symbol of the unmitigated fight for freedom and democracy in the world, and on the other, the selfsame world is shuddering with fear that the cornered and beleaguered Russia might press the nuke button in desperation, leading the Earth to incineration.
We all know a way out of this worldwide limbo has to be found forthwith, but the newly crystallized geopolitical cul-de-sac seems to be heavily blocked by Ukraine’s fair-enough reluctance to give up even an inch of its desperately fought for land, and Russia’s foisted-on-the-West stubborn persistence that the occupied Ukrainian lands legally, morally and historically belong to mother Russia. At this point, it is the most unsolvable problem the world has ever been faced with in its long and war-rich history. Not even an expert in the field of political science can or will tell us right now where the key to the solution of this mind-boggling dilemma lies.
The world is in an utterly perilous expectation, bereft of human readiness to use reasonable efforts to save the globe from the incipient disaster. And there is not an iota of exaggeration in this seemingly pessimistic statement. The irreversible facts of our current life on earth speak volumes: Additional arms are heading onto the already burnt Ukrainian soil to keep killing the young and the old indiscriminately; the conquered country continues to be heavily bombed; people are abandoning their homes in fearful haste to find abode somewhere beyond the boundaries of their motherland; the infamous military blocs are bringing additional nations into their ranks; the majority of countries are augmenting their military budgets; some of those trigger-happy combatants are celebrating their lethal success all over the place; the overly complacent geopolitical giants, in their ambition and unjustified desire to shape international relations to their own discretion, are becoming more and more hostile towards each other; human life is much cheaper than it was yesterday; the arms race has reversed to its Cold War modus operandi, and the nuclear variable is becoming a clearly decisive factor in the current geopolitical equation.
What else is left among the worst things that could happen to humankind in its millennia-old endeavor to make life more livable on our old and well-weathered earth? The impression is that the modern world is running amok, and God has washed His blessed hands of it. The Tower of Babylon is being reinvented so that the human race never speaks a mutual language again. Meanwhile, as these bitter-tasting words are being written both in stone and in the stars, the havoc and mayhem continue in Ukraine, faltering on the brink of total annihilation, and the powers that could but won’t stop the unlikely-for-the-21st century chaos are sitting and imperturbably playing with a fire that has the undoubted potential to turn into a real conflagration. Firefighters, if there are any left, would be like doctors coming after the patient has died. Question: Why has the world become so devoid of soul and wit? Why does it remain as egregiously split and undecided as it has always been?
Op-ed by Nugzar B. Ruhadze
