[Note: The following is an exercise in creative visioning, not a political statement. Use the comments section to write your own vision for peace between Russia and Ukraine, or add an element to this one.]
If Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to end the war, then make a lasting, affirming peace with Ukraine, what options are open to him?
To make a sweeping impression, one that would categorize him as a world historical man, his extraction from this escalating jeopardy must be entirely original. Forget about Napoleon and Hitler, or the several U.S. presidents who prolonged the war in Vietnam and started other wars elsewhere on the planet.
Putin is in the unique position of creating a brand-new paradigm, one that might even prevent such wars in the future: He can be brave enough to tolerate vulnerability by saying to Ukraine, Russia, and the whole world, “I am sorry. I have made a terrible mistake starting a war with Ukraine, and I want to make things right.”
Preposterous, you might say, but a sincere apology can set in motion an alchemical reaction. Depending on the seriousness of the transgression, it can cause a death of the ego, whether partial or whole, minor or monumental. Death of the ego simulates a near-death experience, customarily inducing a feeling of rebirth, which is a lot like resurrection, a renewal of the soul, otherwise known as the True Self. Basking in voluntary humility can, counterintuitively, lead to transcendence of the spirit.
Why is apology so essential? Because it’s the most powerful forfeiture of ego available, especially an apology of this magnitude.
Each life, including Putin’s, represents a divine soul exercising its opportunity to live the life of a human being on Planet Earth. Each person is here voluntarily and has the freedom to choose while they are here. Still, the body we’re born into is the property of the soul—not the other way around. Let’s call the soul our True Self, while our body—the way we look, the personality traits we adopt, the disguises we wear to conceal and protect our True Self—represents our ego, the face we put forward to the world. Ego is what helps us “face” what can sometimes feel like a very dangerous world. And the more we fear, the tougher our face.
Some will not admit that Putin has a soul. But of course he does. We all do, and that part of us is incorruptible. No one can be blamed for losing sight of their True Self. Everyone does, to greater or lesser degrees, depending on the influences in their lives. After the age of, say, three, almost no one can remember why they came here or who they were when they decided to come. So we need to be endlessly patient with ourselves and others for thinking that this life is the prize. It’s not the prize; it’s just the vehicle in which to evolve consciousness on this material plane.
President Putin is only one example of the billions of people on this planet who have lost their connection to their True Self. No being of God chooses to come to Earth to create suffering for humanity. When Putin dies and returns to the dimension from which he came, he will be allowed to see all his actions from the perspective of his soul, and he will weep with regret. Moreover, he will be forgiven. We are all forgiven in the end, surrounded by love and light so we can handle our sorrow over what we have wrought.
In the meantime, though, he has an opportunity to change the world for the better. He is still young enough, powerful enough, and maybe courageous enough to do something that no world leader has ever done: Admit he has made a mistake, apologize for the suffering he has caused, and offer to make amends. In Putin’s case, that includes rebuilding whatever remains of Ukraine and helping its citizens recover from their loss and trauma. The dead cannot be brought back to life, but everything else can be restored. A good place to start would be for him to commit to Ukraine’s sovereignty and follow up with a promise to protect it for as long as he lives. Finally, he and other Russians can start helping Ukraine rebuild, which will in itself be a powerful healing experience.
Martin Luther King Jr. felt that these three ingredients were essential in moving forward after prolonged turmoil: acknowledgment, apology, and reparation. These make up an alchemical triumvirate, because they put into motion a letting go of defense and offense, which softens positions and melts grievance. You cannot just forgive someone without their having forgiven themselves. These steps comprise the three stages of self-forgiveness, which is crucial in peacemaking.
Yes, it will be excruciatingly difficult for Putin to do this. He risks his own countrymen turning on him. He risks Ukraine refusing to believe him or not accepting his apology. And he risks global humiliation. But he might also achieve mythic standing in history as he creates a new archetype of manhood, humankind, and world leadership.
We will all be called on to forgive and support him in his long road of restoration. We must be willing. As Jesus said on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
--Hi Be.
Thank you so much for your efforts to visualize how peace might happen. I so LOVE that about you, and the Universal Unitarians.
Here are my thoughts. First, I hope my vision ends up where yours does, I.E. in “Forgiveness is key,”
Or “An eye for an eye makes us all blind”. That is SO in the right direction. If one fears “punishment” for what one says, that fear MUST be removed BEFORE a meaningful discussion can begin. So I write to contribute my small part, MY vision of how a meaningful peace might be achieved.
I would like to start with another Gandhi observation:
“The way of peace is the way of truth. Truthfulness is even more important than peacefulness.
Indeed, lying is the mother of violence.” --- Gandhi
To me ALL problems are a result of ignorance of not knowing the truth, along the lines of
Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer”. Turmoil comes from thinking "There MUST be a better way, and
not knowing what that better way IS.
Leaders don’t do the killing in wars; their followers do the killing. Iknow of no evidence that EITHER Hitler HIMSELF nor Putin HIMSELF killed a single person. The higher ignorance here is the belief that there are occasions when killing another human is justified, is acceptable, and that some problems can be successfully resolved by killing someone, either for their possessions ,or to silence their voice. And to thus think that leaders can/must/should change without changing ourselves. Individuals in the aggregate, not "rulers", have the real power.
As Gandhi (and Ettiene La Boetie,in his "Discourse on Voluntary Servitude") stated :
"I believe that no government can exist for a single moment without the cooperation of the people, willing or forced, and if people suddenly withdraw their cooperation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill.”
My vision would focus, not on the behavior of apparent leaders, but on the behavior of religious
organization, following MLK’s suggestion that what is needed is a “Revolution of Values.” (or as
the Santa Fe Institutes Samuel Bowles suggests: “Good laws are not a substitute for good
citizens.”) Congregations would have regular talking sessions, where individual members would
feel free to express and share their concerns on “what causes war” in general, or with specific
reference to Ukraine with each other, on the principle that truth matters, and that truth is indeed
what sets us free and unites our soul with universal consciousness/ Godhead. And as Rev. Gary
Kowalski pointed out in his sermon on “Better Together”, collectively we might each contribute a
part to a solution none are able to see in its entirety. They would discuss Christ’s (or whatever
prophet speaks most clearly to them) position on killing and demonizing a people, and instead
of portraying Russia and Putin as evil, explore how, in practical terms, one goes about “loving
your enemy”, “resisting not evil "," turning the other cheek”, “cease from judging other individuals”
and exploring how that position of hating an individual or an aggregation of individuals came into
being.
That discussion would look to FOREIGN or domestically DISSIDENT voices in their effort to
LOVE; LOVE after all being the ability to understand another, realizing the truth told by IF Stone
“ALL governments lie”. One would discuss the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact by Gorbachev,
on the idea that force is an unacceptable way to resolve disputes, as a goodwill initiative to the
previous adversarial “West”. One would read Putin’s speeches and understand the conditions
under which the post Warsaw Pact Russia would likely use force. One would also read and
discuss US publication to learn how the U.S. and NATO responded to Gorbachev’s peace
initiative. One would also discuss what one might be doing on a personal level, that would
cause someone to feel afraid, and what one might do individually, collectively as part of
a congregation, and how one might unite with other faith based groups to leverage their
message of how to make a better world.
And at some point, this discussion would lead to, and the congregation would happily embrace,
a discussion of the Nuclear Weapons “Modernization” program at Los Alamos National Labs,
and learn how one’s actions impact that program and world peace. They would begin with
learning the truth about “Why the bomb was built” and how the bomb was envisioned to be
used. All this discussion would be under the umbrella of “understanding”, and not “blaming”, but
based on a truth reconciliation process, with apologies, and then that all important forgiveness,
of oneself and others. In fact, in the most positive possible visualization for peace would have us
move directly to a discussion of THAT weapons program, realizing in the bottom of our hearts,
perhaps those bombs ARE just maybe, built for World Domination, and our acquiescence might
be responsible for what is happening in Ukraine? And once we withdraw our condolence of that
expansion of nuclear weapons, and this “modernization” (AKA as the U.S. wet dream for world
domination-aka as the benevolent despot) effort disappears, we reach agreement that, as the
Pope has stated, “Possession of Nuclear Weapons is IMMORAL”, as is their use for “deterrent”.
and the world agrees to abolish them. And then, at the Federal level, we create a Department
for Peace, for as JFK stated, we can’t have peace until we elevate the status of a conscientious
objector to the status of a soldier. And we enact a bill such as HB171, introduced by former
RCLC director, Andrea Romero, to Create a NM of Peacebuilding, to
“ teach the skills for nonviolent living in our schools statewide: dialogue, mediation and
Restorative Justice promoting Public Safety in NM homes, schools and communities. “
If Andrea can change THAT MUCH, so can anyone. Never say never.
“The way of peace is the way of truth. Truthfulness is even more important than peacefulness. Indeed, lying is the mother of violence.”---- Gandhi
"The fact is, I see no compelling reason why we should not unilaterally get rid of nuclear weapons. To maintain them is costly and adds nothing to our security." ---Paul Nitze, A Threat Mostly to Ourselves - New York Times http://nyti.ms/TAG6pU
"There is nothing comparable in our history to the deceit and the lying that took place as a matter of official Government policy in order to protect this [nuclear weapons] industry," said Mr.[Stewart] Udall. "Nothing was going to stop them and they were willing to kill our own people. ... "The atomic weapons race and the secrecy surrounding it crushed American democracy," Mr. Udall said in a interview. "It induced us to conduct Government according to lies. It distorted justice. It undermined American morality. Until the cold war, our country stood for something.”--- NY Times 8 June 1993
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.". -- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Erich Kuerschner, Public Choice Economist
17 State Road 230
El Prado, NM 87529
503-737-8507
erichwwk@gmail.com
Well said Be.