Crisis 22: Part 2. Waking Up

With Open Eyes

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In this section I look at the way many of us were forced to wake up and take a good look at what’s going on in the world. Many of us were shaken by the Russian invasion, and scrambled to find ways to cope with crisis overload.

The first three pages chronicle ▸ my long-standing fear of nuclear war, ▸ my attempt to ignore the latent problems within Russia, and ▸ my shock at the events of 2022.

⏳ The Ghost of Crises Past compares my fears today with 1. Shelley’s mix of pessimism and optimism in early 19th century England, and 2. my fears during the Cold War in the 1980s.

✈️ Dream Vacation 2005 is a nostalgic take on travelling to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vladímir, and Suzdal. I look back at that 2005 trip and sigh. I think Ah, a Russia that could have been...

In⛱️ Rip Van Winkle I illustrate how I went abruptly from 30 years of self-induced dreaminess to a present state of high anxiety — as if a siren blasted a tsunami alert while I was sitting comfortably on a Cuban beach smoking a cigar and drinking a rum and coke, in the early evening, as the sun set over the fine sands of Playas del Este…

On the next page, 🍒 Macaron, Not Macron, I concoct a fictional scenario in which my protagonist is willfully oblivious to the political and military dangers which are mounting all around him.

The next two pages — 🥕 The Carrot & ❤️ Caritas — look at how difficult it is in general to go from enjoying life to thinking about the problems of politics and war. The next three pages carry on this discussion, specifically in light of the situation in Ukraine:

The next two pages explore the violent and chaotic realities we need to confront. The first reality is largely exterior to us, coming as it does from Moscow & Kiev. 🌉 Jovanka on the Bridge stresses how disturbing it is to follow the news about an asymmetrical war in which thousands are killed every day, and in which Russian priests are blessing bombs. The second reality is largely interior, part of our lives as we sit in front of our computers. 🎸 The Algorithmics illustrates the dangers of following your bliss & anger. I suggest that a non-critical use of algorithmic technology can keep us in a terrorized bubble and can also funnel our thoughts into intolerance and violence.

The final three pages focus on how to find a state of peace amid all this chaos.

☯️ Both In and Out of the Game argues that we can’t ignore the Ukraine War, and yet we can’t let ourselves get swallowed by it either. I suggest a third option, a mode of being in which we engage and disengage at the same time. Walt Whitman provides one version of this: he faces “the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful news, the fitful events” yet also remains “Apart from the pulling and hauling […] both in and out of the game.”

❄️ Political Modes of Being explores similar modes of engaging & escaping, this time in the poetry of Eliot & Keats, in the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, and in any religious philosophy which allows for the defensive use of violence.

🏛️ Stoicism & Religion looks at two old ways of mixing reality and idealism: 1. the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius, which urges us to enter courageously into the tide of human events; and 2. any version of religion which encourages us to stand up to intolerance, authoritarianism, and injustice.

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Next: ⏳ The Ghost of Crises Past

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