Why We're All To Blame For The Ukraine War

In this video I responding to ‪@carefreewandering‬ on the topic of Ukraine and The Pariah Principle. I argue instead that the conflict boils down to an ideological self-resentment and escapism caused by the one-sidedness of Individualism and Statism.
I provide a historical account of why the West and Russia are making moves to demonise and alienate each other. I also push back on Moeller's suggestion of Chinese mediation as well as suggest another possibility.
Carefree Wandering's Video: • Ukraine War: De-Escala...
John Mearsheimer: • Why is Ukraine the Wes...
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[@PerspectivePhilosophy]

What you think is the Cause and Solution to the Ukraine War?

[@scambammer6102]

The cause is Russia's desire to regain the former soviet territories. The "solution" is decades of war and bloodshed. What we call it is irrelevant.

[@capitalistholocaust3128]

As many experts (inc. Chomsky) have warned us, NATO's slow creeping expansion since the 90s, right up to Russia's borders, poses an existential threat to them. NATO's "prize", Ukraine, is right at the point of the traditional invasion route where Russia has been virtually destroyed several times. Any Russian leader would have reacted to this provocation. Neutrality, something the US didn't want, but Putin was happy with, would have been a solution. The United States desire to subjugate Europe in it's quest for global hegemony made this impossible.

[@johanviliebert7493]

is there a way to debate you?

[@MenachemRosenberg]

Everyone knows that Russias system might not be communist anymore, but its still led by a communist regime since the collapse, they havent given up on that sick ideology and they wont. The solution would a further collapse in smaller nations according to their demography.

[@orcho141]

Russia sees the ex soviet states as their own, and they're looking to reclaim them over time. You can see this in both their actions and their words, from what Putin says all the way to what their media says. They would have taken the Baltics by now if they weren't in NATO, and that's why so many Eastern European countries were desperate to join. Every other 'justification' has been fabricated.

[@lendrestapas2505]

Love the video! Would love to see more videos with specific topics.

[@Jibab53]

Love the new production! You're the goat PP

[@donaldanderson6578]

Great to have you back Lewis. There's so much confusion around these issues out there so thanks for your in-depth input.

[@emil_1847]

PP returns with another banger.

[@PerspectivePhilosophy]

Thanks man

[@masisam]

Loving the set up for this vid - has a 'Storyteller' (anyone old enough to remember this?) kind of feel, just need a cuppa and a open fire in shot! Very interesting video also!

[@orgate3953]

Glad to see you back PP. I wonder to what extent exactly you feel the West is responsible in this crisis. Surely Russia should be bear the brunt of the blame given that they were the ones to make their ideology concrete and causing the death of the Ukrainian people by invading the country and in the West our aggression was inviting Ukraine to join us, a much more healthy expression of our ideology.

[@PerspectivePhilosophy]

Well I would certainly say they are wholly responsible for the invasion but our responsibility lays in our diplomacy (or lack-of).

[@orgate3953]

@@PerspectivePhilosophyAre there any specific things you would rather we have done? The points you made in the video all seemed to me like inevitable of capitalist beliefs rather than active behaviour on the Wests part and Im not sure what the way around that is

[@killerskiely100]

Nothing wrong with striding for the perfect society.

[@nathanliteroy9835]

Problem with all those arguments is that people keep equating Putin and Russia. It repeats Russian Parliament speaker recent words "Russia is Putin". The wants "Russia" in this video has is generally old generation's security and military people thinking which what Putin's close circle is, and current war in terms of thinking inside Russia is the last breath of the old people. All younger generations were generally much more pro-western and liberal, and less nostalgic about USSR with less common resentment. Russia also had a huge part of the population with hopes to join western society at the beginning of the 90s because a lot of people were envying west since late Soviet time, there was a quite developed double thinking in late USSR - you talked about communism and wanted jeans. But it all quickly ended when economic westernization didn't bring quick return to any kind of economic stability and at least hope of prosperity. Sergei Guriev (Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) says that that period in the 90s is when US and Europe could use money to help Russia and significantly influence it's development but for one reason or another didn't. Which has sullied Russian people to the idea of democracy (it started to be called "dermocracy", "dermo" being "shit") and West being friendly. This repeats with Putin's personal journey - he wanted to be embraced and heard in the West until 2007. For example he was friends with Bush who has brought him on his ranch, Putin even took out Cuba military base as a gift for Bush, only US didn't return any of his enthusiasm. So he turned away, became resentful, and turned to old quasi-Soviet way of thinking, and then dragged whole country into the same state with propaganda. Lastly I don't like post-mortem takes that include inevitability or imply historic forces or lack of change because it removes individual responsibility, and leaders have the most of it since they are the ones who have the most power in their systems. I don't think that Russia and West relationship wasn't as even as presented, and there were many opportunities to that in some cases were not taken

[@ayylmao8096]

Thank you for this, you're spot on!

[@flexo3333]

*Narcissus

[@lendrestapas2505]

Have you read "Dialectic of Enlightenment" by Adorno and Horkheimer?

[@PerspectivePhilosophy]

I haven't but I probably should

[@lendrestapas2505]

@@PerspectivePhilosophy it‘s a great and insightful book. It‘s been called a letter in a bottle because it‘s still so relevant for today‘s understanding of society. Adorno was also a great reader, follower and critic of Hegel.

[@TheKiroshi]

24 minutes in and the first mention of Ukarine in a video about "we're all to blame for the Ukarine war"..

[@jeremya4468]

The legend has returned. Enjoyed seeing you back in action my friend, hope to see you more often again!

[@nathanielg.m.888]

So nice to have you back

[@georgepantzikis7988]

I don't know if this is caused by the assurance of tone and posture inherent to scripted content, but compared to previews live content this video gives me the impression that PP has had a shift of self-consciousness. It feels like he is a metaphysically changed man from his last upload. In a good way. The blend of extreme severity and simplicity in his mannerisms almost approximates religious language. Did anyone else get that or is it just me?

[@noobslayeru]

He seems a bit more chill yeah.

[@Dr-Sardonicus]

What precisely do you mean by a shift of self consciousness? A shift in what direction? (If direction is even an adequate term(

[@orcho141]

The way you talk about giving Russia the influence over Europe it wants, completely denies the agency of those Eastern European states.

[@PerspectivePhilosophy]

I'm not for giving Russia everything it wants and since this my position has changed as the war has revealed more and more about Russia

[@benhaylock7097]

Thanks for the update, I'm glad to see your position can evolve on this. I would call myself far left but never fell for the tankie argument

[@liammarra4003]

The quote putin said about the USSR collapsing being a tragedy was because in an instant, some 20 some million Russian became stateless. Or something like that, thats what I always thought that was about.

[@dempsey2023]

How did they become stateless? They formed independent states, and eventually joined different associations.

[@movement2contact]

What "stateless"? They could return to their shit swamp on day 1 after collapse...

[@puppetperception7861]

Good to see you again. Looking good 👍

[@stewfire4916]

There are way to many things to properly unpack this, so I'll just make a list: 1. Russia and China may see the West as enemy, however the West only ever saw them as a threat due to this. However, appeasing was continually tried since WWII, and China is the best example. "If you treat them like enemies, they will become enemies" - is the diplomatic adage behind the west opening towards trade with China. China's attitude: trick them out of their wealth, then defeat them in the long run. Which is wrong on so many levels. The West wanted something similar, however never to "defeat" China - merely to change their politica system to liberal democracy through commerce. At the same time, that was a fatal mistake. By trading with a nation who's citizens can't even make their own decisions, the West strengthened the authoritarian system enslaving them, and put itself at huge risk of getting enslaved by such a system as well. Russia is similar: they botched up their own change to liberalism and capitalism (although the pressure from western financial ideology did help), and as they failed without really trying, they turn around crying about all of it being the West's fault somehow. However, not trading with them as they became agressors is the right move in the long run: this is the only tactic we know which doesn't require direct intervention and still can achieve the results wanted. But I don't see how the argument: "philosophical disagreement between the east and the west should be resolved by war" would win in even the lowest tiers of debate. Because if you already want to end debate by choosing war, still debating is it's own paradox. Same for anyone arguing something like "power is the only real factor, morality doesn't exist". 2. The West may be decadent, but at least it's citizens can choose not to be decadent and we also think decadence is immoral, while no one in the east can choose to go against the status quo. The east-west debate is the same debate Robespierre vs Danton had. Again and again we realize that Danton was correct. Decadent flourishing still beats demise in ideological purity: simply because "Water which is too pure has no fish" - complete purity is an impossibility in our current paradigm of economic and moral development. 3. Overall, individual freedom is the basis of all other political values. You can't possibly choose and express your own values without it. And over all, if you forgo debate and discourse, your only remaning option is pure power. Unfortunately for revolutionaries, that means becoming moderates and sticking to reform - unless they are unable to express their opinion freely, which is probably the only time one has any moral ground to use force. Other than that, the only choice is becoming authoritarian.

[@ayylmao8096]

Stop with the revisionism regarding Russia. It was at the complete mercy of the West but mainly the US didn't want to take part in any of the economic reform programs set out by experts working on liberalising the Russian economy. The US didn't want to excuse Russia's debt despite it being bankrupt, it didn't want to invest by giving it loans like it did in the Marshall plan, it expanded NATO despite it not posing any threat and having had all opportunities to become allies. For christ's sake, politicians in congress like Powell wondered what the fuck the US was doing, because he was one of the ones who hoped for better relations. Russia did everything it could by themselves and it could only do as much. The EU at least tried to normalize, but it caved in to the US influence and NATO expansion. All of this can be read about if you google The Wolfowitz doctrine and what it says. War hawks are largely to blame for this story.

[@TheKiroshi]

Okay, im going to say this video is pretty terrible. At least for my interest being on hearing a take of "why Ukarine war?" Maybe the focus is more on challanging this other professor dude's take. Who is ignorant as well as Perspective Philosophy. The one thing I can say he got right is the fact that losing the USSR is a "failing of character" to Russia oligarchy. So much of this video is focused on the melodrama of the Red Scare and propaganda of it.. Which makes PP ignorance so painful. Ukarine was the HUB of the USSR's propaganda. Its always been an anti-ussr nation too, its why the pressure and cultural hatred exists to this day, Ukarinian people did not, do not, and will not endure more claims of their traditions, their culture and their history as "oh its Russian". The clothing, the development, the public facing geopolitics.. the standard of living. ALL of Ukarine is the USSR's bane for not being Russia. Thats the only reason why the Ukraine invasion exists. Because its not Russia.. not because the west didnt do enough.. truely, fuck you for not even mentioning any of acts done to settle tensions.. Ukarine since its independence being fought for in the 50s and finally gained in 1991, has tried over and over to either appease or appropriate Russia.. but its NEVER been enough. All the agreements were either disregarded or ignored. the only time Russia backs off is when it's beaten off. From its genocide attempts to its diplomacy efforts, if Russia cannot have complete control, its not in Russia's interest to take an agreement, but to use it to become safe until their next attempt to break agreements. It doesnt matter if its agreements to never join NATO, it doesnt matter if its a cultural change, it doesnt matter if its food and genocide, it doesnt matter if its an unprompted invasion, than a ceasefire they break TWICE, than another invasion!!! The West doing more? How? Calming down russian power-struggles? How are you going to do that without threatening them more? Give them a kiss and tell them that you love them? "Oh sorry Ukarine, we failed you ;