A Contemporary Story 

Why are stories so important? Because they can define our actions AND our REALITY. The point of this section is not to convince you about the rights and wrongs of what is unfolding but how what I have referred to as “story” is used (or misused).The blog today is an attempt to illustrate why what has been written is valid and important... 

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Russia invades Ukraine. Over 100,000 Russian troops massed at the border then invaded. 

Let me state that I am by no means an expert on the area nor their history. However, the basis of the war is a “story”. I will try to be as factual as possible, but some conjectures will emerge. 

The following was written before the invasion of Ukraine, and I have changed the order of the article. My comments are in brackets. 

(The story) : Last July, President Putin published a strange missive about Ukraine and Russia and their historical relationship.  It presents the kind of argument that makes historians wince.  The basic idea is that a thousand years ago there was a country called Rus, the most important city in Rus was Kyiv, and now a thousand years later Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine, and therefore Ukraine cannot be a real country, and everyone involved, and their descendants must be Russians or a brotherly nation to Russians….  Moscow did not exist at the time, Kyiv was not ruled from Moscow until late in its history, the story of the brotherly nations is recent, as for that matter is national identity in the modern sense.  But you can't really engage in historical argument with people who are set on believing a myth, let alone with presidents who believe that the past is just there to confirm their present prejudices. 

An invasion of Ukraine would be a horror for Ukrainians, who have done nothing to provoke it.  Ukraine has about fourteen thousand war dead and about two million internal refugees from the last Russian invasion, and the suffering this time would be much worse.  (The Washington Post Isabelle Khurshadyan, reported Feb. 25, 2022 “The Kremlin has repeatedly referred to Ukraine as a "brotherly nation." But we witnessed hundreds of people huddling together in fear of airstrikes in the underground metro. They don't have a lot of brotherly love for the country that forced them to shelter there.)  

There are people in the Kremlin and in the Russian armed forces who know perfectly well that Putin's view of Ukraine does not conform to reality.  If it did so, Ukrainians would have welcomed Russia's last invasion.   

In 2014, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was part of a larger offensive against democracy in Europe and the United States.  Russia was able to drive its own political memes through western media, and even create doubt about its own offensive operations as they were underway.  Russia's propaganda victory in Ukraine in 2014 spurred it on to cyberwarfare against members of the European Union and the United States.  

This time around, Russian propaganda has been much less effective. Putin’s threat to invade Ukraine is clearly linked to Europe and the United States, but this time perhaps in a different way.  Rather than invading without warning, Russia has ostentatiously prepared for an invasion, and then warned the West that whatever happens is all their fault.  Russia has elbowed the Europeans aside, insisting on speaking directly with the Americans.  This has brought Ukraine (yet again) to American domestic politics, in a configuration that is awkward for President Biden.  Perhaps that is the point.   

https://snyder.substack.com/p/how-to-think-about-war-in-ukraine?utm_source=url&fbclid=IwAR3x2Svwq_jSJWQBbyhasbFaAP8OZMxFb_ozgZAH6X89ej4pShZtd9fODXI

 In 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from Russia, the United States and Britain, under a treaty called the Budapest Memorandum. At the time, Ukraine was the third largest nuclear power.

Obviously the treaty was broken, and nothing was done to enforce it.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, fomented a separatist rebellion in the east soon after and backed the rebels militarily, and on Monday announced it was recognizing the two breakaway territories as states, striking at Ukraine's territorial integrity. Russia's President Vladimir Putin invaded, using the false pretext that Ukraine was committing "genocide."

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has been invoking the Budapest Memorandum a lot lately, calling for security guarantees for his country and saying if there were no such guarantees, then the country must assume the treaty is "not working."

Zelensky had made clear his feelings that Ukraine was betrayed and many other Ukrainians share that feeling. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/25/questions-russia-ukraine-crisis-live-chat/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert&wpmk=1&wpisrc=al_world__alert-world&pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJjb29raWVuYW1lIjoid3BfY3J0aWQiLCJpc3MiOiJDYXJ0YSIsImNvb2tpZXZhbHVlIjoiNWU5ODA4YzRhZGU0ZTI1NzM1M2M4YWY4IiwidGFnIjoid3BfbmV3c19hbGVydF9yZXZlcmUiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vd29ybGQvMjAyMi8wMi8yNS9xdWVzdGlvbnMtcnVzc2lhLXVrcmFpbmUtY3Jpc2lzLWxpdmUtY2hhdC8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1hbGVydCZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj13cF9uZXdzX2FsZXJ0X3JldmVyZSZsb2NhdGlvbj1hbGVydCZ3cG1rPTEmd3Bpc3JjPWFsX3dvcmxkX19hbGVydC13b3JsZCJ9.YlXRp_f2yG8QbYlK2rNcgFbJd7pnvlul31fKr-xEu-Q 

Putin has claimed that justification for invading Ukraine is to “de-nazify” the country. Ukraine is led by a non-Nazi Jewish president. 

In case you missed it, story is important today and is used to justify actions.  That is why this blog was created to help the reader understand that story is based on fact, myths and fabrication to suit a particular end. Try to know what fact and fiction is, then decide.

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https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/02/25/ap22056245267903_custom-7ae403dbe7bfa0c5f8fcb609b0c5c9881a0ee521-s1600-c85.webp

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/02/25/ap22055762688565_custom-fdd044da579c2f366052a8b7e53254d2be6a9a03-s1600-c85.webp

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/I4MAQCUUCYI6ZOZROT6ANQFDUU.jpg&w=916

 

 

Motivation and Story

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a framework to consider what stories will resonate. If the group to which one is talking, is starving they are less concerned with the higher as they may fail to satisfy the most important rule – survival. Hence an agricultural surplus can provide the lowest level of needs and move on to the next level. A tribe can provide safety in numbers. Early unarmed Homo Sapiens are no match for large predators but in a group, armed and coordinated hunting party can ward off predators and successfully hunt game larger than themselves. The hunting party and the tribe can satisfy love and belongingness as well as self-esteem as the hunting party had to be successful for hunter gatherers to survive and thrive. The hunting party could be used for self defense (or attack) against other tribes. (Wow! This is not hard to see how the hunting party would have higher status. There are many concepts not yet discussed such as Status, Power, Leadership, Politics, Economics etc. …later….) 

Human beings have survived because they are social animals.  Our earliest ancestors were small and weak compared to the animals with which they competed.  Early and present humans did not possess obvious advantages such as incredible strength, the sharpest fangs or claws, sensory skills like smell or sight or even quickness. What kept us alive was banding together so our lack in every regard was compensated by the many AND the ability to convey what one saw to the group. This helped develop sensitivity to emotion, facial and verbal language. The advantage they had was a superior intellect and the ability to be able to work as a team. 

What draws us to certain individuals or to certain groups?  At its primal level -- survival.  At a higher level, is a feeling of belonging.  Progressively it may be advancement, betterment, or curiosity with a sense of belonging. People need constants and a simplification of purpose.  The traditions that groups of people have reinforced their sense of oneness. (Perhaps a quote, but I can’t find the source). 

Motivation is literally the desire to do things. It's the difference between waking up before dawn to pound the pavement and lazing around the house all day. It's the crucial element in setting and attaining goals—and research shows you can influence your own levels of motivation and self-control.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/motivation 

Motivation is simply what drives people to a particular end.  One of the biggest problems in human interactions is the belief that one can determine the motivation of another.  In simpler terms, "I know why you did what you did." (Perhaps a quote, but I can’t find the source). However, if an individual can figure out "I know why you did what you did." AND he/she can manipulate that to serve another end, a leader has been hatched (Leadership will be discussed later in more detail). Simplistically a leader tells a story that motivates a particular action. For example. A hunting leader can direct the hunt. A storyteller can conjure up a tale PRIOR to the hunt to motivate the group. 

Humans as per their drive to survive have always been interested in connecting with something greater than themselves. In prehistoric times, there is evidence that tribes had one of their group that could claim to connect with the spirits.  There were likely several reasons for this.  One was to gain advantage in the hunt. The spirits were called upon to help the tribe find and kill game.  The second may have been a form of propaganda.  If the tribe believed that connection to spirits would improve the odds of their success.  It was likely a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Henry Ford once said, if you believe you can, or you believe you can't, you're probably right.  If this propaganda was a successful it would help the tribe.  It would also add to the power of the individual who claimed to connect with the spirits.  Whether he did or did not wasn’t important.  It was the perception that he did or did not.    

Often in motivation - story (belief) is considerably more important than fact. 

This is as important now as it always was. Consider the present political divide. Either side often accuses the other of falsifying the issues. Say side A accuses side B of falsifying the issues. Even if side B is proven correct it is often the case that few if any of side A will be moved to change their view. My conclusion is that is because side A’s view is a belief (and facts can be ignored). It is hard to change beliefs with facts. ©