Bucephalus. Alexander the Great’s favourite steed. The most famous horse in history. Its name means ‘spirited and mettlesome’. (What does ‘mettlesome’ mean? Glad you asked. It means ‘full of courage’.) When presented with the horse, Bucephalus was said to be rearing up and untameable. Alexander, possibly the first horse whisperer in history, turned his horse to face the sun rather than to have the sun behind him. Having the sun behind him had caused Bucephalus’ own shadow to jump and leap in front of him, which had frightened the horse and caused him to jump and leap some more. Alexander’s genius was to spot this and turn Bucephalus 180 degrees so his shadow was behind him. Which calmed the horse down and made him Alexander’s forever.
Simple.
It is a motto of mine that we should turn to the sun and put our shadows behind us. When the weather permits, you will always find me, eyes closed and with my face raised to face the sun and feel its warmth upon my skin. As a metaphor, it also helps me escape the melancholy that can descend when I dwell too much on things past, on missed opportunities, regrets or on the demons which can haunt my soul from time to time. Facing into the sun may make it hard to see but it’s far better for your mental health than staring into the dark shadows.
For the last three years now, we have all been staring into the shadows. First, Brexit. The shadow of ‘others’ – foreigners. Then the pandemic. The shadow of death. Now World War III, the shadow of past slights. Just over a year ago, I was complaining about the stasis we were all experiencing being stuck at home in the latest and longest lock down:
As I write this on 4 January 2021, it’s all a bit dark. We hoped for a better year when 2020, at last, disappeared from view. But just four days into the new year and the news comes that we are to go into a third national lock down in this seemingly never ending saga of coronavirus Hell. Schools have been cancelled. The children are stuck at home. We can’t see anyone, go anywhere, do anything. The world is hibernating and the promise that the vaccines held out seems a long way from bringing any meaningful relief from this drudgery.
An atmosphere of drudgery and immobility. Thirteen months on and we are staring into the abyss. It’s anything but drudgery. It is extreme high stress. This time, a man-made catastrophe beckons: a war between Putin’s aggressive government and the Ukraine. A war (let’s not play the Soviet style euphemism of language) which threatens to drag the world into nuclear armageddon because, like the playground brat who breaks everyone’s toys when no one else wants to play his game, Putin doesn’t want anyone else to have a world if they don’t want his Russia in it.
Putin is like a powerful horse that has no rider. He is a wild creature, flailing about without a plan, uncaring of the consequences of his actions on those around him. He is a danger to everyone and everything. He needs to be put in reins. Either from within Russia (preferably) or from without.
Imagine a world with Russia as a force for benevolence. Imagine a Russia that was a member of the international community, playing its part as the powerful player that it could be, not just be contrarian and against whatever anyone else is for. A wild horse might look magnificent to watch, but you don’t want to be any where near one and you certainly don’t want to be taken along for the ride. It will only end in falling off and grave injury. The Russian people are being asked to go along for this wild and unpredictable ride and they will not enjoy it. It will not end well for them. And it is extremely doubtful it will end well for any of us, either. Most immediately, not for Ukrainians.
How do we harness this wild horse running amok? This horse so scared by the shadows of the past and the humiliations of the post Soviet era. A beast that is so unpredictable and dangerous. How can we turn Russia to the sun and put its shadows behind it?
The west’s answer to that is to bring the animal to heel by putting innumerable leashes on its ability to move. The measures which have crippled Russia’s central bank from being able to trade on the foreign exchange markets and the removal of the entire Russian banking system from the SWIFT payment system are, in combination with sanctions on the oligarchs and a swathe of tactics to isolate Russia in every field of international participation, tying the beast down. The beast is now severely restricted. But as it has its options for movement restricted, so it gets more desperate. And a desperate, cornered wild animal is lethal.
How do we turn Russia to the sun? It is going to take the guile of an Alexander to achieve this. And what a magnificent achievement it will be. Because it will return one of the world’s greatest nations to the brotherhood of man. But who is up to that task? China. Xi Jinping. He is our new Alexander the Great. As provenly ruthless. Full of at least as much guile as Putin. And, in spite of China not having as many nukes as Russia, more powerful than Putin and quite literally the only person on the planet Putin has to listen to. Xi Jinping might tolerate a couple of nuclear strikes on NATO, a small nuclear exchange to weaken NATO but he will not permit Putin to unleash armageddon on Earth. That would not be in China’s interests. President Xi may not turn Russia to the sun. But he might at least turn her from her headlong gallop into oblivion. And in so doing, save us all from human wipe out and exact some extremely advantageous terms to playing the peace broker.
One thing is clear. I do not blame Russia and Russians. I do not think that thinking people do. We know too many Russians who are horrified by what is going on. This carnage is not being carried out in their name and they have been muzzled by a stream of legislation which effectively imprisons the entire nation, forcing them into quiescence. But that is small solace when every minute of social media time, television news and the whole cacophony of noise that dominates our waking hours contains the suffering and possibility of yet more suffering inflicted on the world by one leprous member. For years now the regime has poisoned, corrupted, sabotaged, annexed, harassed, bullied, imprisoned, assassinated, bribed and butchered its opponents and anyone innocent who gets in the way. It is evil. It has to go. Pray God that the Russian people and the cabal of Putin’s inner sanctum find the courage to confront this Wizard of Oz, drag him out from behind the curtain and destroy his ability to wreak havoc on the world.
It is so hard to see the toll this is taking on my beloved. She is distraught. Distraught that her country is inflicting such misery on the world and particularly on her brothers and sisters in Ukraine. For that is what they are: brothers and sisters. The two are so wrapped up in each other’s stories and fates that it is like an act of self harm and unspeakable cruelty exacted on the closest family member. And that goes so heavily with her. Excruciating pain and anguish. Exhausting mental turmoil. Sleeplessness. Emotional emptiness. Anger. Hopelessness. She likens it to how Germans must have felt and were viewed after the Second World War. To be a pariah. For her, and millions like her, and for all of us, the clouds of war have obscured our sun.