That our life is a game,
Good and evil, just dreams.
Labor, honesty are women's tales,
Who is right, who is happy here, friends,
Today you, and tomorrow me!
Herman's aria from the opera "The Queen of Spades"
Ludomania (from lat. Ludos – game) is a mental disorder in which the sufferer is so engrossed in gambling that it overshadows the person's life and emotions.
The Ukrainian conflict looks like a game of chance. Why? Diplomacy and war, as an extension of diplomacy in other ways, used to be compared to the game of chess, as it requires skill, logic, and excellent analytical skills. But the more I watch the conflict and what is happening around it, the more it looks like… not even poker tournament, but slot machine gambling. Why?
Let’s take a look.
The main triggers that trigger addictive behavior:
· deficiency of neurotransmitters responsible for controlling thinking and behavior;
· the desire to switch caused by a depressive state, experienced stress or psychological trauma;
· inertia of the nervous system, high mental reactivity, psycho-emotional lability;
· a tendency to addictions, adventures, extreme hobbies, which is determined by the psychotype of the individual;
· mental disorders, alcohol or drug addiction;
· family attitudes towards achieving material well-being by any means;
· financial difficulties (job loss, unpaid debts, loans)
Here you can see characteristic signs of gambling addiction:
· Lack of other interests.
· Changing slang.
· Constant financial difficulties.
· Psycho-emotional instability, anxiety, irritability.
· Problems with work, study, neglect of family responsibilities.
· Constant deceptions.
Looks familiar? To me – definitely.
Let us start with the deficiency of neurotransmitters that are responsible for thinking and behavior.
If we look back at European (and further Western in broader sense) history, we can see, that this civilization was always quite aggressive. At school, when we were learning about Greko-Persian wars, Persians were portrayed as barbarians, but, in fact, ancient Persian empire was far more civilized than Greek cities of those times.
A short reference:
In ancient times, Persia became the center of one of the greatest empires in history, stretching from Egypt to the Indus River. It included all previous empires - the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites. The later empire of Alexander the Great included almost all the territories that had previously belonged to the Persians, and it was smaller than Persia under King Darius.
Since 6th century. BC. before the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century. BC. for two and a half centuries, Persia held a dominant position in the Ancient World.
Greek rule lasted about a hundred years, and after its fall the Persian power was reborn under two local dynasties: the Arsacids (Parthian Kingdom) and the Sassanids (New Persian Kingdom). For more than seven centuries they kept first Rome and then Byzantium at bay, until in the 7th century. AD The Sassanid state was conquered by Islamic conquerors.
The development of culture in this region occurred progressively over many centuries. As in Mesopotamia (part of the territory of Persia), large brick houses were built, objects were made from cast copper, and then from cast bronze. Seals made of stone with a carved pattern appeared, which were evidence of the emergence of private property. The discovery of large jars for storing food suggests that supplies were made for the period between harvests. Among the finds from all periods there are figurines of the mother goddess, often depicted with her husband, who was both her husband and son.
The most remarkable thing is the huge variety of painted clay products, the walls of some of them are no thicker than the shell of a chicken egg. The figurines of birds and animals depicted in profile testify to the talent of prehistoric artisans. Some clay products depict the man himself, engaged in hunting or performing some kind of rituals. Around 1200–800 BC painted pottery gives way to monochromatic ones - red, black or gray, which is explained by the invasion of tribes from as yet unidentified regions. Ceramics of the same type were found very far from Iran - in China.
Everyone who has studied history know about famous irrigation systems of Mesopotamia, but it wasn’t the only wonder, Personally I was fascinated by organization of Persian transport system:
In 520 BC. Darius I the Great reconstructed the canal between the Nile and the Red Sea. During the Achaemenid period, there was extensive construction of land roads, but paved roads were constructed mainly in swampy and mountainous areas. Significant sections of narrow, stone-paved roads built under the Sassanids are found in the west and south of Iran. The choice of location for the construction of roads was unusual for that time. They were laid not along valleys, along river banks, but along mountain ridges. Roads descended into valleys only to make it possible to cross to the other side in strategically important places, for which massive bridges were built.
Along the roads, at a distance of a day's travel from one another, post stations were built where horses were changed. There was a very efficient postal service, with postal couriers covering up to 145 km per day. The center of horse breeding since time immemorial has been the fertile region in the Zagros Mountains, located adjacent to the Trans-Asian trade route. Iranians began using camels as beasts of burden from ancient times; This “type of transport” came to Mesopotamia from Media ca. 1100 BC
Speaking of political and social organization, all Persian rulers were absolute monarchs who ruled their subjects according to the will of the gods. But this power was absolute only in theory; in fact, it was limited by the influence of hereditary large feudal lords. In the Achaemenid state, satraps were fully responsible for the state of affairs in their provinces, but could be subject to unexpected inspection by inspectors, who were called the eyes and ears of the king. The royal court constantly emphasized the importance of administering justice and therefore continuously moved from one satrapy to another.
Moreover, I have to stress that women had much more rights in Persia, than in Ancient Greece (excluding Sparta), as in Greek cities only hetaerae enjoyed relative freedom.
So, apart from the idea we had before, Ancient Greece didn’t face army of barbarians. On the contrary, in a while after Greko-Persian wars ended, Greek mercenaries were serving Persian kingdom.
East was much richer than Greece and Persian Empire’s main source of income were agriculture and trade.
Speaking about satraps – Persians were good in negotiating, they usually didn’t strive to destroy locals, they simply made their regions pay taxes. Sometimes wars ended with peace talks, which resulted in signing the agreement that made certain area a part of the empire.
So, myth one busted – there were civilizations not only in the West, but in the East too.
And Eastern civilizations, in some cases, were more civilized than Western. For example, China has its bureaucracy for longer period than anyone else in known history:
Issues related to the economy (risks of crop failure, tribute from dependent polities, natural disasters) occupied an important place already in the oldest Chinese texts available to us - inscriptions on oracle bones (jia-gu wen, 甲骨文) of the Shang era (16 - mid 11 centuries BC, inscriptions appeared in the middle of the 13th century BC). It is worth noting that shells are repeatedly mentioned in the texts and acted as popular objects of gifting. According to archaeological data, we are talking about cowries Monetaria moneta (similar shells are found in large quantities in Shan royal graves). The closest place they could have been mined appears to have been no closer than southern Vietnam, and even the Maldives may have been a possible region of origin, indicating the existence of stable trade routes through Sichuan, Burma and possibly Central Asia at the time. (most likely, trade through them was carried out by a chain of numerous intermediaries - neither the buyer nor the seller knew anything about each other), connecting the middle reaches of the Yellow River with these distant lands. Similar (albeit less extensive and more organized and controlled by the Shang themselves) routes also functioned to deliver raw materials for bronze smelting to the Shang. A number of scientists believe that in the Shang and Western Zhou (1046–771 BC) times, cowries served as the first money, but this is unlikely, since sources do not record evidence of their use as a means of exchange; it is more likely that we have before us a treasure rich in ritual meanings.
Greece is believed to be a cradle of European civilization. But true predecessor of modern West was Roman Empire, which, in comparison to Ancient Greece was far more pragmatic, more functional and way more militarized. Romans created perfect war machine, where personal achievements of a person contributed, but were not vital.
Romans have built a great state. And that state has split apart, leaving us with many food for thought and dicussions.
In 286 CE, Emperor Diocletian decided to divide Rome into two sections to try and stabilize the empire. In 395 CE the Eastern and Western halves of the Empire were ruled as de facto independent states. The Western Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna disappeared by AD 554, at the end of Justinian's Gothic War. The Eastern Roman Empire or The Byzantine Empire ceased to exist with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 AD, but there are people who believe that Moscow is the third Rome, so traditions of Byzantine live on till nowadays in modern Russia.
Speaking of the Western Roman Empire, it has transformed into Holy Roman Empire. The rift between two parts of formerly one unit was deepened by the Great Schism or the Schism of 1054, that divided the parts in terms of religion. Further this rift was so deep, that despite both parts being Christian, Crusaders, instead of their originally planned goal, made change in plans. There are versions that The sack of Constantinople occurred in April 1204 and marked the culmination of the Fourth Crusade, when Crusader armies captured, looted, and destroyed parts of Constantinople, then the capital of the Byzantine Empire, was inspired by Venetia - a long time rival of Byzantine.
Of course, Constantinople was liberated in 1261, but it was a massive hit to the Empire and contributed to its fall in 1453, after siege of Constantinople by the Ottomans.
What major difference can be seen here - despite its power, Byzantium was not so preoccupied with wars. West, in its turn, started with crusades and then only gained momentum in making wars. As later, when Crusades were over, different orders which used to operate in Middle East switched to other territories, like the Baltics and Russia.
In general, if we speak about West, we can see that they were tend to conquer others even before Age of Discoveries. Constant conflicts (second son problem), overpopulation (after 1000 AD) made Europe a very warlike formation.
Of course, understanding of religion played a role here too. The problem with every religion, that in wrong hands it can be turned into a powerful weapon, so it was done here. We should remember, that in Middle Ages Church was one of the largest feudals and, according to some estimates, owned over 1/3 of all the land in Europe, which helped make it the most powerful economic and political force on the continent. And the Pope claimed authority over all the kings of Europe, as the successor to the Roman Emperor.
To sum up, due to many factors, before the times of Age of Discoveries, Europe was ready to expand and take new lands and the religion provided good excuse for such an expansion.
I don’t want to mention what Spanish conquistadors done to local population of Central and Southern Americas, how India and China got vandalized by the British and so on, but Europe, as that person with lacking neurotransmitters, lacked sense of borders. Treating rest of the world as inferiors, they have lost connection with reality long before Napoleonic wars and current conflict originates from the same root. Nothing has changed except decorations.
So, here is the behavioural aspect - impunity and greed.
Switching to depressed state. Any person, deep inside knows what is right and what is wrong. No matter how hard one tries to convince oneself in being on right side of history, internal moral compass points in different direction. That results in depression and desire to switch focus to other topic. Or silence those who prove person is wrong. So, on the level of civilization it results in constant desire to suppress other countries and make them stick to the lifestyle. Why West is so aggressive in promoting own values no matter if it is religion or modern export of democracy and everything that this “democracy” pack includes? Think of this.
Inertia of nervous system - surrogate understanding of freedom, that is called permissiveness, played a bad trick on people.
First of all, we have to understand that freedom is ideal state, that is unattainable in worldly life. But we can have certain amounts of freedom. If we take the West, despite they claim otherwise, no freedom is here, mostly what people are allowed to consider freedom is permissiveness, that usually defines number of partners and their gender. Nothing more. In case someone is stuck on this level, having no real tools to move further, that someone develops inertia, but, as brain needs new impressions, person only deepens the level of known experiences, to make the brain think it is something new.
Psychotype - explained before. As well as addictions, family attitude and etc. It will take a long time to explain, but still, if we take a look at modern Western society, especially at those people who think of themselves as an elites, all these traits are obvious. One just has to look carefully.
And now how West behaves. As that ludoman, they have put too much at stake in the Ukrainian case. They have put remains of reputation at stake too. With nearly no real economy, post-industrial formation can earn only on own reputation. That is why West needs to defeat Russia - it is vital for the West. They do not need the Ukraine, they need to save their face and show the rest of the world they can dominate.
During one of the recent discussion my opponent compared modern West with Germany after defeat in WWI. But I disagree here. Spirit of the people was not broken then. I compare modern West with Western Roman Empire at the end of its existence. Too many parallels are there, starting from problems in economy and migration to overall level of morality. Everything is in decline no matter how hard they try to act as moral camerton.
And, due to all these factors, West is not thinking logically. The problem is, that under these circumstances they may go much further than simply allowing the Ukraine to strike targets on Russian territory. They may go to further escalation, just as a gambler, who bets his last piece of clothing hoping to win this time.
Let us hope this madness can be stopped.
"First of all, we have to understand that freedom is ideal state, that is unattainable in worldly life." pretty much sums up the dietary issue: niether man nor woman can live by rhetoric alone. I prefer whole food, so thanks for this tasty morsel. I'd like to copy it with your permission.
Thank you!