Traveling to other countries has been my life-long passion. But my limited language skills reduced my ability to communicate effectively with people in those countries. These days ‘Google Translate’, or some sort of program like that is making life easier. To read articles written in a foreign language you can use ‘machine translations’, and maybe, one day, in the not too distant future, we will be offered special ‘hearing aids’ which translate spoken language ‘on the fly’, enabling us, and the people we meet, to speak our own language, and be understood perfectly.
Then again, the spoken or written word is often not all that important, and it can be misinterpreted when someone doesn’t see your smile, or other form of body language. A wide array of emoticons has been developed for that purpose, increasingly used as ‘stand alone’ sign language, not accompanied by any written text. Usually because we’re in a hurry. And we’re always in a hurry. Moreover, certain emoticons are no longer considered appropriate, and YouTube, as well as other channels, offering a ‘Thumbs Up’ emoticon to signal support, has disabled the ‘Thumbs Down’ emoticon so as to maintain an ‘Upbeat’ mood overall. I’m still old-fashioned, and do not offer such features, mainly because I don’t care. This is not a commercial blog, nor a blog intended to promote a certain preconceived point of view, and if you don’t like what I’m writing, I have no intention to make you read it anyway. I prefer written comments, as long as they are instructive, and not merely meant to insult.
If you travel in foreign countries, and you do not master the language sufficiently for a meaningful conversation, or a common language you can use locally, like English, you may be tempted to rely on tour-guides, and select your hotel and restaurant on a basis of ‘English Spoken’. I’ve been on cruises which included trips with a guide, but otherwise I prefer to do my own thing. You develop an intuitive ‘sign language’ over the years, usually a mix of the odd words you picked up, throw in some English, even if the other party doesn’t understand what you are saying, and the use of ‘signaling’ with your hands, and use of facial expressions. If you are any good at it, you will learn to watch for averse responses, since certain gestures have different meanings in other parts of the world.
People like me are not judgmental as they travel, but curious to learn more about those people we meet. What is driving them? How do they see me? Is their smile a real smile, or is it a cultural thing? The rewards of learning to communicate in this way are often beyond your wildest imagination. Suddenly you are invited as a guest-of-honor to events you wouldn’t be able to buy your way into. On the contrary, offering money could be regarded as an insult. In other situations a monetary token of your gratitude is highly appreciated. Often people you ask for help go out of their way to show you. I will not bore you with examples, because what I’m about to say would contrast with pleasant memories like that in a way that doesn’t feel right.
Cheating, stealing, and the threat of violence belong to the realm of this universal language. If you revert to that kind of behavior, it is a sign that you represent a great danger to the local population. Nothing you say to justify what you did will be understood as a justification. And if you do not behave like a guest, but like someone who owns the place, there will be repercussions. In a state of war, you are not expected to behave in accordance with norms universally regarded as being polite and respectful. You want to get ahead of the enemy, and the gloves come off. I traveled with people, by chance, who felt the people in the country they visited had no right to their own set of rules. In their perspective these people were ‘Untermenschen’, and they had to be educated for their own good. If I was their superior, and we were recognizable as representatives of the company which employed us, I made sure they changed their behavior. No need to overdo it either, through trying to set an example, but ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do’. I was brought up that way, and it greased the skids. More modern people object because they consider it cheating, showing a ‘fake’ person. They insist that you always need to put your ‘real self’ on display. But in my book cheating is something else entirely. It is about being unscrupulous, about having no conscience while advancing your own bottom line, while using empathy only to your own advantage, in order to trick your fellow man and cause them harm.
Now that we are at war with Russia, my own approach to my fellow human beings is in even lower demand. Increasingly the focus is shifting to cheering for your ‘own’ side, even if you consider them to be hooligans, who lie about everything, and are hardly the kind of people you would like to go to war with as 'friendlies'. I read an article the other day, written by a Russian military expert, who did a quick calculation to know how many tanks NATO needed to fight the Russians along the existing front in Ukraine, based on Russian thinking. The figure he came up with was something between 1500 and 1800 tanks. Not 100. His thinking was that NATO would eventually come through and send the entire collective inventory to Ukraine, as well as its collective Air Force. And that Russia therefore had to launch its own offensive now, while trying to figure out how to destroy these tanks and aircraft before they came close to the front. The ‘Big Headache’ question for the Russian side is that they understand that they are up against NATO, as confirmed by Baerbock and others, which is as good as a formal declaration of war, but that any attacks of a NATO country will be regarded as an ‘Article 5’-thing, releasing nuclear weapons.
If there still was some kind of modus for the Russians to talk to NATO, common sense might still prevail, but since NATO has shown that talking with NATO is utterly useless anyhow, since they have no inkling of an intention to honor their promises, signed or otherwise, and will just do as they like, we are in grave danger. Because the Russians are winning this war, and our hooligan loudmouths are dangerous, and they lack the intelligence to come up with a strategy which might work, if you ask me. I’m serious. Listen and read what all those ‘voices’ in the mainstream- and social media are telling us. Don’t you get this alarming sense that you are in a mob out to lynch the supporters of the other club? A disorganized, ‘Bring Your Own Weapons’ group of fucked-up idiots moved by camaraderie you associate with ‘Skin Heads’ or ‘Antifa’? There was this German general which gave an interview to some obscure Swiss publication, who was alarmed to see the support from people he identified as more akin to ‘Antifa’, who had no idea what they were talking about when they were promoting war with Russia. Some sense of ‘belonging’, of military camaraderie is essential to win a war, even in these times. But surely you don’t want some spaced-out, alcohol-infused horde to teach those Russians a few things about our superior civilization, do you? Do I trust Annalena Baerbock and her crew to protect my back in a fight? Hell No! Not in a thousand years! I’m sorry if I spoil the party, but I want the ’Thumbs Down’ emoticon to be given another chance.
Or is there some hidden strategy I’m unable to identify?