SAD SACKS ANIMATED

  Remember Sad Sack and Sarge? The constant miscommunication and passive resistance that flowed through the daily cartoons and comic books?  We would laugh and even shake our heads knowingly, relating our own histories of Sad Sack encounters in life. Well, today we are living in a world of comics come to life, Sad Sack only one of them, albeit a significant one at that.

 Miscommunication has pervaded the world. We simply do not make ourselves clear, using incorrect wording or mumbling, hiding the truth beneath the words. Funny, if not so sad. We refuse to communicate with each other in civil discourse, and use shouts, defiance, and clear resistance to heeding and understanding, reading between the lines that has always been a significant part of diplomacy and politics at all levels. In short, we have become the Sad Sacks come to life.

The ensuing results are not funny by any means. Still, when one reads the paper or listens to the news, laughter is often an immediate reaction. Then come the groans as the truth is fully understood and then the search for convenient laying on of the blame for the most definitely not so funny situation. Sad Sacks we all are, yet blind to it we remain.

For two years, Trump ran a most crazed campaign. The reaction to it was amazement that such a creature was running, no less gathering support. He was ridiculous, embarrassing even, via his daily rants and his pathetic appearances at the debate. He won the presidency! Unbelievable, yet there it was. We forgot or refused to read between the lines,  remained deaf to the imminent danger he posed, represented and indeed fostered with every breath he took. Nothing was sacred. Loyalty? Bah, humbug! Responsibility to constituents? Say what? Truth? A vastly overrated phenomenon. Sanity? Nah, not when the doors of the lunatic asylum opened and allowed the inmates out and indeed, they began to run the country. 

We moved from a semi-comical Sad Sack to a depressed and horrifying come to life Arkham of the Batman world, the insane asylum that tore shreds through the life of Gotham and its citizens. The humor of the situation quickly faded as the truth and danger of it all became clearer, despite all attempts to downplay or deny its existence or its causes. On we muddled, digging ourselves and the world into deeper holes, rather than creating a ladder to climb out. Sad Sacks indeed.

Today the world is not on the brink of a WWIII, as despite all attempts to deny it, we are in the early days of it. Day 17 of the vicious, war crime invasion of one integral country by another. The invader was not a shock, for he has done this over the past almost two decades, as he ate up sections of countries - Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, for like the mad toddler he is, Putin knew, simply knew into his very bones, that what he wanted he could take- and did. 

Why? Because the West was weak. No trusted  alliances any more as the President of the USA actually expressed admiration for him. Along with insults and alienation of former allies. The President at the time of Crimea did not react in a strong enough manner, thus confirming to Putin what he knew and on he went and here we are. And here we stand, rotating on our thumbs, refusing to see the forest for the trees. Committing almost critically blind and stupid acts by trusting to appeasement once again. Hitler is laughing in his grave, vindicated, as his worst enemy, a rival to his viciousness, actually became a proponent and practitioner of his theories of life and politics, both home and abroad. We have certainly moved far, far down the road, ever more distant from the comical misunderstandings of Sad Sack and Sarge.

Is it possible for us to "unlaugh" it all, to turn back the clock? Well, the dead are dead, the slaughtered are slaughtered. The increasingly vicious tactics of Russia show no sign of abating, even the very opposite of that. But we can take a deep breath and do what must be done. We cannot continue half-assed tactics, sending in weaponry, but limiting it, not enough nor advanced enough for Ukraine to overcome the huge imbalance it has with its foe. We apparently have not yet learned and internalized the proper path of politics in dealing with Putin. We have squandered opportunity after opportunity to encourage his downfall. We have shown weakness  in our dealings with him and other practitioners of autocracy, of cruelty, of mass imprisonments, of oppression and denial of rights for the citizens of the countries they head.

Here I insert a comment in response to those who have said that I am a warmonger. No, I am most emphatically not such a person. I have seen the effects of war upon Israel and its citizens. I have  seen the damage eternal via anti-Semitism, no matter its disguise. I know that Israel must fight, and will again and again, but do I hate that? Do I not sit through those wars anguishing over the deaths, the destruction, the fate of friends and family? Yes, I do. As for this country, I have grandchildren of draftable age and for sure, I never wish to see them in combat. G-d forbid! 

 What do I wish for?

Simple. A strong and clear response to invasions, planned actions to unbalance the world. I want us to learn the lessons of the past before we repeat them with a different outcome. If WWIII continues, in the same way with weak alliances refusing to truly stand up to that bully, then WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones, from the caves into which we have been driven.

It is always better to negotiate from a position of strength. Currently, we remain in that position, but we are going to lose that advantage if we allow this absolute abomination to continue without a full commitment to stop it in its tracks. We need to make it clear to Putin that no, he cannot grab land to rebuild a former Russian Empire. Those days are gone. We need, all of us, to realize the true danger of the situation and all, concurrently, take a step back from the brink. Along with that step back, we need to make it distinctly very clear to Putin, that he is denied any further expansion moves. The integrity of other countries must be recognized, not violated. And we must, absolutely must, punish those responsible for this abomination of 17 days duration. The slaughter must stop. 

Will we? Can we? When the political leadership of so many countries are rife, riddled, with corruption, with obviously tormented souls, with those who seek out evil, push for it, who are openly treasonous, traitors to their native country? Scandal after scandal rocks the world leadership. If they cannot police themselves, rid themselves of practitioners of crimes and offenses, then are they capable of standing up to a person such as Putin, who knows to his very last cell what he wants and how to get it, how to take advantage of opponents weakened within their own societies?

These are existential questions that cannot be avoided any longer. The very future, short and long term, depends on our answers - or lack thereof. So many urgent problems must be addressed - now - and these violations, these wars, this greed for more and more - must be called to a halt. Punishments must be forthcoming, responsibilities laid at the feet of those guilty. Included in that must be our own country which apparently is finding it impossible to do just that. The inability to see things through to the end, despite the disclosures flooding the airwaves, the desperation to keep it all buried is crippling the world, blocking it from addressing those issues which will indeed be a cancel culture activity. There will be no society as such and culture will be a concept of the past as we are reduced to a struggle for life with a bare minimum of any, or none at all, of survival. The cause of it all? Us. Sad Sacks no longer, but rather serious offenders of truth, of fair play, of understanding of the inherent dangers to us if we continue on this rock-strewn road we have chosen.

It seems so clear to me. We all have a stake in this. We all will be affected by tragedy of environment, of food shortages, of necessities of change that must be in effect - now. We all live on this globe with no other place to hide, other than deep underground if that is even possible. No, we must address our problems now, yesterday even, and not wait until tomorrow, whenever we allow that day to arrive. Sad Sacks? No, not very funny.

A symbol of the stupidity that we have allowed? The three major religions - Moslem, Christian and Jewish, all have major holidays of great meaning coming up - together, all three of them. Instead of thinking, stressing the commonalities, the shared hopes and dreams, we insist on emphasizing the danger of it all, the almost expected, even urged for violence to validate their prognostications. What an unbalanced sad sack of a world. As for Sarge-he is refusing to re-up. Smart dude! But that is only in the comics. We, none of us, can afford to resign from the world. We all must do our part or even more. No other way. No other path. None. At all.