The Magical Thinking of the Warmongers is What Gave Us a War in Ukraine
To end the war in Ukraine, solve the problems that gave rise to the war first.
My opinions about the war in Ukraine didn’t rise out of the vacuum of space. They come from decades of research and introspection. I am a student of human behavior. I’ve tested what I’ve learned thousands of times. I’ve seen studies that prove what I’ve read. I’ve tested what I’ve learned from the studies I’ve read, too.
If we can scale up war, we can scale up peace.
Most people frame the war in Ukraine in the context of behavior modification. The news media frame the war in terms of behavior modification. Behavior modification is a philosophy that says we can modify the behavior of the people around us by using pain and pleasure as inputs. Behavior modification gives us an illusion of control. Control is magical thinking.
I have seen magical thinking in some of the comments of the people who respond to my articles about the war. Most of that thinking says that Putin must be punished. I see them wishing ill upon Putin for his evil. They wish for his head on a pike, for him to fail, for him to lose power, to deny him an offramp, and on and on. It is almost as if by magic that if we punish Russia or Putin enough, they…
