Cultures aren't just about big ideas and values

I am in total sympathy with the many Ukrainian citizens interviewed by brave journalists who are doing their job: attempting to find the "best obtainable version of the truth." A large number of "people in the street" agree that they did not prepare for the war and believed it would never actually happen (despite the long string of threats and provocations).

I joined those folks in having some naïve notion that wars had become too painful and costly to continue in their "old forms," and that future wars would be waged online and economically. 

Perhaps I had simply forgotten that, in the end, individual human beings often exert more control over how events unfold than we think possible. Putin seems to be the one-man force behind the invasion, and that MAY end up being fatal to his efforts to restore the Russian Empire, regain a sense of importance, or whatever compels him.

After all, in the end most people choose "not war" when given any options at all. Most people just want to live their lives unaffected by major conflicts and constant danger.

A Russian solder being shot at by cousins and friends in a closely connected country that has not attacked Russia might start wondering just how motivated to be. 

Russian civilians may feel nationalistic and aggrieved when times are stable but now find themselves regretting their own military killed babies in a country they regularly visit, filled with people they know.

We might argue that Putin is not the prime mover here -- that long-nurtured grievances made the rise of someone like Putin inevitable. That is the equivalent of all the nonsense (my word) we hear about "Trump is just the manifestation of white resentment... blah, blah, blah"). 

I saw a "60 Minutes" segment on a retired CIA black ops operative who claimed that the U.S. could have taken out bin Laden multiple times while he was holed up in northern Africa years before 9-11, and when he was just a fledgling bad guy. He even said that would have stopped 9-11. 

That's a claim without any support, of course, but it is not crazy. 

Many times one person instigates good or bad actions. Gigantic cultural forces as the agents of change, war, prejudice, and so much more are easy and cite as causes. It wasn't something I did, for heaven's sake.

If Russians are not allowed to blame Putin and if Americans cannot blame Trump, they are free to never blame, well, anyone for any reprehensible actions and ideas. 

"No one is to blame" seems like the defense of the feeble-minded.

Just like the woman I saw on TV berating a heavily armed Russian solder in her small village, with nothing more than her anger and national courage to defend her, individuals have to make individual decisions. They can't wait for the zeitgeist to take care of everything.

Life is all about choices.