Smokescreens

​Wow.  I read a quote this morning I think I agree with.  “to misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.”  It was given in relation to what Putin is doing in the Ukraine.  I wake up this morning and I really do not know what I am waking up to.  Yesterday it was declaring parts of the Ukraine independent and occupying them.
Meanwhile the West talks of sanctions.  I cannot help but think it is like slaps on the wrist and will not alter ambition.  It seems to me to be the sort of thing that 30 years from now the dollar is seen as more important and sanctions are lifted.  The aggressor has what they want.
There is pain but not so much for the aggressor and their crony’s as they live in luxury.  The pain is experienced by millions of ordinary people who for the most part have no beef with their neighbour but have been feed lies to achieve the ambitions of the powerful.
It seems to me that to determine evil or otherwise I just need to look at who an aggressor is in league with. 
But it is the quote that got me.  “To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.”  The nature of evil is way more complex that I think about, but there are a couple of things that come to mind when I think about this.
It seems to me when dealing with evil the source needs to be dealt with rather than the smokescreens.  In the current situation there is all sorts of propaganda being given.  It is all trying to justify the unjustifiable.  What I find disconcerting is having a grain of truth mixed in with a batch of lies.  The truth can immobilize fair minded people while lies run rampant.  The truth is there are Russians in Ukraine.  The lie is I need to occupy.
Another smokescreen to me is what the population is being fed.  I cannot blame the Russian people for fearing they are in imminent danger from Ukraine.   It is what they are being feed.  The powers that be ensure the population ears are blocked to the truth.
It is why oppressive regimes fear the internet.   It is a source of alternative information, and it is not what the leaders want.  They want their people to believe a lie and the way to do it is to ensure nothing else is heard.
I can’t help myself.  I always think, well how does that apply to me?  I reckon it is important to me to seek the truth and not believe all I am told.  I need to know something for myself.  I reckon I can get a fair idea of the truth by the words and actions of who said it.  Words alone can lie.   Persistent actions reveal motivations.