Putin’s Fear

Last night I dreamed of Putin’s death. We might well ask how the life of one man is anchored upon the death of so many others, how the privileged wealth and power of a few are the necessary conditions for the desperate poverty of so many, and how the world yet again finds itself staring down the double barrel of ideological psychosis and nuclear Armageddon. It is an utter, utter absurdity and while there is no doubt that Putin adheres to a revivification of Stalinist brutality and oppression as his primary means of sustaining political tenure – he, too, is only a man and one day his life will end. It is without doubt his own fear of death and failure, of historical inconsequence and of being forgotten or lost to life and memory that drives his reflexive orientation towards conflict and brutality but why should one man’s fear become in this way the death of millions?