The human race continues to amaze me.  So many stupid people doing so many stupid things !  Take war, for example.  War is failure.  War is the very last and worst of all possible options for resolving conflict.  It is obvious that any other possible resolution of conflict other than waging a war of mutual destruction would be an enormous improvement for all sides.  Waging war is the worst of all possible options from the economic standpoint (unless you are profiting from the sales of weapons).  There are only two possible continuations following after the Orange of conflict ~ descending ever downward following the negative inertia into the violence and oppression of Red and Purple, finally ending up at Black, chaos and death, or to rise above the level of conflict into the rarified air of Blue ~ peace, diplomacy, agreement; all of which can take many forms, such as arbitration, status quo ante bellum, trial by combat, trial by chessboard, or some other agreed upon conditions for the resolution of the given conflict.  

     Now we have two horrible and senseless wars going on simultaneously, not to mention ongoing wars of lesser intensity or future peril all over the burning globe (and, meanwhile, the globe goes on burning merrily away while we watch, stupefied, or blissfully uncomprehending) ~ this is just madness, way beyond folly !  I cannot watch the genocide in Palestine any longer, in astonishment that the United States lets itself go on record as being in full support of Israel this whole time, since 1948, or at least 1967.  

     So today I will look again at Putin’s Folly further north, and wonder at the scale by which entropy is advancing exponentially, leading to poverty and devastation and ruin on all sides.  What folly for all involved !  It doesn’t seem to me that there are any problems which could not be easily resolved at the level of diplomacy, without resort to the dishonor and folly of unleashing destructive war.  

     Of the four choices I have mentioned (and, of course, there are plenty of other choices available), any one of them would be vastly preferable to the continuation of an active war footing, with all of its enormous costs.  I suppose people don’t realize, in advance, the effect of their current actions upon their future experience.  If they were to know, ahead of time, that one course of action would lead to an outcome ten times better (or ten times worse), after ten years, than an alternate course of action, they might reconsider their automatic reflex to push the war button whenever they get angry.  

     The most amusing solution would be a chess match between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, say, best of five games.  The problem with that is that Putin would almost certainly lose, so he would never agree to a chess match.  A resolution by personal combat of a champion from each side would be possible, but not very likely.  Both Russia and Ukraine could put up a Champion to fight it out.   Status quo ante bellum would hardly be suitable for Putin, in the circumstances, unless the dates are selected very creatively, so that really only leaves arbitration of some sort.  

     There is this foolish and contentious border between Russia and Ukraine over there, so why not simply drawn a line in the sand?  We might agree upon a committee of persons who would oversee a study of where to draw the line separating the limits of authority for both Russia and Ukraine.  The obvious solution would be simply to ask the residents whether they would prefer to pay their taxes to Kyiv or Moscow (and expect services forthcoming from same).  This plebiscite might need to be modified by historical circumstances, which the judges of arbitration would take into consideration.  Of course, it really doesn’t matter a hill of beans where the line is drawn !  All that matters is that there is a line somewhere which is settled and agreed upon, so that everyone can go on about their business without worrying the matter any further.  Of course, many dissatisfied persons might prefer to move to the other side of the line, rather than remain where they are, but once the line be settled and clear, life should be able to continue, which is the whole idea, or it should be.  The project hinges upon finding a team of judges who would be acceptable to both sides.  All potential judges would profess to an open mind, pending their examination of circumstances on the ground.  

     That’s it ~ everybody go home and make some babies to replace those who have been lost.  Don’t worry ~ your weapons and ammunition will continue to have excellent resale value, as all of the wars going on in other parts of the world are keeping the arms market quite robust.