RE: Psychology of the Weird!
I've more or less given up on understanding the Russio-Ukrainian War. I remember being heavily invested during the events of Euromaidan, but that was more than a decade ago and I'm sure the conflict will keep on going for decades to come (in some way or form). Personally I just think there's a lot of naive young men on both sides who are being fed into a meat grinder, only benefiting old farts suffering from some strange type of erectile dysfunction. Although, that's a little unfair, because we made a lot of progress and nowadays there's women killing people, too. So there's that.
Anyhow. Robert Anton Wilson used to write about a concept he coined reality tunnels. Basically he argued we're being constantly bombarded with unfathomable amounts of data. So much so we can't even hope to parse a fraction of it, hence we're forced to pick and choose. Some of it might be conscious, most of it happens subconsciousley. When you start focusing on a specific number you start seeing it more often. Doesn't mean a change of distribution, just a shift of perception. That said. Once you're looking for reasons to hate somebody you'll always find more reasons to do so.
To tie a bow on this post. I think one of the most beautiful moments in modern history was the 1914 Christmas Truce.
That is true the moment peace for Christmas time after 5 years of war for who and what for? This is also something that children here learn in School when time comes to Christmas, of course, good but still silly to gather together one evening and kill each other following days.
I wouldn't blame them for it. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory seems like a good illustration of the potential backlash the participants were facing. Later on the Nazis had a law called Wehrkraftzersetzung, that among other things was meant to punish soldiers who (vocally) doubted victory. Probably in part because decades earlier the Great War was cut short by a naval mutiny, or rather something Hitler types would end up feeling very Dolchstoßlegende about. The kind of nincompoops who keep on gambling trying to cover their ever-increasing loses. But next spring they're going to win. This time for sure!
There's certainly some romanticism to that whole notion of a heroic death, when it's more or less just a glorified pawn sacrifice. Meanwhile pawns actually refusing to strike eachother? Now that's very bad news indeed. The King told me you should be more like that brave cowboy from Dr. Strangelove, who rode that bomb into target and ushered in the apocalypse while waving his 10-gallon hat. Be less like Stanislav Petrov, who refused to press the red button back in 1983.