Vladimir Putin and the Death of Tinkerbell

The Mind-Body Split in Eastern Ukraine

Tinker Bell drinks from the bottle and falls to the stage-floor, apparently lifeless. The audience, small children and their parents, look on aghast. Is she really dead? From the wings, a tall woman walks on and speaks directly to the crowd.

“Do you want Tinker Bell to come back to life?” she asks.

The audience scream in the affirmative.

“Do you really want Tinker Bell to come back to life?”

They scream even louder.

“Okay. If everyone in the room believes in fairies and claps as hard as they can, then Tinker Bell will come back to life. But everyone must believe. Any non-believers and it won’t work.”

The children and parents squeeze their eyes tight shut and clap for all their worth. Tinker Bell remains motionless on the stage. The woman, wide-eyed, proclaims, “Is there one child that doesn’t believe in fairies? Can it be possible?”

From the back of the room, a small boy with already thinning hair, puts his hand up. The audience turn to look, barely able to believe their eyes.

“Who are you?” cries the woman.

“My name is Vladimir Putin and I don’t believe in fairies,” he says flatly. “I believe in reality.”

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If enough people believe… it will happen

This has been the guiding principle of modern-day Western culture. You might feel alone in your cheap room, suffering at the hands of a prejudicial old-world order. You might feel marginalised and looked down upon because of your skin colour, your sexual orientation or your political views.

You might feel alone. But you are not alone. And the power of the internet can bring you together with like-minded souls. And, between you, you can demand change.

And it has happened. All across the Western world, laws have changed to uphold the rights of previously marginalised groups.

If enough people believe… it will happen. Mass action is the way. Many old-world authoritarians have these days even thrown in the towel, accepting huge social change as simply inevitable.

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Towards the end of February 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked attempt to throw out the existing government and to wrest back control of their former territory.

The invasion produced a rapid response in the West. Likely upwards of 250 million Westerners took to social media to signal their support for Ukraine, placing blue and yellow flags on their profile backgrounds, and hating on Putin.

The Western media embarked on a huge propaganda campaign, wasting no opportunity to tear-apart all things even vaguely Russian and to big-up every victory the Ukrainians made against their oppressors.

Within days, pretty much every citizen in the West, some 800 million plus people, were aligned against Putin and Russia.

If enough people believe… it will happen

If the war in Ukraine were a Hollywood movie, we all know how it would end. The noble Ukrainian forces would bravely drive their invaders out. Good-looking, progressive young Russians would march on the Kremlin and throw Putin out into the street. Justice would be seen to be done and we would all leave the cinema feeling good.

But the war in Ukraine is not a Hollywood movie. And even if enough people believe, that does not mean it will happen.

It is not easy to get objective information about the war. I know, because I have been trying for some months. Western media sources seem to be very propagandist. Russian sources seem to be less so, they talk stuff up less. Though this is likely just because of the tell-it-like-it-is aspect to the Russian psyche. There are other independent sources, such as Arab English-language media. But, on reading, watching or listening for a while, all commentary seems to be spun either one way or the other. Coming on the heels of two years of Covid, it seems that being objective about this war is just not possible.

But one thing that does seem clear is that the “Tinkerbell Effect” is not working on Putin or the Kremlin. For the last six months, hundreds of millions of Westerners have been hating on Putin and the Russian army day and night. Has it had any effect? Not that I can see. I’m not aware that even one lowly, Russian infantryman has put his foot down on the earth even slightly differently on account of all the animosity.

The same could be said for all the media propaganda that feeds the positivity around the Ukrainian army and the negativity around that of Russia. Having millions of Westerners believe that “the Ukrainians are winning” does not visibly have any impact on the progress on the frontline.

So, why should this be? Is it that there are still Westerners who don’t adequately hate Russia, or love Ukraine? Are they ruining it for everyone else? Why isn’t Tinker Bell coming back to life?

The answer, I submit, is because mass beliefs only work amongst people who are equally relatively dissociated from the body.

If all that informs your awareness is thoughts, then controlling thinking will control outcomes. But if your awareness is informed, not just by thinking but also by emotions and the sense of the body, you will not find yourself so easily hard-wired into group behaviours. Events around you will send you on a deep, inner journey, not simply cause you to react in a specific way. That journey might end up with you doing the same as everyone else. Or it might not. It might leave you so deeply moved by the process of war that you resolve to never support it.

Western people are the people of the mind. But not all cultures in our world are the same. Some are more rooted in the experience of the body, rather than the experience of the mind. Likewise, not all peoples have similar culturally-acquired moral codes.

Hundreds of millions of Westerners earnestly wishing for a specific outcome will likely create predictable results in the West. But not in the world.

Thank you for reading.

Devaraj