The greatest distance between two points

[dolorosa_12]

I was working in person in the office this morning, and when the other two colleagues scheduled to work with me today showed up, the three of us (Serbian, Australian, and American immigrants) spoke for two-and-a-half hours about the prospect of a wider war in Europe. I honestly don't know how anyone can be expected to work or focus under these conditions; I've been averaging about four hours' sleep on a good night for the past three weeks. Weirdly (or perhaps not if you know anything about my personality), I find this uncertainty much more unsettling than the thought of war. It always sounds melodramatic when I say this, but I genuinely made my peace with the prospect three years ago, and decided, with a kind of burning clarity, exactly what I would choose to do in such circumstances.

I am — as of 6.15pm on 3rd March, at least — genuinely impressed with how impressively the government here has been handling the situation. Apart from one misstep (come on, you invite half of Europe to your big crisis summit strategy session, and you don't include even one leader of a Baltic country?), I really can't see any cause for criticism. The time for behaving like this was three years ago, and the next best time was last year, but (at least as of right now), at the eleventh hour, at the edge of the abyss, most of Europe is doing the right thing.

Our government has achieved the somewhat miraculous feat of its actions being praised unanimously across the entire spectrum of newspapers and TV networks, the entire spectrum of British politics (apart from, as usual, the extremes edges of left and right) is basically united on this, and I would also say that they've got public opinion on their side as well. I'm genuinely astonished.

I hope everyone else is hanging in there.

Comments

[hoarmurath]

At least we got a joint video call? For the Baltics at least. Then again - inviting just one would also have been weird, we never really do that.

For me I suppose it just feels like more of the same, though it was a wild week. I do hope you get more sleep eventually. :)

[dolorosa_12]

I love how your leaders always travel in packs! It must be great to have such consensus among geographical neighbours when it comes to foreign policy.

Wild is one way to put it. I'm doing my best in the circumstances — it helps that my government (and, as I say, pretty much every elected politician in the country) is acting in a way that aligns with my own policy preferences, even if they're still persisting in public in the fantasy that the United States wants the same things as we do.

[hoarmurath]

We're a slightly mismatched set but shared history and priorities means it's usually a buy one, get all three. This was especially funny when the presidents all looked similar.

Yeah uh I mean oh boy. Why the US gotta be like this, and why the rest of us have to care about it, ugh.

[chestnut_pod]

I am glad to hear that the public response in the UK has been broadly positive -- that's genuinely reassuring, and it's good to hear it from someone "on the ground."

[dolorosa_12]

The UK frustrates me a lot with its nostalgic approach to history, but this is one time when I can genuinely say that that nostalgic fantasy of the 'Blitz spirit' feels genuinely palpable and appropriate.

I think Europeans are coming to terms with the fact that 80 (or 30, in the case of central and eastern Europe) years of political and military alliance with the US are coming to an end, and that we will have to rapidly make adjustments to that, and make very real sacrifices — even if the government here in the UK is still persisting, in public at least, in the fantasy that the US government is a benign and helpful ally which wants the same things as we want.

[lirazel]

This is just what I was thinking.

[senmut]

I was quite impressed with the response over there, and grateful. Now to see if the doomsday clock can be nudged back a bit.

[dolorosa_12]

Keir Starmer has received a lot of criticism over the years (not from me), especially from the left, for being bland and centrist and uncharismatic, but I genuinely don't think any other recent political leader in the UK could have pulled this off. I'm really grateful that he's our prime minister right now, and that there's no election due for over four years: it gives him a lot of space and political capital to be bold and focused on foreign policy in a way that would be much harder in an election year. I'm incredibly impressed.

[lyr]

Yes, it's hard to carry on with everyday work and things when the world is on fire. I'm having that trouble too.

[dolorosa_12]

It's just such a flood of horrors. I find it helps to focus on people and groups (whether at grassroots or political leadership level) taking specific concrete helpful actions, and take heart from their example to take action of my own. (That, and a relentless internal mantra of 'I have no control over what the United States does politically,' repeated endlessly whenever I find myself spiralling.) Helpless uncertainty is the worst thing of all.

I'm sorry you're also having trouble carrying on with the day-to-day stuff.