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Great comment, particularly your summation of the 1980s Cold War zeitgeist. It was very real for our generation and nuclear war drills and fallout shelters wer

Great comment, particularly your summation of the 1980s Cold War zeitgeist. It was very real for our generation and nuclear war drills and fallout shelters were part of the life for school kids in many places, especially my South Texas town with its (then) five military bases. I don’t agree with you on blockading Russia or escalating conflict over Ukraine but it will be a different situation if Russia makes a move on Estonia or Latvia or—God forbid—Poland. For me, my response to increasing global instability is the same as it was during the riots of 2020: get the heck out of cities, especially coastal cities. It’s not going to get better any time soon. In a small town in a flyover state, I can at least grow my own food and raise my own family with minimal worry about the outside world, aside from diesel prices.

jollybean 5y ago
You cannot escape 'global instability' by moving to a flyover state. Everything is connected, a few extra miles means nothing other than for few things like less noise pollution and urban crime. Every, little, thing you consume has a long supply chain of value add at each step, that's what makes it all work. The reason that we have to care about Ukraine, is because otherwise, we are faced with a mother Cold War. That is very bad. This war is a battle for the future of the world order, in which everyone is a part. An easy victory for Putin almost guarantees the Chinese Generals will be pushing for Taiwan and Xi will listen. A costly bloody failure an economic ruin and a political coup in Russia means Xi knows the price for failure in Taiwan will be his head, almost literally. Aside from geopolitics, there is a moral issue in all of these situations - Ukranians deserve to not live behind another Iron Curtain. Just like Poles, Czech, E. Germans etc..

jollybean 5y ago

You cannot escape 'global instability' by moving to a flyover state. Everything is connected, a few extra miles means nothing other than for few things like less noise pollution and urban crime. Every, little, thing you consume has a long supply chain of value add at each step, that's what makes it all work. The reason that we have to care about Ukraine, is because otherwise, we are faced with a mother Cold War. That is very bad. This war is a battle for the future of the world order, in which everyone is a part. An easy victory for Putin almost guarantees the Chinese Generals will be pushing for Taiwan and Xi will listen. A costly bloody failure an economic ruin and a political coup in Russia means Xi knows the price for failure in Taiwan will be his head, almost literally. Aside from geopolitics, there is a moral issue in all of these situations - Ukranians deserve to not live behind another Iron Curtain. Just like Poles, Czech, E. Germans etc..