All wars start in the (status obsessed) minds of humans - including Russia/Ukraine

Thread...

Status is a fundamental human need. But needing 'status' doesn't necessarily mean we want to be rich or famous or number one. 'Status' is simply the feeling we're valued by our tribe...

We get it from the people with whom we play status games for status, be they political games, hobby games, religious game, computer games. Whenever we're cooperating in groups, we're playing for status from our co-players...

But also, our games compete with other games. When our status games win, we and all our co-players get a status bump. We feel good and that our lives are successful.

All successful groups are status generating machines...

The job of a successful leader is to make status for their group. When they don't, they're in trouble. Even Hitler's popularity with the Germans rose and fell with the status he was perceived to be making for their nation and, by extension, the population...

National leaders frequently start wars to gain status for their nation and, by extension, their people. A study of 94 wars since 1648 found 67% were motivated by matters of national standing or revenge, with the next greatest factor, security, coming in at a distant 18%...

Putin's no different. He mourns the collapse of the USSR, calling it 'a major geopolitical disaster of the century... Tens of millions of our co-citizens and compatriots found themselves outside Russian territory...'
en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/22931

As @ThreshedThought writes, Putin wants to be 'the leader to make Russia great again.'

His speech prior to the invasion of Ukraine dripped with status-talk. The West had treated Russia 'rudely and unceremoniously from year to year...'

'...where did this insolent manner of talking down from the height of their exceptionalism, infallibility and all-permissiveness come from? What is the explanation for this contemptuous and disdainful attitude to our interests?'...

[Following the collapse of the USSR] 'we saw a state of euphoria created by the feeling of absolute superiority, a kind of modern absolutism, coupled with the low cultural standards and arrogance of those who formulated and pushed through decisions that suited only themselves'...

And so on.

@LawDavF writes in his latest substack that "this war was [Putin's] choice, and one that he appears to have discussed with few advisors before his fateful decision."

Putin is just another status-seeking human - and an isolated one...

samf.substack.com/p/absolute-ends-with-limited-means?s=r

But there's no doubt he's much higher in need-for-status than the average person. Which is why he's so incredibly dangerous. As I write in The Status Game - the most deadly players on earth are 'male, grandiose and humiliated'...

www.amazon.co.uk/Status-Game-Position-Governs-Everything-ebook/dp/B08H7Y414K