Diogenes of Sinope reputedly, in broad daylight and with a lantern, searched ancient Athens for an honest man. He apparently failed.
He might continue his bad luck were he to resurface in current day Ukraine.
Quickly, I add, my condemnation (and that's what it is) is not of the Ukrainian people. It is of the so-called "elites", the "authorities", the "oligarchs", the "tycoons" (by strange juxtaposition of language by some) the majority of those in the Ukrainian Rada and such other et al(s). I do not like those terms, those labels. But "Et als", for convenience, I now adopt as a term for all the aforementioned. Certainly not the good people of Ukraine who take bribes or otherwise steal (not a majority) and do dishonor to themselves only to survive or to protect their families from the economic vagaries caused by the Et als.
Diogenes, a character from the 4th century (B.C.) was a real trip. A student of Antisthenes, a leading Cynic, who was more philosopher than Diogenes, but not so clever according to accounts I've read. But, much more gross.
Diogenes, when not looking for honest men tended to live in something of a tub bereft of normal hygienic artifices. And he spent his time insulting people. Plato, Alexander (the Great), even Socrates, ordinary people, all in person according to legend, were personally insulted by Diogenes. Alexander, for some reason a fan of Diogenes, supposedly once inquired of Diogenes if he could be of assistance to the cynic only to be told the modern equivalent of "Yes, move, get out of my fuc***g light." So, Diogenes may have been more smart-ass than philosopher. And, maybe not so smart to boot. The idea of the Cynic of the time was to be as close to animal as possible.... yet act superior to all humans; use as few clothes as possible, be animalistic. Thus, failure to bathe or otherwise conform to societal norms was considered by the Cynic to be a virtue. Diogenes, when questioned, liked to masturbate in public or defecate to get his point across.
Our modern word cynic does not so much correspond to the original philosophy of 4th century Athens as mimic it. Diogenes and his father, a banker, were banished from their homeland for adding impurities to the coinage of the realm in order to cheat the people and make profit for themselves.
Diogenes reminds me of the Et als of Ukraine.
They act for their own benefit. They care not whether they insult king... law, justice... or serf, peasant... the people. They defecate on the people... the law is theirs to command, not to obey. They masturbate in public...see their speeding, black limousines. They are unclean... see them at the pig trough... greedy so... sometimes they have to eat (kill) their own kind. They are like animals.
And this is modern day Ukraine.
And election was held recently. They had a thing called the Orange Revolution.
People, the Ukrainian people, turned out. Amazingly by the multi thousands. They came from all the region of Ukraine. It was inspiring.
A tent city on Khreshatyk. Ukrainians and a new leadership. A guy named Yushchenko, a girl named Tymoschenko. Wonderful, dramatic...they fought the bad guys. Kuchma, maybe not so bad, but clearly not a democrat. But his hanger-on's, relatives...well not so good. But what a play! Ukraine lives! The other candidate a criminal....what was his name? Yanukovych? Straight out of Frank Kappa, it's Christmas. Hell, "Mister Smith Goes to Washington" stuff. The good guys won. We need a Rogers and Hammerstein frigging musical to make this thing resound. Or maybe Tymoshenko plays Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".
Hot damn! (Sorry my USA South upbringing.)
What a wonderful life!
But then, reality.
And in reality... there was (may not have been... to be polite) a revolution.
A hoax. An elaborate scheme?
Well no, not that elaborate. And only a sketchy scheme. If only for the fact that criminals have difficulty agreeing how to divide a pot. So plunder is difficult to divide. An axiom?
A few months later... a new government is necessary.
By whose command?
Think about this.
The people?
Or the same people that have sat at the same table for so long? How many times these same people?
Occasionally some Et als screw up so badly they are banished. Where is Lazarenko? His wrong? What? Failing to divide the spoils properly? A tad too greedy? So what was his crime? Can't be he didn't steal enough. Got to be he didn't split enough. Or some such.
Haven't Kuchma and Tymoschenko in the past compromised (to the detriment of the aforementioned Lazarenko)? Was Yushchenko prime minister for Kuchma? How many alliances? How many compromises and kompromats in order to... divide the spoils?
The reality.
Ukrainians, the people who now consider themselves to be of such tribe, simply have never had a revolution. Unless it was in the 17th century. And that may be simply a case of an aggrieved, angry man projecting his anger and coming into consonance with an aggrieved angry peasantry, of momentary nasty mind, and some willing Cossack warriors, generally ready to fight for good cause or bad if booty ensued.
But that historical episode was not entirely about greed.
But current Ukraine is... about greed... splitting the spoils... who sits at the table... all that.
There is somewhere in Ukraine a patriot. Maybe several. Ukraine needs them.
Of the current situation, I just don't know. I can attest only to what I believe.
There may not be a patriot in this land Ukraine.
Witness:
The Current (English language version the... the only one I can read) of an agreement titled:
TRIPARTITE MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN ACTING PM, PARTY OF THE REGIONS HEAD VIKTOR YANUKOVYCH, AND PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
Signed by acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, Viktor Yanukovych, on behalf of the Party of Regions and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Dated September 22, 2005.
One can only read this document as a slur on the people of Ukraine who crowded Kreshchatyk not so long ago. The Ukrainian people who by the hundreds of thousands supported a change and celebrated victory in what seemed to them to be glorious revolution. But...
The spoilers, the cheaters, the gross...the criminals of Ukraine. They are the legacy of this land Ukraine. They rule, control.
They care not even of their own posterity... their children. They want money. For them it equals power.
They do as they want. Now. And they for the time being they will. This may be Ukraine's current destiny.
The people allow themselves to be ruled by dogs. Animals who choose to be arrogant, ignorant...
And fortunately stupid... in their belief that they can survive. They damn well better get it while they can.
History says Diogenes had a fine funeral.
So, one day maybe the Et als.
And Ukraine may then be free, independent and in no need to search for honest men.
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