Thursday, January 11, 2024

Who will be stronger, American or Ukrainian 16 years old?

Sir, I refer to “She just turned 16. The war in Ukraine wrecked her childhood” By Lizzie Johnson and Kamila Hrabchuk, Washington Post January 11, 2024.


“Well-Being: One psychological detail has been overlooked: The constant desire to have still more things and a still better life and the struggle to this end imprint many Western faces with worry and even depression, though it is customary to carefully conceal such feelings.

The individual’s independence from many types of state pressure has been guaranteed; the majority of the people have been granted well-being to an extent their fathers and grandfathers could not even dream about; it has become possible to raise young people according to these ideals, preparing them for and summoning them toward physical bloom, happiness, the possession of material goods, money, and leisure, toward an almost unlimited freedom in the choice of pleasures. So, who should now renounce all this, why and for the sake of what should one risk one’s precious life in defense of the common good and particularly in the nebulous case when the security of one’s nation must be defended in an as yet distant land?

Even biology tells us that a high degree of habitual well-being is not advantageous to a living organism. Today, well-being in the life of Western society has begun to take off its pernicious mask.”

Sir, I now ask, who's going to come out stronger; the average American 16 years old, or 16-year-old Ukrainians, like Kate Kobets?

PS. I recently saw large numbers of young Venezuelans, walking for miles from Guarenas, with heavy backpacks, to reach the center of Caracas, in order to work for a meager salary. This goes for these 16 years old too.