The Putin in Us

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, this 69 years old babarian, completely unmanageable, passes no opportunity to showcase how supreme he wants to be.

Like Roman Reigns of the World Wrestling Entertainment, Putin wants the political world to acknowledge him, to recognise that he sits at the head of the table. When he perceives that that acknowledgment is losing momentum, he knows what to do—he starts a war to draw attention to himself.

And he's a well cooked dictator, I must say. He makes sure his private life is shrouded in a web of mysteries. His love life and family are taboo subjects in the highly controlled Russian media. Publicly known to have divorced at least once, no one knows who his current wife is or wives are, or who and how many are his children. Any speculation on this promptly sends the speculator to gaol and out of circulation.

That's what every dictator wants—widespread knowledge of their hard parts and ignorance of their soft underbellies, lest anyone perceive them as weak or human. No, they're demigods!

The man is as mysterious as a sphinx.

Perhaps what is not so mysterious is his reputation as a toughie. His grip on the Russian military and political power since the turn of this millennium is unnerving to friends and foes alike. No one knows the dimensions of his power, or the limits of his tenure as an absolute ruler—he has amended the constitution to allow him rule till 2036!

And who says his pen has run dry? He can amend the constitution again any time he wishes. The power of his signature is the envy of despots like Donald Trump who described him as smart for his recent invasion of Ukraine. In fact, he's the constitution of Russia, this military superpower that has become a toy in one man's hand, and that's the danger he poses to the freeworld. “I have decided to conduct a special military operation,” he was quoted as saying. 'I' not 'We.' And he's not listening to protests from his own countrymen against this unprecedented decision.

Putin is affiliated to no political party. How can he? Dictators hate camaraderies and affiliations. They live in their own world. No affiliation is good enough to accommodate his views. He's a political party by and in himself.

But the greater danger is, there's a Putin in each of us, a dictator yearning to break loose all the time. I dare to say that the call to dictatorship is perhaps a universal draft.

From office bosses to the security guards at innocuous gates, from children to parents, from husbands and wives to pastors and imams, from the Blackman to the Caucasian, from the beggar to the rich, you name them, everyone is seeking to dominate, to stamp their authority, to be unquestionable, to exercise undiluted will to coerce others and force down their views and desires.

This ubiquitous will is expressed by all of us, but only in different degrees because not all of us can pay the price Putin pays to be a pariah, a public outcast, and demon.

Listen, that man is prepared to go to the dungeons of hell in pursuit of his dictatorship. Are you? No, you want to be a nice, acceptable Putin instead, eat your cake and have it. That's not possible.

You're either a proper Putin or a pretending one, a damn dictator or a jaded one. Putin stands out in a class all by himself. The rest of us are one of the many shades of him.

That's why, like him with his unconscionable appetite for territory, we seek to grab and grab, instead of give and give. That's why we talk and talk, instead of listening, preferring monologues to dialogues. That's why we shout when we think we're not being heard, believing that the higher our decibel, the more visible our authority.

That's why, like Putin, we resent being corrected, we listen to our own counsel only. That's why we sulk or rage when we lose, whatever it is we lose, like our football team going down, for example. Like Putin, we think we should win all the time. How's that possible?

And I'm guilty, too, as charged.

But we can't remain the way we are. No Putin is a good version—whether the original or the taiwan.

We must purge the little Putin in us or risk destroying the only world God has given us, the single life He has given each of us. And I can't see where this should begin from but the Word of the Living God. Let's go seek after it. Putin won't go because he's already lost.

So, see you in Church tomorrow!