https://x.com/JPLindsley/status/1867278118806831415
1) Victory
For Ukrainians, victory is перемога (peremoha), meaning “beyond ability.” It’s about doing the impossible, like an Olympian feat. Hell, victory feels impossible at times, but you keep going, overcome barriers, and find new possibilities. This is exactly what I see Ukrainians doing with Russia’s “red lines.”
In Russian, victory is победа (pobeda), meaning “after misery.” Victory is just surviving suffering. Imagine how this mindset shapes everything else.
Imagine the difference in toasting “after misery” verses “beyond our abilities!”
2) Hospital
In Ukrainian, the word for hospital is лікарня (likarnya), meaning “a place of healing.”
In Russian, it’s больница (bolnitsa), meaning “a place of pain.” Think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
3) Crime
Perhaps more than any other example, the contrasting visions of the idea of crime reveal that Ukraine and Russia just might be the polar opposites of how to live on planet earth. Read on to see the two competing concepts …
For Russians, crime is преступление (prestuplyeniye), meaning “stepping over a line.” But who draws the line? Always the Kremlin, from the time of the Tsars to the Soviet century to the Putin period. Russian culture enforces obedience. You become a criminal when you cross those lines.
It doesn’t matter if the line is just, or if the Kremlin asks you do something you think is wrong. You just do it.
For Ukrainians, crime is злочин (zlochin), meaning “evil-doing.” It’s not about lines drawn by human authorities but following your conscious: don’t bomb children’s hospitals, don’t invade neighbors.
Ukrainians are perfectly willing to cross lines and break arbitrary government rules. But there’s a wide societal sense that you should strive for an ideal of goodness, often in defiance of the government.
Ukraine’s horizontal society reflects this mindset. Families, churches, and local groups take initiative. It’s chaotic but effective. I saw this first hand during the pandemic time when quietly Ukraine was one of the freest countries in the world. Quietly is the key! You just do your thing, escaping notice of Political Mordor.
Now in the war, with Moscow sending ballistic missiles, it’s a little harder to escape notice, but I see the horiztonal society flourishing, especially in those first days of invasion when the government was chaotic but even now when so many are so tired. People figure stuff out together; they don’t wait for orders. The horizontal society is the glue and real “stuff that works,” to borrow from Texas musician Guy Clark.
Russia’s top-down vertical mentality revolves around centralized power. Ordinary people wait for decisions from the top, with little personal agency. They stop believing they can change things. This is the perfect breeding ground for tyranny.
