Putin is obviously not getting the splendid little war he anticipated.
He obviously thought the citizens of Ukraine would be stunned into a stupor. He meant to amass such an overwhelming force militarily that it would translate into the minds of the citizenry as overwhelming psychologically. He is, of course, ex-KGB. Psyops are his bread and butter.
He thought the people would atomize and dissolve in their isolation and fear.
But there has been no fear.
Putin is like Agent Smith in this iconic scene from the Matrix:
His smirk has vanished.
What he obviously thought was that the Ukrainian people would become paralyzed with panic. Panic does strange things to people. There are accounts of people lying down at their captor’s feet, awaiting the inevitable blade through their throats. In fact, according to a centuries-old account of Mohammed Nessawi, one man helpfully remained stationary on the ground while his soon-to-be murderer retrieved a sword with which to dispatch him.
Someone told me that a Tatar rode alone into a village with many people, without a person daring to defend himself. I heard also that one Tatar, wishing to kill a prisoner of his and finding himself without a weapon, ordered his captive to lie down. He went to look for a sword, with which he killed the unfortunate, who had not moved.
Panic does strange things to the human mind.
But resolve, determination, calm and hope all dispel panic. They restore equilibrium and recenter.
Now with the whole world behind President Zelenskyy and the entire people of Ukraine, now a tidal wave of resistance, psychological resistance, has met the Russian troops and stopped them in their tracks as well as any muddy terrain ever could.
This Putin did not expect.
Courage and panic are zugzwang. The two feel reciprocal because they are so intimately related, but when one moves, the other necessarily recedes. One necessitates the move of the other. Putin thought, by moving his troops into Ukraine and invading so viciously, that he could contort Ukraine, force prone its people, paralyze them, decapitate them. While they cowered, the Russians, smelling their fear, would become revitalized and continue storming the landscape.
The sense of smell is not very strong in the human animal, but the brain can tell the difference between healthy, “happy” sweat from an exercise session and that thrown off in fear. (Professor Robert Sapolsky mentions this in the cued video below.)
The amygdala wakes up, alerted, alarmed. The predator detects its prey.
We are not so far removed from animality.
But the Ukrainians revived hope in their hearts and pushed fear to a vanishing horizon.
In the wake of their courage, all of the rest of us watching and witnessing this unfold can feel a similar kindling in our breasts. The heat, the flame of courage. That is overwhelming.
We must remember this lesson well.
This is victory.