I am exhibiting a trait known as "self restraint".
Perhaps you could expand your own studies on its benefits in regards to human interaction.
As an aside, I had an ex like that once who would never fight or emote. Eventually I discovered that the man who yI used to say about "he is my rock", was in fact, an emotionally stunted, actual, rock.
I'd be more worried about that, except I seem to have a roughly equal amount of people who think I'm a cold, unfeeling bastard and a hot-headed, argumentative bastard. I just never see a reason to get angry. Take your point for instance. What am I supposed to take from it? You don't think I'm very sensitive. That might be true or not, it's an issue of perspective. Is it something for me to worry about? My wife seems to only worry about it occasionally because she's used to people screaming at her to make a point. It helps me a lot at my job and at home to stay calm and collected at all times and it comes naturally, for the most part.
And in the end, we're all random people on the internet whose lives very often have no connection on the great venn diagram of life. At this point, all we know is that most of us are roleplayers and play or played EVE online. Why should I expect anybody here to really know and/or care how I feel about any issue? And more importantly, should I want them to? Would I rather tell these people to worry about what they say or keep them honest so I know what they're really thinking?
I know people are going to say things that aren't going to be very sensitive to my feelings. That's okay. I'm a big kid. I don't think self-restraint means not talking about something, especially something you actually care about. It's about keeping your pride for yourself where nobody can touch it and expecting people to disagree with you or, I suppose in this case, agree with an insufficient amount of zeal.
Pretending that I believe something else when I just don't have a viable reason to change my perspective doesn't really sound like restraint, nor is just deciding to leave the conversation because my perspective isn't going to make someone happy. I'd feel insulted if someone treated me like a child that couldn't control his temper.
I just wouldn't be angry about it.
I think it's basically safe to say that Ukraine is in the full swing of a revolution, with the west and Russia meddling for their own interests. Let's not forget that it was the EU who first gave the ultimatum "it's either us or Russia, no deal with both". Putin, obviously not wanting to lose yet more influence in the world, pulled some strings and attempted to ensure it was his side that won out. Now the west is actively encouraging the protestors and suggesting it is their right to depose the government, stopping just short of publically calling for an armed revolt. Russia, of course, is going to try every dirty trick in the book to stop that from happening.
It's like the cold war all over again, except I think Russia might be dangerously desperate, and the west dangerously cocky. This also has greated suggestions for the greater Balkans region.
Aldrith, why do you assume Russia is desperate here? On the contrary, the West seems to be acting far more desperate. Ultimatums, encouraging armed rebellion, etc. Putin knows his influence is substantial, and the West is finally admitting it by taking his influence seriously.
There's a pair of conflicting issues at this point, I think. Russia has a lot of international power these days for two reasons that I can see, first that they're essentially supplying gas to the entirety of Europe, second that they're picking up the slack for countries that the U.S. and E.U. turn their noses up at as far as business goes (usually for good reason). The problem for them is that the countries close to them aren't usually as happy with that influence as they'd like.
On that note, Putin is very angsty about former U.S.S.R. holdings wanting to join the E.U. instead of their Kroger-brand trade union. Unfortunately, that puts the E.U.'s influence in their portion of the country in direct conflict with Russia's people in the eastern part. On the ground, I don't think things are that simple, but even the President's supporters don't seem too comfortable with the way Yanukovych dropped his pants, grabbed his ankles, and thanked Putin after he'd finished. The problem is that the President's supporters have guns and the protesters are firing molotov cocktails from giant slingshots.
So it's hard to say that there are really two sides when one is so heavily armed and the other so vocal. It's hard to say, at least from where I'm standing which opinion is actually in the majority. I'd hazard to say the pro-E.U. side only because, if it had just been some relatively minor band of anarchists, they'd have been gone by now. But it's hard to speculate.
Author
Topic: Meanwhile in Ukraine (Read 15025 times)