Every day, like clockwork, the actor-comedian comes to the camera, dressed in his army T-shirt, appearing on Zoom to demand that world leaders join his battle, and send more guns and planes, and save him from his evil neighbour.
The First World flash mobs and the well-heeled Silicon Valley latte legions absolutely love his chutzpah, and so they cheer him on and adorn themselves in his team colors, before unleashing their daily 2 mins of hate against his barbarian neighbour to the north.
“We will fight to the last man!” says the actor-comedian. “Show me how European you really are, make me a NATO member and give me a No Fly Zone!”
The social media influencers clamour with excitement, “He’s like us, he’s on our phones - he loves freedom, he loves democracy! No Fly Zone, No Fly Zone! Bomb them! Bomb them! Kill them, make them pay! Destroy their entire economy, cut them off from our western world - make them and their progeny pay dearly!”
As the global economy begins to come unhinged, virtuous western leaders assure the plebs that this is the defining war of this generation - the good fight, “In order to support the actor-comedian, and to really punish those Russians you are all going to need to make some incredible sacrifices, we’re going to plunge the world into an economic depression - and that will send a message to Putin! We’ve never done this before, but don’t worry about the ramifications - because it’s the right thing to do! It’s a moral fight for the soul of western civilisation, and Putin must not only lose, but be seen to have lost!”
Seeing all this, the comedian, Zelensky, keeps going with the act - while he’s starred in many shows before, this is by far his greatest ever: ‘Revolutionary leader’ of the new young vanguard of the global anti Russia coalition. That’s the image which is being cultivated. A media creation.
All the while, nobody really asks how this budding world war started, or how it’s meant to end.
No one seems to know, or seem to care.
While he does his Zoom calls from his bunker demanding more arms and cash, the residents of his capital continue to work, shop and drive around. In other cities, they are fleeing to safety, and in others they are in the middle of a war.
Undoubtedly, many residents hope that the radical nationalists who have taken control of state affairs might eventually come to their senses and negotiate an end to hostilities. But that’s what the comedian wants, nor his line managers in Washington.
The longer Zelensky’s dramatic performance drags on, the worse the war will become. Rather than negotiate and try to make some deal which both sides can accept, he is laying down ultimatums, barking orders at Russia, barking orders at the EU, at NATO, very clearly hoping to drag the rest of the world into this war… and virtue signalling western politicians are all too willing to oblige, insofar as they can keep their contributions under the table; weapons trafficking, mercenaries, and “off the books” covert special forces and other assets to stage provocations, and create ‘harrowing’ media stories. This was their Syria playbook too.
This is not a TV sitcom. If you’ve studied history, you might know how this is going to end.
Not well for the Ukrainians, not well for the Russians, and certainly not well for the West.
“We will fighting, to that bullet - never surrender. And we will be victorious!” howled the comedian.
But it’s not a TV show. It’s real, and so are the costs. Not just for the comedian and his own country, but for the entire world.
The same fanatics who rolled the dice with lockdowns, closing schools, closing borders, and mandating experimental jabs, are now rolling the dice again.
“We’ll see what happens, but it will be worth, we promise.”