When societies lie about death, the deception leads to the collapse of the very cause they purport to support.
Accounting for the dead is one of society’s most important functions—it brings closure to the cycle of life, creating a sense of purpose and belonging essential to the normal functioning of families and communities. The dead were people with names and histories which those close to them would mourn and remember. But when the death toll becomes unmanageable, the names and histories of the departed are forgotten as the normal rituals associated with human death are brushed aside in favor of the exigencies of mass burials. During the Black Plague in the 14th century, body collectors removed the dead to prevent the spread of disease and, oftentimes, because the families no longer existed to manage the issue of burial. Civilized society hung on the edge of survival as entire institutions were depopulated. Today in Ukraine, the dead are either buried in cemeteries whose capacities are overflowing, or simply abandoned on the battlefield, forgotten. Ukrainian society hangs on the edge of survival. The difference between the Black Plague and the situation in Ukraine today is that the Black Plague was an act of God, the spread of a pestilence which societies at that time were not equipped to handle. The conflict in Ukraine, however, is one hundred percent man-made, an avoidable disaster perpetuated by those for whom death became an accountant’s game, ignoring the basic human need for end-of-life closure. The dead of Ukraine have become simple cyphers to be manipulated by political forces who care nothing for the population from which the horrible cost of war has been extracted. Moreover, by allowing the numbers associated with the dead of Ukraine to be manipulated for political purpose, these accountants of death have deceived themselves, creating a situation where the cause they purport to support collapses around them from the weight of their own deception.
Hellbound and Down 