Europe’s Ukraine strategy can be summed up as manifesting. The belief that mind can conquer matter is idealism at its most pathological. These people genuinely seem to think that chanting “values” louder will bend reality to their will. Like Instagram gurus insisting “visualize wealth and it shall be yours,” EU summits have devolved into groupthink seances where leaders recite mantras of Russian defeat and Ukrainian victory, as though repetition alone could conjure artillery shells or resurrect their gutted industries. This is magical thinking masquerading as policy. Even as factories shutter and energy prices eviscerate living standards, Europe clings to the delusion that their sanctions will magically cripple a resource-rich Russia now buoyed by China and the Global South. Yet, no amount of positive vibes can offset the laws of supply chains, demographics, or artillery parity. Russia, meanwhile, operates firmly in the realm of materialist thinking. They are methodically attriting the Ukrainian army, expanding industries, and adapting to sanctions. Europe’s tragedy isn’t just its refusal to accept defeat, but its quasi-religious insistence that reality must bend to its sermons. In the end, no amount of neoliberal manifesting can magic the material world away.
Bluster. They are trying to look decisive and like they have actual stances on anything that isn’t drip-fed them through Israeli and US lobbyists, and capital interests. They want to cover up the fact that they have eviscerated their democracies, plundered their public sectors with generations of austerity, effectively banned any type of opposition to neoliberalism and determined to not act against Israel regardless of how profane the human cost of their crimes. These are not people with vision and purpose. They are circling the drain and trying to not raise any alarm that their whole society is circling with them. Whatever awaits Europe, it is not going to be a world power, let’s be clear. Without colonies Europe has nothing. Which is whatever. The west is dying and it’s about time.