Alan Shnir, Period 1, 3/22/2022

Modern Mythology Blog 3/22/2022

By Alan Shnir


At the time of writing this blog, there is obviously a significant amount of events happening in the world. America is going through one of the highest ever inflation rates, commodity and gas prices have reached historic highs, college decisions come out in one week, and Russia and Ukraine are in the middle of Europe's worst war in 80 years. Due to the sheer amount of content available, I wish to dedicate this blog to writing about current socio-political issues and how they relate to the average human and, of course, Grendel.


Everything is like an onion. This is an idea I want to explore specifically when talking about the current largest world event, the Russian-Ukraine war. An important thing to point out is that this is not the first time these two nations are at war either, as exactly 100 years, these countries were also at war. I had plans to travel to both Russia and Ukraine in the summer of 2022 to visit family, which I have in both countries. However, these plans have been canceled by recent events. The outside layer of this onion shows how this event has affected me firsthand. It has canceled my travel plans and family plans for the foreseeable future.


The thing about onions is that they have more than one layer. Peel back this brown, cover layer, and you see the effects of war on the ground. Millions of people were displaced, thousands already killed, and countless livelihoods were destroyed. This is the layer most people see; this is the classic layer we see before really cutting into an onion. Humans, however, are like ants, and we only focus on crumbs instead of the cakes on the table. Underneath this outer layer that the media shows, we see the effects of war. 3.5 million refugees will again stoke the European immigration debate, furthering existing European political tensions. Hundreds of thousands of Russia's most highly educated young people are fleeing repressive economic and government conditions, effectively dooming the future of Russia to even more irrationality.


Peel back another layer, and we see a layer beyond immediate effects. As the world's second-largest oil producer gets taken off the world economy, oil prices will increase, especially for Russia's biggest client, Europe, which already has exceptionally high business costs. 25% of the world's wheat supply now hangs in the balance as the two biggest producers of the product deplete each other's productive capacity. Countries like Egypt and the MENA (Middle-East-North-Africa) region as a whole rely on these countries for over 70% of their wheat imports. After current food stocks run dry, this event will effectively put a tenth of the human race at risk of starvation, a tenth that lives in the least farmable and resource needy region in the world.


Peel back another layer, and you see the factions truly at war with each other. The Western block strengthens as it cuts resource ties from Russia, and European nations start to revamp their militaries. Russian power exposes its cracks and nearsightedness with a failing military operation, failing currency, and failing economy. China's ambitions begin to readjust as it sees its nearest ally break its back on a far smaller nation.


Peel back another layer, and institutions are the ones at war. On one side, you have a western democracy, and on another side, an eastern autocracy. In essence, it is just another war culminating in varying institutions battling out one another for survival. After all, America too was a democracy born out of gunpowder and blood. In this layer, we see war for what it is: a game of survival of the fittest between different institutions. Today's most common institutions - free-market capitalism, democracy, or religions - were spread through war. This will remain a constant of human history, and the events we see today are just another one of the thousands of times this has happened before.


Peel back another layer, and we reveal my average meal. The main grain I eat with nearly every dish is buckwheat (the grey, bland, healthy version of wheat). All the buckwheat that I consume is produced in Russia, so now, I will have to change my diet due to a war happening 6000 miles away. This is the point where tears flow after being exposed to the onion for so long.


After you have demolished your onion, you are left with only an empty space, and this is where Grendel comes in. In this novel, we see the "all-seeing nihilistic" character of the dragon speak with our metaphorical ant, Grendel. Grendel can only see the world immediately before him; he can only see the crumbs. The dragon represents our nothingness, seeing human development through nihilism and thousands of years of observation; he sees the whole cross-section of the onion, while Grendel can only see the outer layers. Within this interaction, we can see the two possible approaches we can take to events happening in this world: we can focus on what is immediately in front of us or look at it as a whole (although we do not need the nihilism that the dragon uses for this).


This blog was inspired by Grendel, current events, and "Principles for dealing with The Changing World Order" by Ray Dalio, who I greatly admire for his macro-perspective on world events.