Putin Drinks His Own Kool-Aid

By Shlomo Maital    

     Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavored drink mix.  It is mostly sugar. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack.  You mix it with water and get a sticky sweet drink.  Kids used to love it – until we became more aware of the health impact of excessive sugar.

    There is an expression: X drinks his/her own Kool-Aid.  It means:  A decision-maker listens to no views contrary to his or her own. 

    This fits Putin to a “T”.  It explains his evil Ukraine folly.

     During the pandemic, Putin sheltered in his bunker.  Even lately, when he met French leader Macron, bizarrely he sat at one end of a 13 foot (4 meter) table while Macron sat at the other end.  He sat alone, and paranoia blossomed.  His grievances festered and spread in his brain, like bacteria. His views on Ukraine became twisted; in his Kool-Aid glass, there was no picture of a free democratic nation willing to fight and die on their own soul for their freedom from a hated despot.  It would be a piece of cake.   And there was no military leader or intelligence officer to say otherwise – even though they knew better.

      This is what happens when you drink your own Kool-Aid. Putin is not the first.  Nor the last. His Kool-Aid will for Russia turns to be far more like the glass of hemlock Socrates drank.   But so many people are dying as a result.

      It is heart breaking.