The last few days and the next few are a true hinge of world history. As the new nation of a proud people fights tenaciously for survival, as the world finally swings into action against a man who’s been an increasingly malevolent international force for more than 20 years, and as his last-ditch gamble seems to be faltering, I just wanted to try to articulate my concern and admiration for all the regular people involved.
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First, to the substance of the fight, Putin is right that there are many Russians in Ukraine, and right that the two nations are inextricably tied by history. But his arguments he makes about what that means are horribly wrong-headed. Of course Ukrainians come from many different ethnic and social backgrounds and always have: the country's location at the wide border between the East and the West makes this a historical inevitability. So there are indeed Russians in that mix. History dictated that the Ukrainian President’s first language is Russian. But if Russia thinks this means that they have some special rights to control Ukraine, then Ukraine might well say the same of Russia. After all, that shared history begins where the Russians got their name, with the Kievan Rus in the 9th century. All these Slavic, Finnic, and Baltic tribes were first brought together under the control of the Viking princes of Kiev, so perhaps it would be more accurate for Zelenskyy to demand that Putin surrender control of Russia to him.
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The people of Ukraine have never made such a claim that I’ve heard. They simply want to be free. But since he’s destroyed his own nation’s freedom and prosperity, Putin couldn’t afford to accept that. His regime can no longer survive on its own strength, and that failure incites him to cannibalize the success of others. It seems that because just because Western powers haven’t stood up to his atrocious acts for so long he thought that it would be easy. Well, if the Ukrainians were really his people, maybe he’d have known them better.
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Imagine if Zelenskyy had less steel in his backbone, or was less clever. Imagine if the people of the Ukraine had elected a lesser man than this comedian. Imagine if they had not themselves inspired him and given him the support to stand up against overwhelming odds. Instead, every time they’ve been told to lie down and be rolled over, they’ve stood taller. Now they’re forced to die or fight.
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They choose to fight, and look at how they’re fighting: in videos shared online, in tweets, and in official appeals, we see their concern, we see their fear, and we see them master it with spirit, intelligence, and even wit and humor. In all the righteous anger I’ve seen from them, I haven’t seen cruelty. They go to battle almost with wry determination and even humor. They're making fun of Russian armaments, and changing street signs to read "Fuck off. Fuck off again. Fuck off to Russia”.
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To the English speaking world it almost has the flavor of Robin Hood and his Merry Men standing up to Bad King John in the forest of Nottingham. They question and mock the prisoners they capture, but I haven’t seen what we know could so easily happen: brutality repaid with brutality. In some videos its obvious that the Ukrainian fighters are empathetic to young Russian soldiers betrayed by their own national leadership.
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Everybody is rightly concerned for Ukrainians first and foremost right now, but the caring people of the world are also sad for the Russian people who are being so misrepresented and manipulated. It’s a double tragedy that they have to not just bear the hardships of being so wrongly governed, but also of the world’s reaction to that misgovernance. The rest of the world knows that many Russians don’t support this action, and that even those who do are doing so out of the incredible misinformation and unilateral economic and social control of a dictator. Unfortunately, when one person makes an entire nation into a tool of their own will, there’s no way to curb that will without acting against the nation.
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Russians, please know that we don’t blame you, and we hope that this regime comes to an end shortly so that you have a chance at leadership you deserve. Maybe, ironically, the Ukrainians will help to liberate you.
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Ukrainians, please keep fighting. You’re not just fighting for yourselves; in some sense you’re fighting for all of us. The US and other powerful nations can’t engage directly without starting WWIII, but I deeply hope we can give you more aid in holding back history’s latest monster. Sometimes even the strongest need to be shown how to fight, and you’ve already inspired us to do more against Putin than we’ve ever done before (to our shame). Your success here will earn the world’s admiration and gratitude for a generation or more.
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Thanks to @lz55 for the prompt.
VIEW 22 of 22 COMMENTS
nikikat33:
@fullfeeling Your words are extremely well-written, and in my opinion, should be read by the world, ALL countries. As an American, I feel very helpless to make a difference for the people of the Ukraine. I wish I had a way. If I could gather my thoughts with skill like yours, I would speak up & post them everywhere, and hope that they would make any difference. Even small differences, one person at a time, adds up to powerful (peaceful) action, and can change minds and change history.
fullfeeling:
Wow, @nikikat33. Thank you. Those are really humbling compliments. I think that real change in the world happens the same way as divorce or going bankrupt: very slowly, then all at once. To that end, everything we do is part of the the "very slowly" if not the "all at once".