Today, I got a nasty shock when someone commented on a Facebook post of mine about a Russian woman gymnast. ‘She’s pro War’, she declared, perfectly confident in her assumption, well up in her understanding of what pro War means, and thoroughly without doubt in her grasp of the context and likely rights and wrongs. Totally blind to the fact that in her eagerness to label another person ‘pro war’, she was actually revealing herself to be ‘pro war’, even if she is on the ‘other’ side, so presumably it’s ok for her to be that way.
But first I thought and I reflected on what the comment said - have I missed something? Is the perfectly nice-seeming young woman in my post really a warmonger, an advocate of horrible, arbitrary violence? Does she really want to see her country and her neighbours suffer and die?
I don’t think so. It’s doubtful that she will have the same viewpoint on her country’s war as we do; it is doubtful that either of us has a totally clear view of the circumstances; but pro war? I don’t think either of us swings that way.
I still post about the Russians; I think it is more right to keep in touch than it is wrong. There are some gymnasts whom I exclude from my posts because I think they may have crossed the line militarily, and I don’t want to alienate anyone. But overall, I think there is every reason to maintain our relations with ordinary Russians and to continue to try to understand their culture.
Even though we are at war with Russia, one day we won’t be. War is about states and leaders, and I’m an ordinary citizen. I don’t like killing and destruction and cruelty and I would rather be friends with someone. It seems to me that the only way I have of battling war is to promote friendship, which is so much more constructive and so much more something I can do than lob a hand grenade at my supposed enemy. Friendship beats war every time.
What is war? A state of military action by one country against another. Death, destruction, injury, bereavement, destitution. No one in their right mind would support that. There’s some philosophy out there; most wars are wrought by men. It’s believed that men turn to war because their bodies lack the ability to give birth to a new life and lack the complexity of emotion and experience that is involved in dragging a screaming baby out of yourself and growing it to adulthood. I digress.
So, do I know what pro war is? A state of an individual supporting death and destruction against others, based on a nationalistic perspective.
Do I think that the gymnast concerned is pro War? No. Would it matter if she were prowar? I wouldn’t like to support a murderer, but I think she is probably far more likely to be a pacifist. Does she have a Russian nationalist perspective? Yes, most probably; you would too, if you were Russian. I can support a situation where a friend holds a different viewpoint to mine.
Do I think she wore the ‘Z’ at a rally? Possibly, if she were asked to do so by the office of the President of Russia (athletes have been sent to prison for speaking out against the war).
Do I think she supports President Putin? No idea, I’m not a mind reader - and neither are you!
My conclusion - friendship beats war hands down and it is the only thing that can outlast the horrid violence that’s going on in Ukraine - and in Russia - at present. Apart from a few professional tennis players, Russian athletes probably won’t get the opportunity to compete in Paris, and few will even make it to international competition. The athletes are in the front line of sanctions made by the west against Russia, and the banning of athletes from international competition affects their daily lives more perhaps than any other ordinary individuals apart from those who have been conscripted, or those who have been forced to, or chosen to, migrate.
It’s all so complicated that most sporting bodies haven’t even made a decision about whether Russian athletes can compete in the Olympics. In my opinion, most athletes will be excluded by default.
Sanctions are about Russia the state and its corrupt system of oligarchy and politics and finance, not about ordinary individual athletes. ‘ProWar’? Why would they be? War has robbed them of their livelihood, their lifelong dreams, their purpose, their vocation. Quite probably they have lost family members to the war, either through relatives in Ukraine, or through conscription or through migration.
To my readers, if you talk about pro war, please think about what you are saying. Please don’t be self righteous and judgemental. You can’t possibly know if someone is pro war, and it’s highly unlikely that they are. This horrible situation is beyond summing up in two tiny words.
I pray for peace for Ukraine - and for the ordinary people of Russia.
Aren’t we all just pro peace, in the end?
Alena, the comment you submitted is so far off topic that I cannot publish it here. I don’t think you even read the post or, if you did, you haven’t understood it.
ReplyDeleteYou may have a point : the West is so absorbed in its own narrative that it doesn’t stop to interpret matters from another angle. Why pick on Russia when there is so much evil elsewhere in the world? My point is that we can’t judge the athletes and that the ‘pro-War’ label is yet another vacuous idea that angry and powerless people use to try to punish others whom they don’t and can’t understand.
There is a thread there: basically a mutual lack of understanding and no time or willingness to let it develop through discussion. Instead, world leaders rush to arms - a wrong, whichever perspective you take.
And people rush to angry words. That doesn’t help.
Perhaps I will publish your comment, after all.
YOUR ADVICE PLEASE, READERS
ReplyDeleteI have received a comment to this blog post.
The comment is basically a hate comment, possibly from a troll farm, but it makes what I consider a valid point: we in the West see everything from our own narrow perspective and never stop to consider the evil our own countries do. Our condemnation of Russia is unfair because it targets one country when many are in fact waging war at this time. Why sanction Russia and not the United States, for example?
However, this is not my point: I seek not to justify Russia’s role in the war against Ukraine, but to question the unreasonable and unfairly concluded judgements on Russian athletes as individuals, when we don’t know the whole story and due process of justice has not been pursued.
I consider the reader’s post to be off topic and also to seek to justify war.
Still a difficult decision whether to post the comment.
Please could you let me know your thoughts? ‘Publish’ or ‘Don’t publish’ will be enough.
Thanks
Thanks for your comments. I have decided not to publish the comment.
DeleteThere are so many better things to talk about. This blog is about gymnastics. And I don’t want to give air to arguments that support violence.