Overcoming Our Differences Is The Only Way Forward
A Passionate Plea For Courage And Hope In The Face Of Darkness And Cynicism
With the winter holidays well underway and the year almost over, it tends to be a good time for reflection and introspection. I’ll be honest, the festive season is a tough one for me this year. 2023 has given us too many blatant lies and too much senseless killing for me to leave my cares outside in the snow rain. Bloody conflicts like the ones in Ukraine and Gaza have resulted in many people dying or being forever physically and psychologically maimed. As much as I try to put it out of my mind, it is difficult to completely shake the feeling that it is not right to be having a good time with family, or enjoying elaborate Christmas dinners and the accompanying endless supplies of chocolates. Not while people are suffering. Then again, I tell myself, people have always been suffering, so that should not be a reason not to make the most of the holidays. Perhaps it makes it even more important to be thankful for what you have. Yet something does feel different this year, and it has taken me a couple of weeks to be able to put my finger on what it is. I have been feeling this kind of emotional block, and by now I know myself well enough to know that when I feel such a block, there’s a damn good reason for it. Furthermore, I also know that the only way to let go what is bothering me is to find out what it is and express it.
For many, myself included, the past years have (further) exposed how much of what we are told is nothing more than empty platitudes and hollow lies. How things labelled ‘conspiracy theories’ turn out to be incovenient truths. How little accountability there is for those in power, even when they commit the most heinous of crimes. Increasingly, it feels dangerous to freely express my thoughts or write about things that go against established narratives, even when they are demonstrably true. But seeing how much harm is caused through the suppressing, censoring, deplatforming, and demonetising of information, seeing how the control of what people say and what information they are exposed to can be used to enable the worst crimes imaginable, I also cannot think of anything more important than speaking the truth. Not that I have some uncriticisable claim on the truth, but neither does anyone else. I will gladly change my mind when I encounter new information or perspectives, and if I had one wish for the new year, it would be that more people do the same.
In this post, I am going to talk about the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. You may wonder why I want to talk about something so depressing around the holidays. In short, because I passionately and wholeheartedly believe that only by peering into the deep darkness of reality, can we ever hope to create a better future for all of us. Taking the easy way of deliberate ignorance and looking away from uncomfortable truths is what allows the darkness to continue and further blacken our history books. Silence equals death, as
wrote yesterday.So let us dive into the deep together, and come out shining all the brighter, filled with renewed hope and vigour for the new year. However, if for whatever reason you feel like you do not want to confront this darkness right now, be kind to yourself and come back to it when you do feel ready to face it. An important part of facing our demons is listening to how we feel and picking the right moment to take them on.
A Few Obligatory Words For The Easily Offended Or Those Cursed With Black-And-White Vision
Going forward, if at any point you think that I anything that I am saying is me ‘picking a side’, you will have unfortunately missed my entire point. Frankly, I find having to caveat each criticism of my own society with ‘but those other ones are bad too’ childish, not to mention exhausting. It should be obvious that I oppose both Russia invading Ukraine and Hamas’ killing of civilians, no matter what the historical context or their justification. However, context does matter. Only by understanding why people do what they do, by not dehumanising the other side, whichever one that may be, and by honestly examining our own opinions and blind spots can we ever hope to find lasting solutions that address the sources of these horrific conflicts. There’s always people on both sides and no one side is ever blameless, yet at the same time it is hard to deny the culpability of my own, that is Western / European governments in many of the world’s problems, which as far as I can see right now is the only place where I can hope to have some influence. While it may not be helpful to blame ourselves for the crimes that others commit or have committed in our name, neither should we look past their consequences in an effort to preserve the stories we keep telling ourselves. When we wave away the crimes of the past, in the process we become all too willing to look past the crimes of today.
It is never possible to completely capture all sides of an argument, nor to mention every bit of nuance behind a story. But I am sick of holding my tongue because of people who do not want to listen to what I have to say anyway. So, at the risk of pissing a certain vocal group of people off, or going against certain widely accepted or unquestioned truths, here it goes. I’m not asking nor expecting you to fully agree with me, I am only asking you to be open to my perspective and to try to understand how the events I mention have formed it. If you are not ready to engage with me in good-faith, or get angry or offended by what I have to say, you best just get back to your safe filter bubble and stay there. The rest of us would like to find a solution to these issues that does not involve closing our ears and yelling ‘fa la la la la’.
In Ukraine, The Lies Have Never Stopped
The media will tell you that these conflicts are complicated, that nice-sounding concepts like democracy and freedom are at stake, or that all the incredible violence inflicted on ordinary people are necessary acts of self-defence. The truth tends to be simpler though, and involves much less noble aims like control of land and resources, and shameless, delicious, staggering profit.
In 2014, when the Ukrainian government was about to sign a trade deal with Russia, it was deposed with Western support and replaced with an anti-Russian government that proceeded to ban the Russian language and relentlessly shell its Eastern provinces, inhabited by largely Russian speakers. In response, Russia sent its own forces and arms into the region and annexed Crimea. A deal brokered by the Europeans might have put a stop to the spiral of violence, but was violated by both sides. At the time, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy apparently told then German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron that he did not plan on implementing the accord, and Merkel said in an interview that the accords were signed to give Ukraine time to arm itself. The conflict in Eastern Ukraine kept going for years, while the West began training Ukrainian soldiers and funding its military. Just before launching its invasion, Russia asked--again--for security guarantees like denying Ukraine NATO membership and removing weapons from countries close to its borders, all of which were refused.
A few months into the war, this deal was still on the table as a Turkey-brokered peace deal started to materialise. However, then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew to Kiev to make sure that Ukraine would not sign the deal, and now, billions and billions of arms supplies and hundreds of thousands of deaths later, the only possible ways forward are continuing to pour arms into the country until it runs out of people or settle for a peace deal with Russia that grants them the Ukrainian territories that they are currently holding. The West has clearly chosen the first option, for now at least, with politicians praising it as “the best money we ever spent”, while the Ukrainian army is so desperate for more men that it is pulling people off buses and forcing them to fight, as well as allowing women to enlist in non-combat roles. It also seems pretty clear that the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, thereby sabotaging Europe’s gas supply, which combined with the sanctions against Russia have resulted in double-digit inflation in Europe, as well as sky-rocketing energy prices, and a booming Russian economy.
Optimistic projection after optimistic projection, from taking back all Ukrainian territory including Crimea to toppling the Russian government, fails to materialise and ever more billions of dollars and euros in military aid are spent on a conflict where victory is perpetually just around the corner but never within our grasp. Meanwhile, the Ukraine which is fighting so hard for the “values of freedom and democracy” has suspended elections indefinitely, established government control of the media, jails journalists critical of the government, and banned several religious organisations. There is an argument to be made that some or all of these measures are necessary because the country is at war, yet I can point to examples of these things already happening before the war, like jailing journalists and an attempt to introduce a similar media control law at the start of Zelenskyy’s term. Let’s also not forget how the elected government was deposed in 2014 and a U.S.-preferred government was installed. Yet you can only deny reality for so long until your neatly fabricated altar of delusion collapses under its own hubris. The war was never about NATO, until it has always been about NATO. After Ukraine, Russia is going to take over the rest of Europe, while the Russian army is on the brink of collapse, which is why the war has been stuck in a stalemate for most of this year. Somehow all of these statements are simultaneously true, so better to just accept it and forget about it.
It makes me sick to my stomach to accept sending ever more arms to a conflict that for over a year has been producing no other result than more corpses and the destruction of Ukraine, while risking further escalation that would make the Holocaust seem quaint by comparison. Just as it makes me sick to think of European migration policies that see hundreds drown in the Mediterranean every single week. Yet the only acceptable point of view in both public and political discourse is to support the death, to support the suffering, to cheer on the destruction of our collective humanity while pretending to protect it. Well, I can’t do it. I won’t do it. I refuse to take part in it. I will not sacrifice my principles to protect cynical geopolitical and financial interests that could not care less about who lives or dies, or what country or environment is destroyed in the process.
The ‘War’ In Gaza
That brings me to the next gaping hole of darkness that is blackening this year’s festive season. There is a ‘new’ ‘complicated’ conflict in Gaza, in which we have to help ‘defend’ Israel by helping it bomb hospitals and kill thousands of children. No! Stop thinking! What did I just say? It’s self-defence! To protect against the terrorists it has funded for years. To defend the lands that is has been illegally occupying for over 50 years, so that it can use this “unique and rare opportunity” to get rid of all those Arabs by moving them out of Gaza and into “absorption baskets” where they can be “rehabilitated”, while it makes a “sterile zone” so that they do not return. This “innovative, cheap, and sustainable solution […] would provide high-quality housing for many Israeli citizens” as well as benefit the USA, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia economically. Dealing in death is good business.
It is just like how the Allies in World War 2 had no other choice but to reduce thousands of German citizens to small puddles in the Dresden bombings, where “people’s shoes melted into the hot asphalt of the streets, and the fire moved so swiftly that many were reduced to atoms before they had time to remove their shoes. The fire melted iron and steel, turned stone into powder, and caused trees to explode from the heat of their own resin. People running from the fire could feel its heat through their backs, burning their lungs.” What other tactics would you expect us to employ to fight these “human animals” in this fight of “civilization against barbarism” than to move away from our humane 50 plus year policy of “containment to eradication”? It is just like Ukrainian president Zelenskyy says, both Russia and Hamas represent the “same evil”, so “let everyone who sponsors terror feel the power of our wrath”. Don’t think about any of these things too much, because Hamas is evil and just like the Nazis! Just cheer for protecting democracy and freedom! Sure it has a price, but as we already told you that we think it that killing children to achieve our aims is worth it. Our noble ends of providing high-quality housing justifies any and all means.
It honestly makes me sick to repeat the words of these people, as well as to conjure up the unspeakable horrors of the Dresden bombing, but I think if this is the kind of language that is being used, we should be aware of what is being said and what parts of history are used by politicians to justify their actions.
Source images above: https://www.reuters.com/pictures/children-gaza-caught-crossfire-war-2023-10-19/
From The Darkness, We Create Hope
So knowing about all this darkness, how can we turn things around? How can we ever hope to keep our faith in humanity with all this hopeless, pointless killing?
Well, we need only look around us. I see hope in the peaceful protests calling for an end to the carnage in Gaza. I see hope in political movements challenging the establishment for power. Every single day, I see hope in ordinary people, trying to do the best they can to make our world worth living in. With trust in mainstream media at an all-time low, and the possibility of sharing ideas and footage instaneously around the world, change is in the air. Whether for good or ill, I do not think anyone can predict, but people are clearly sick and tired of the way things currently are and the direction in which they are going. Let us seize this historic moment and ask ourselves what
asked recently:In the media and political discourse, opposition to war is made to sound unreasonable. Not supporting killing an act of treason. Arguing for nuance and dialogue an affront to reason and freedom itself. Our society has this uniqe way of making you feel like nothing really matters, like having consistent principles is something archaic and obsolete. As if it is childish and naive to want us to peacefully co-exist in a world that manages to strike a balance between cooperation and leaving each other the fuck alone. But that world already exists. Hidden behind carefully crafted media narratives, sanitised Orwellian phrases, polarised filter bubbles, algorithmically boosted tribalism, and dehumanisation of our supposed enemies are ordinary human beings like you and I, deeply flawed and highly emotional, and capable of overcoming our differences and having conversations with each other on a basis of mutual respect and understanding. We have had our moments in history, where we overcame the darkness within us and made our world a better place to live in. I know we can have those again.
In these dark days, months, and years, let us not lose hope. Let us find the courage to take an honest look at ourselves and the world around us and dare to see what we really do not want to see. It might be easier to just look away, or to go along with whatever it is you are being told, or so you may think. Not looking over your own Iron wall comes with its own price. Open your heart and find the whole world your neighbour, or let your heavy heart turn to stone and find nothing but enemies.
Instead of picking sides, villifying the other, suppressing or otherwise preventing an honest debate about the issues that affect all of us, let us do our best to uphold human rights and peace for everyone, and strive for a world free from violence, starvation, oppression, colonisation, and exploitation, where we don’t put our futures in the hands of power-hungry war criminals. Whether we celebrate Christmas, Hunaka, Siwali or something else entirely, that is a world that we can all live in.
Happy holidays everyone, and wishing you a wonderful new year, free from war and full of love, happiness, and wonder.
Robert, you are a gifted master with words! And such great insights, too. I think this quote really sums things up for me: "I refuse to take part in it. I will not sacrifice my principles to protect cynical geopolitical and financial interests that could not care less about who lives or dies, or what country or environment is destroyed in the process."
We cannot take part in our world's destruction. We cannot justify in any form a genocide of our fellow human beings--in Gaza, Congo, Sudan... We cannot risk losing our own souls/consciences/better natures just to become like those currently in power who exist merely to make profits for themselves and their corporations. We must fight back against these evils with every ounce of energy that we have. We must use our words and actions to convince others to do the same.
If we remain silent, we will have condemned our world and its peoples to death. Maybe not the kind of "death" others think about when I use that term, but the death of our inner spiritual beings. We will become even less than dogs who fight for the crumbs falling from their masters' tables. At least dogs are loyal companions. What will humanity be without a conscience, without a soul? We will not even recognize each others as equals. We will see each other as objects to be simply used and exploited.
May it never come to that point! You give me great hope that there are many of us who are seeing a grand awakening of consciences across the globe. Together, we can speak out and make a difference. Keep making that difference in everything you do and may 2024 be a better year for us all. (With lots of chocolate to celebrate--haha!) Bless you!
The West has been at war with Islam since 650. Today, the frontline of that war is Gaza. Israel is surrounded on all sides by Iran-funded terrorists, including Hizbollah which has hundreds of guided and unguided missiles. Israel cannot survive in a state of constant war. It has called top 300,000 reservists bringing its economy to a halt. This is unsustainable. Both Hamas and Hizbollah must be destroyed now.