What Ukraine is silent about: do we have a public demand regarding the war and its end that is clear to the authorities?
And I'm listening to a conversation on the air. And the host says:
– I want to ask about something that worries us, ordinary people. Why, for example, don't law enforcement officers fight, since they know how to shoot? Because an ordinary person thinks: "Why should a regular supermarket cashier have to fight?"
And I wasn't even outraged by the message, the wording, the feigned naivety, or even the ignorance that law enforcement officers are fighting. Because this is a real question "from the street." And it matters.
So I thought about the public demand. What is the actual public demand in Ukraine right now?
I'm not really talking about what we might see in sociologists' polls. People are probably inclined to talk about what seems abstractly right. I'm talking about what every person honestly feels inside.
Because if you don't know what you want to achieve, then it's difficult for you to achieve anything. For better or for worse. And this applies to people, communities, and states.
I have no non-public inside information from any offices, just like hundreds of thousands of other people. I have no idea what the delegations of sons-in-law of world leaders are actually discussing with presidents, ministers, and special representatives these days. Both you and I can read the 28 points, which have turned into 20, and in a week will become 15, but the threat will not change because of this. And neither will the essence of our existence as citizens of Ukraine.
We can write on ten pages that we will not join NATO. Will Putin and Russia change because of this? No. Will he stop? No.
We could write that we're freezing something in three days. But will that bring freedom to the more than one and a half million Ukrainian children living under occupation? Will that be the end of the conflict for us, while adult Ukrainians, both military and civilian, are held captive and taken hostage? For me, no. But for some people, maybe so.
These are all more complex issues, and I could go on and on about them here. But some people ask themselves these questions, while for others it's enough to know that everything is fine in their little nest at this moment.
Negotiations about who knows what could last a year or years. Or significantly less (although, as is known, nothing good happens in two or three weeks, so it would be better if it lasted longer).
And I also see how the number of accusations against Europeans is growing these days. Talking about "Europe's impotence" has simply become a trend. Many of us are eager to pick up on this; it's a natural offense, it's resentment – it's even very understandable.
But I see people here in Ukraine who believe that, for example, the occupation will bring us all peace. Right? They are all around.
Seeing threats and being aware of them is a skill. And not everyone has it. That's why I'm thinking about the public demand.
Are we able to formulate what we want for ourselves personally in the next month, six months, or year, in the context of the entire country? To think about solidarity-based decisions?
How can we accumulate resources and strength even if the acute phase of the war stops, so to speak? Are we waiting to return to "how things were"? I don't know. And I have no illusions that this could be important to absolutely everyone. That's not the case anywhere, and it never will be.
I'm talking about a critical mass of people who could form this demand for the Ukrainian authorities. Because you can love or dislike someone a thousand times, trust or distrust them, vote or not, but political decisions are most often a reflection of public demand.
In "Escape from Freedom," Erich Fromm writes: "Ideas can become a powerful force, but only to the extent that they correspond to the specific needs of people of a particular social character."
Because only the way we see ourselves, the way we see our country, is the measure of everything.
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