Pierre Rimbert has written an interesting article in the monthly magazine Le Monde Diplomatique this April: Événement total, crash éditorial (“Complete event, editorial drop”). The journalist says that in the central media space of the West it is a milestone how some events suddenly take over the whole place, shaping political powers from a single perspective. These “complete facts” overlap with all others. In addition, most journalists are dedicated exclusively to heat and skin. In these media, opinions outside official propaganda leave a limited space, especially those derived from deep investigations of long breath.
This is an example for the time being of the Ukrainian warrior, says Rimbert: it seems that the big media consider it a duty, not to inform, not to clarify, not to reflect, but to mobilise, in favour of the Ukrainians and against the Russians. Regrettable images and news are constantly disseminated through public and private channels in order to generate immediate sensations in any news, article, column, chronicle, section or department. In the name of sacralized values such as Freedom and State sovereignty, he asked us to make a leap with them, but not to try to reflect and understand.
"It seems that the media sees it as a duty, not to inform, not to clarify, not to reflect, but to mobilise for the Ukrainians and against the Russians"
This enormous concern involves the whole of society, sometimes absurdly, according to Rimbert: The Bicocca University of Milan has annulled a course on Fiodor Dostoievski to “avoid controversy” and the International Federation of Cats has decided to reject Russian cats from their championships.
I agree with Rimbert. Instead of teaching that it can go to the scorn, I would like to read substantial reports about the young Ukrainian President Zelensky, with clarity and shadow of his politics, ideology and strategy. Let us hope that, as in all the media, the concepts of peace and war within Europe are more and more seriously questioned: structural peace is the foundation of the European Union, that is the “truth” disseminated by the majority of the media, but the whole of Europe has no roots in the conflicts between the old imperialisms, in the clashes between the last most ambitious nations of the state, the cold war, in the precarious list. I would like to hear other stories about Ukraine, other stories about Europe.
I would also like the other figures in the flight in search of peace: I cannot support the main media citing the Ukrainians in a disastrous, violent and contemptuous manner. In the mouths of political leaders, the former are “refugees”, these other “migrants”; it is fair to dress, attend, take refuge in our homes for the Ukrainians; it is not permissible to transport or protect others; the authorities’ own words show that the Ukrainians and the others are not the protagonists of the same story. The Ukrainians are at the heart of that “complete event”, it seems that the other immigrants have come here by chance, as if they were the bad actors of an anecdotal story.
I feel the need to become aware of historical account and vocabulary in a different way. In Anartea, I do not want to support the acts of the tortuous ‘single official’ and racist, but each of those who must be helped equally. Syrian, Afghan, Iranian, Ukrainian or stateless, because any prisoner deserves the same respect.