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FRA: Il ne faut jamais juger les gens sur leurs fréquentations. Tenez, Judas, par exemple, il avait des amis iguerreichaeles.
ENG: Don't judge a man by his friends. Judas' friends were blameless.
Paul Verlaine (Q)
Two things happened last week that struck and moved me at the same time. The first was a video of Arnold Schwarzenegger addressing the Russian people, friends and soldiers of the Russian army. The second was Marina Ovsyannikova's protest action on the first channel of Russian television. Both events were initiated by completely different people. Different in all visible and invisible ways. However, apart from their relationship to the war, something united these two actions. It was the reaction of the people at whom both events were apparently directed.
Below are both videos if you haven't seen them ⬇️
So many people refused to believe in the truthfulness of Marina's action. Some said it was staged, like in the movies. Some said she was paid to do it. Many said she was just out of her mind, or she had been brainwashed by America and their propaganda. Or she just wanted to hype it up so she could use it for her own purposes.
Propaganda. I've been hearing that word so often lately that it's become a dirty word. Do you want to walk away from a conversation or shut down a discussion you understand nothing about? Say you don't intend to listen to propaganda! People even compete in chat rooms to see whose propaganda is truer. But that's an oxymoron...
The video of Arnold's address caused roughly the same waves of emotion. I confess that I myself watched the video initially with disbelief. After all, all the power of the world is now thrown into my skull to throw all their information in there, mix it up like in a blender, and then ask me what I think about it. Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be a first-rate actor, but he is an actor and an American politician. That's probably why I watched his video with wariness and great care. It's a very cool speech! In every relationship. I've learned to see lies and insincerity, but I didn't see any in this speech. My respect for Arnold was bolstered and even grew a little!
Marina Ovsyannikova was instantly understandable to me. The Slavic soul still reads a little faster. There are a lot of different people in the post-Soviet space, but the soul of each one is familiar to me. I was born in Belarus, lived in Moscow for seven years, went to Ukraine to visit friends and relatives of my wife, and still communicate with different nationalities. I am fond of psychology, I like to listen, talk and observe people. And now I observe what I do not like, but I feel all sides. I feel both the sincerity and the pretentiousness. But in the actions of Marina and Arnold I did not see falsity. I didn't see any lying or narcissism. I saw a sincere desire to stop everything that is happening now. A desire to awaken at least a small part of the people who are now in a deep sleep and refuse to wake up. I also saw a desire to do something to make it all stop sooner.
Why is it that a huge portion of people didn't believe Arnold or Marina? Who are these people? I mean, I've lived with them all this time in the same cities, in the same houses, and worked with them in the same companies. Why do I believe in the sincerity of their actions and in their desire to help stop the cruelty that no one wants now, but they do not?
I excluded propaganda from my reasoning right away. First of all, it's too popular now, which means it's already wrong, since I refuse to believe in the herd instinct of total insanity. Second, then why am I filtering information and not going to the extremes of either side? Hostility is not defeated by cruelty. It only ends with forgiveness and peace, in my opinion. While this is often very difficult, and even harder to understand and accept, it is.
It was easier for me to push back on the Arnold video because there was no propaganda, no pressure, much less threats. There was no hate there either. I saw the pain and suffering of an ordinary man looking at the situation from the outside. And what is very important, he cares for both sides, because he understands and feels the pain from thousands of kilometers away. Why do I see this, but not the people who criticize this video?
I remembered several instances in my life where, in obvious situations, people refused to believe me. Basically, these were situations where the decision on an issue had been made in advance and the revision of one's own view was not discussed. That is, a man will not believe you, no matter what you say. It turns out that you are wrong a priori. This is easy to accept, but difficult to circumvent, especially if the person is not inclined to engage in discussion.
The second point is when they didn't believe me in obvious situations, when they suspected that I had some sort of benefit from the situation. Most of the time, though, they couldn't explain exactly what benefit I was getting. It looked something like, "I don't know why you need this, but you certainly want to take advantage of it in the future..." I usually smiled at this kind of statement. It's so sweet. We are willing to disbelieve and not see the obvious things for reasons unknown to us. But at the same time, to be sure that our knowledge and views are not outdated and still relevant, despite this terribly fast pace of our world.
Oddly enough, I've come to the same conclusion every time. Everyone judges for themselves. And as it turns out, it's always very close to the truth. After a while, I saw that everyone views the actions of another through the lens of their own life experiences. And I am no exception. So I began to ask myself questions when I reached an impasse. Looking for the right questions that I wouldn't be able to answer one-sidedly or just brush off. Asking questions and sincerely answering myself. Why did I do this? Why do I do it all the time even though I feel it's wrong? What is the right thing to do next time? And finally, why am I prejudiced against some people a priori, and why do some events piss me off when I understand it all?
So I've come to the conclusion that people who didn't believe Arnold, if they were in his shoes (or when they were in his shoes), would only do so purely in their own interest or for US money, but in no way sincerely sympathetic to both sides, and in no way sincerely wanting to help in any way. Even if it is to help in awakening the consciousness of a few dozens or hundreds of people.
I have also come to the conclusion that those people who call Marina crazy, conniving, or greedy are those who cannot see other reasons for her action. Reasons why she sacrificed her job, refused political asylum in another country, perhaps turned her life upside down. Maybe it's obvious to me because I would have done the same thing. When you don't know what you can do in a given situation to help, and then a chance comes along. And so when you can do it, you just do it. Sincerely. Because you can't do it any other way. Because otherwise it wouldn't be you!
Sincerity to others begins with sincerity to yourself...
Peace, everyone!
