The comedy and tragedy of a war
Social media portrayal of the Ukraine situation fails to convey the real sufferings that people endure
By Hari Kumar
It is rare for a country to elect a comedian as its leader. Even rarer for that leader to grow in stature during a crisis.
A more familiar story is a populist leader who promises to be a servant of the people turning out to be a comedian.
Ukraine, however, has been lucky. Its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian initially, is proving to be more than he was as Russian troops invaded his country. He stood up for his country and managed to get powerful European nations like Germany and France to rally behind him while people worldwide chipped in to help displaced Ukrainians.
Zelensky’s 2015 comedy series, “Servant of the People,” portrayed a history teacher accidentally elected to power and getting caught in tricky situations. It proved so popular that Zelensky floated a political party in the same name – Sluga Naroda, or Servant of the People – and swept to power. He had a bumpy ride since coming to power in 2019 as he grappled with real politics, just like the character he portrayed.
Zelensky’s ability to handle the visual medium in his previous career is proving to be effective as he speaks to his compatriots and the outside world, vowing resistance and pleading for help. Unlike some other populist leaders who appear immaculately dressed and manicured, in carefully arranged set-pieces, Zelensky had projected the image of a leader who is willing to share the hardships of fellow citizens.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, appeared in meetings where he sat at the head of extra-long tables while his officials sat at the far end, giving an image of a man who has distanced himself from reality.
The way things have turned out in the past few days indicates that Putin’s moves have not gone as planned, and the might of the Russian army has failed to overpower the Ukrainians. Suddenly, the man often portrayed as a suave chess brain on the world political stage looks rattled.
The ground realities during a war are difficult to gauge as information is often shrouded in the fog of battle. But one thing is becoming clear: despite being known as the nation that manipulated the election results in the United States through cyber campaigns and a country where well-organised hacker gangs thrive, Russia is struggling to contain the cyber campaigns against it. Nor has Russia been able to unleash a dreaded cyberattack against Ukraine.
Cyber experts had said that the contending parties could see how enemy forces target core sectors like power, finance, and communications in a modern war.
“You might have expected significant Russian hacking of core Ukrainian internet infrastructure,” Ciaran Martin, a former boss of Britain’s National Cyber-Security Centre, told The Economist. “But that hasn’t happened. Communications seem to be working mostly fine.”
Still, Ukraine is taking steps to protect its internet network. It has got Elon Musk to offer satellite internet through his SpaceX satellites. Kyiv is also organising a volunteer army of IT professionals to “continue the fight on the cyber front.” The active role of major technology companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google in action is another new dimension being watched closely.
While largescale hacking is yet to emerge, a furious war is going on the internet. Both sides are using social media platforms with their version of the war. Groups ranging from political factions to anti-vaccine campaigners have also thrown themselves into the muddle.
Unverifiable videos of confused young Russian soldiers seeking Ukrainian help to campaigns linking financier George Soros to the troubles are circulating online. Some groups have hijacked the war situation to push their agenda.
Some anti-vaccine supporters have spun stories about US-run labs in Ukraine producing dangerous viruses and how Putin targets them in the fight against the global cabal, the imaginary enemy of Donald Trump supporters.
In India, some supporters of the ruling BJP have used it to shore up the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeting out without any evidence how he managed to get the two countries to pause the war to evacuate Indians stuck there.
As usual, the web also exposed the worst of the lot. A few people in China started posting messages that “jokingly” encouraged the trafficking of young Ukrainian women trying to escape the war.
Some of the claims aired by mainstream media networks rival the scripts of Zelensky’s comedy series while online campaigns are going on full force. Some of them are laughable were it not for the seriousness of war.
One undesirable consequence of this cyberwar is making the real war look glamorous, with gun-toting civilians mouthing heroic statements and civilians doing everything from stealing enemy tanks to making Molotov cocktails.
War is indiscriminate, and everyone in its vicinity becomes a victim in one way or the other. But, unfortunately, that is seldom conveyed in tales of such glorious battles.
Take any Second World War movie, and you will see well-groomed young, handsome actors going through the actions. Contrast that with the sufferings narrated by soldiers on all sides in Antony Beevor’s three-part bestseller Stalingrad. A quote widely attributed to Bertrand Russel says: “A war doesn’t determine who is right, only who is left.”
The real agony of the war goes far beyond the Tik-Tok videos, which show a few crying children and glum-faced elders. As the Wired magazine’s senior writer Kate Nibbs writes, attributing heroic status to a leader only “recasts a geopolitical conflict in which real people are really dying into entertainment, into content.”
“What’s the harm, one might ask, in viewing Ukraine as the Rebel Alliance and Russian president Vladimir Putin as Emperor Palpatine? Well, for starters, Zelensky is a person, not a Jedi. He doesn’t have magical powers. Thrusting an actual person into the role of Cinematic Savior is wildly unfair. Plus, Putin rules a country filled with actual human beings, many who are putting themselves at risk to protest this invasion.”
The battle between the comedian and macho leader has already trapped soldiers and civilians of that region in a circle of tragedy. The question now is how much this circle of tragedy will expand and how many will be affected by it.
Thanks Hari👌👍