What hope looks like in years to come

Much of the reporting on Ukraine focuses on the horror of what’s happening, but at times one can also catch a glimmer of hope, a feeling of excited optimism that things might just turn out for the better. There’s the view, for instance, that after years of democratic backsliding, this might be the moment that turns the tide on autocracy and once again raises the flag of liberal democratic values.

A prime example of this is the delight that reporters are expressing in the fact that a once “sleeping Europe” is now waking. But how is it waking? By buying weapons — Europe is rearming itself. From today’s New York Times:

[A tougher Europe] shows that democracies are still willing to wield power to counter autocratic governments…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine suddenly forced the continent’s leaders to confront the prospect that their stance was failing one of the foundational goals of the E.U.: to prevent war in Europe. In what sounds like a paradox, the E.U. might need greater military power to deter more war…

Germany moved within days of the invasion to spend more to rebuild its military. Others made similar commitments, including Austria, Denmark and Sweden this past week. More E.U. and NATO members are likely to follow, experts said.

Over the longer run, a revitalized Europe could help renew a wounded global order led by a democratic West.

There’s nothing like war to revitalize and renew. The problem is that war has no real vitality. There’s no actual life in it. Though weapons can be a temporary deterrent, a last resort for keeping peace when all else fails, their true purpose is death and destruction. They cannot bring any positive meaning to people’s lives. They have no inspiration to bestow. We are looking for hope where none can be found.

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And really there’s almost no hope to be found in the West itself right now. Anyone can see that Western societies are dysfunctional, that people are dissatisfied, that wealth controls the levers of power. We have stalled on making the promise of democracy real. Yes, we have greater freedom of the press and greater freedom to protest than some countries, but there are limits to those as well. In reality, our freedom is largely just a freedom to consume, to be fed by the media, to be fed by our politicians. Our lives are built around consuming. And there’s no hope in consumerism.

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In the last couple weeks I watched the documentary Winter on Fire about the 2013-2014 uprising in Ukraine that preceded the current Russo-Ukrainian War. It was one of the most intense and disturbing films I’ve ever seen. It documents the “Maidan Uprising” — 3 months of protests that took their name from the central plaza in Kyiv (“Maidan Nezalezhnosti” or “Independence Square”) where thousands of protesters gathered day after day.

In the course of the protests more than 100 protesters died, another 300 “disappeared,” and over 1000 were injured, often brutally beaten by riot police. While it’s excruciating to watch the savagery they endured, it’s also incredibly powerful to watch their spirit grow stronger through each ordeal.

What did they want? The uprising was also called “Euromaidan” because it was sparked when politicians reneged on their promise to enter into closer association with Europe. So one could say that they wanted to join Europe, that they hoped for a better life that a closer relationship with the West might afford.

But this answer doesn’t really hit the mark. Throughout the film it’s made clear that most of the protesters weren’t actually political. They weren’t there because they were upset with government policies, they were there because they felt devalued as human beings, especially once they saw the inhumanity with which they were treated by the police at their government’s behest. The final days of the uprising — where protesters held their own as they were being killed by police snipers — has its own name: it is called the “Revolution of Dignity.”

This is what people were fighting for, not trade policies but to be treated as human beings, to have their fundamental dignity upheld. Through protest they themselves upheld it. And in the process they felt the powerful solidarity that’s born of struggle — they came to know that they needed each other and that they themselves were needed. For a few precious months they knew that they had a place in the order of things.

This is what people the world over are struggling for. Not greater comfort, but a life of greater meaning. People want to live in a society where they’re needed, where they can give their gifts. How can a person have dignity if there’s no place for them?

As journalists everywhere have been clamoring to declare, the war in Ukraine has changed the face of global power dynamics entirely. If, by some grace, the current situation does not erupt into World War III, we are nonetheless entering into a time of greater belligerence, a new cold war period where there will likely be a more aggressive jockeying for power than we’ve ever seen.

If we want to survive this period, it’s incumbent that we work with everything we have for solutions that actually have hope in them. We should not rest content with our Western consumer democracies, we should rigorously pursue true participatory democracy, the making-real of equality and dignity. We should not rest content with the meaninglessness of today’s culture, we should strive to support every national-ethnic group in preserving its language and tradition, and every single individual in developing their capacities and gifts in complete freedom. And we should not rest content with an economy dominated by billionaire oligarchs, but strive for an economy where everyone’s needs are met in a spirit of solidarity, and where everyone can find their rightful place to give their gifts, to serve the whole. These are the ideals of a healthy balanced threefold society: freedom, equality, and solidarity. They are where true hope lies.

While our political commentators will applaud the struggle for Western hegemony and the escalation of tensions, we should pour all our energies into making freedom, equality, and solidarity real in the years to come. There is still time. Let’s not waste it.

Protesters in Maidan Square, Kyiv, 2013 (photo Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)