Filenews 18 November 2022
By Andreas Kluth
If you are Russian and inhabit the universe of propaganda created by your president, Vladimir Putin, it is logically difficult to be up-to-date with the reasons why your country had to attack and use brutal violence in Ukraine.
At some point Russia was forced to invade because otherwise NATO would have taken Ukraine. Then, he had to attack because Ukraine is not a real country, but part of Russia, something that the Ukrainians had forgotten. In fact, it was because Ukrainians, including their Jewish president, are Nazis. No; At least, they are definitely terrorists. If you think about it, Ukrainians are actually Satanists. So, to be clear, Russia is fighting to "stop the supreme ruler of Hell, whatever name it uses - Satan, Lucifer, or Iblis."
Parade of absurdity
Most people outside of Russia - and many inside it, too - don't know if they should laugh or cry with this parade of absurdities. Ultimately, however, we like to cry as we realize how the Kremlin uses these absurd tropes and narratives. As historian Timothy Schneider argues, Putin has been waging not only an old-fashioned colonial war from the outset, but also a (at least intended) genocide.
To be fair, 2022 is not the first year in history where countries are changing their war narratives. Just remember the changing list of reasons America cited for the attack on Iraq in 2003, when the original casus belli - Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction - turned out to be unsatisfactory. Putin is, however, playing into an accusation of his own, asking his compatriots to suspend all distrust on his behalf.
Consider, for example, even the one-size-fits-all narrative which, at least among Russians, may at some point have had an apparent plausibility: the claim that Putin had to attack Ukraine to prevent NATO from expanding. In reality, however, NATO had already ruled out Ukraine's membership long before the war. And even after Putin's invasion, Ukraine itself vowed not to seek membership — an offer that Putin rejected.
As a perceptive Russian, you also notice that Finland and Sweden, two non-NATO countries proud of their neutrality, are now joining the alliance, as a direct response to Putin's belligerent hostility. So Putin is actually provoking the expansion of NATO. Exacerbating your embarrassment, suddenly the Russian president appears unmoved by this Western "expansion", even removing Russian troops from Finland's border to Ukraine. None of this makes sense. And your job as a Russian is to do what you don't see.
The thing goes on and on in the "underworld" which was invented by the Kremlin's propaganda ideologues. Iblis - what is it again? It seems that the more absurd, bizarre and ridiculous the narrative, the more enthusiastically it is embraced by Putin's regime - and by a large percentage of Russians. How is this done?
Heresy
The answer probably lies in the depths of the human mind, as Leon Festinger described it. It was an American psychologist who became interested in a cult, to which he and his co-authors adhered and observed - and later analyzed in a groundbreaking book, "When Prophecy Fails".
Based on the communications of a neighborhood housewife, "Mrs. Keech", and aliens, the followers of the sect were convinced that the world would end with a flood of Biblical magnitude on December 21, 1954. They also believed that a few enlightened people would be saved by a flying saucer. So they sold their belongings, quit their jobs, and waited for the prophecy — and their apocalyptic UFO ride — to come true.
Festinger and his colleagues wanted to know what would happen after December 21, 1954 - that is, after what social scientists politely call a "refutation" of the worldview of heresy. In the light of the new evidence, would the members of the group change their views?
Of course not. Instead, they became even more fanatical, going out on the airwaves and newspaper columns to convert others to their beliefs. Festinger understood that this reaction was a response to psychological distress. Faced with evidence that their worldview had gone bankrupt, heretics became more fanatical and sought solace in social affirmation from other people.
Festinger later developed these observations in his theory of cognitive dissonance. This is the uncomfortable tension that we feel every time we realize that our behavior or attitude is in conflict with the real state of things. When that happens, we yearn to restore cohesion. But in doing so, we are faced with a difficult choice.
We can adjust our behavior to suit the events. For example, we could support measures to emit less carbon dioxide or accept that our favourite candidate in the election really lost fairly. Often, however, it is easier to cling to our behavior or beliefs and change narrative. We don't need to emit less carbon, because anthropogenic climate change is a lie. Our candidate is entitled to be president, because the elections can only have been stolen.
As Festinger understood, these psychological prevarications sometimes become particularly urgent. This happens when the belief that has been disproved is part of our identity, when it has already made us do things that are difficult to undo, and when we can find affirmation and solace alongside others who share our worldview.
Courage
Festinger's ideas apply to all of us. This should make us humble and able to reflect on the tragic ironies and mysteries of our own minds. Sometimes, however, the stakes of such individual self-interrogations become large enough to shape collective history and seal the fate of many innocent people.
When groups of people believe, despite evidence to the contrary, that aliens will save them on a flying "saucer" from an apocalyptic flood, they usually do not injure or kill innocent passers-by. But when millions of Russians sink into the diabolical fantasies of a regime that commits mass atrocities and threatens nuclear escalation, they become accomplices in its crimes.
So, if you're Russian and you're spinning within a cognitive dissonance, find the courage to admit the obvious: Putin's war of aggression has absolutely no justification. It is pure evil and must be stopped.
Source:Bloombergopinion
