The presumption of impunity is the fundamental principle accompanying the existence of Ukrainian society over recent years. One can invent the most diverse political slogans and formulas, one can hate the current government with all one's might or silently acknowledge that there won't be a better one. All this CHANGES NOTHING in the life of a concrete "small" Ukrainian. Politicians shouldn't complain about the passivity of the public, the opposition — lament that its heroic efforts in the struggle against the regime are not supported by the people, and the authorities — take offense that even the most noble decisions are perceived without any manifestation of enthusiasm.
It so happens that the foundation of a Ukrainian's worldview is his "own little house" — nowadays, a house with a TV. It's "somewhere out there" that someone is being killed, it's "someone out there" who is gathering for protest rallies, it's "someone out there" who needs it most of all. Bullets don't reach the little house, "Kamaz" trucks don't crash into it, and the probability of falling off the couch and breaking one's head is as low as taking part in ceremonial gatherings on the occasion of yet another "day of the Transcarpathian seaport worker" and getting hit in the teeth with a police baton. In literary terms this is called DISILLUSIONMENT and INDIFFERENCE, in modern and colloquial terms — DON'T-GIVE-A-DAMN-ISM.
In reality, a person is filled from birth with emotions, experiences, feelings. Only social existence can deprive a person of these qualities. Over time, a representative of a particular society becomes a bearer of the norms and behavioral models generally accepted in that society. The effect of crowd psychology or collective irresponsibility is characteristic not only of participants in certain mass actions — this peculiar disease is transmitted somewhere at the intuitive level — as a consequence of perceiving social realities.
Our socio-political reality of recent times is a continuous "déjà vu," a tiring, wearisome repetition of the same faces, actions, events. The worst thing is that what repeats is not the good, not the positive — what repeats is LIES, INJUSTICE, BASENESS. What theft can seem to an ordinary person a crime against the background of the "feat" of Pavlo Ivanovych? What untruth can shock or at least cause indignation after dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of contradictory, mendacious statements by the highest officials? Who can feel safe, remembering the unsolved and therefore unpunished murders of journalists, politicians, and other well-known and influential people? It's not only high-profile cases that repeat — we hear daily how a high-ranking or wealthy daddy "bails out" his offspring from criminal liability, how much "they take in bribes" for admission to university, for permits and approvals, for certificates and acts... CORRUPTION permeates the body of society like an infection does a weakened human organism.
From hopelessness, from the helpless acknowledgment of the listed misfortunes and problems, one wants to howl like a wolf, bang one's head against the wall, or bang someone's head against that wall. Not abstractly "someone's," but the concrete heads of concrete people responsible for the state of affairs in the country. I am inclined to believe that only such a course of events can break the chain of mindless repetition. In a society that has not learned to live by Christian laws, the laws of the Old Testament should apply...
This is not a call for revenge. Deaths and blood in our history are enough for ten countries. This is a call for decisiveness and consistency from those who are still capable of FIGHTING, a call for uncompromisingness from those on whom important decisions depend, a call for honesty from all who still remember the meaning of the word HONOR. Half-truth and half-struggle, compromises and little compromises have already created our today's half-country. To make it a full-fledged one, one must decide whose side you are on. If we are being killed, then this is war; if this is war, then agreements with the enemy are betrayal, and betrayal is not forgiven. If you are "for ours and for yours," then you are a courtesan, and if this is not France, then you are a whore. Try this peculiar test on yourself and recall how many times you kept silent, held back, forgave, because your house, no matter how you turn it, is still the "little house" on the edge...
HEORHIY was on that side. In the consciousness of his people there is no category of the "little house on the edge," and no one justifies betrayal with notions of political expediency and the need for compromises. We, with you, are still on the other side — not because we are ALIVE, but because we are used to living without HIM, because we have tucked his death between the lines of habitual speeches, because we smile at his murderers and lower our eyes before his mother.
We have a choice today — to bow our heads in memory of HE, and then proudly rise, continuing his cause, or simply bow our heads and never raise them again, as an attribute of the habitual slavish posture.
We have a choice today — to honor the TRUTH with a moment of silence, or to fall silent altogether, obediently listening to lies.
We have a choice today — to share the tears of the Mother and Wife over the loss of a son and husband, or to fall into constant weeping from the wretchedness of our own fate.
We STILL have a CHOICE...