In honor of dissident intellectuals
Intellectuals come from all walks of life. Writers, teachers, priests, academics, scientists, journalists, even court jesters at some point in the past. The list is much longer, of course. When regimes start controlling countries, some intellectuals side with the oppressors. They become propagandists. They join the dark side, so to speak. Some intellectuals flee abroad and do what they can from some other place. Finally, there are intellectuals who become the brains of the opposition on the ground. They are dissidents on the side of the light. Yes, these are cartoonish classifications but it gets the point across.
No wonder every regime wants to get rid of intellectuals as soon as possible after taking power in a given nation. Abductions. Show trials. Prisons. Assassinations. Kill lists. Mass graves. We know the story all too well, tragically. Intellectuals. The people who see much more than others. The people who point out absurdities when no one asks them to do that.
Most importantly, intellectuals see right through the enemy plans.
Intellectuals may not know how to cock a gun. Intellectuals may not know how to be warriors on the front lines. Theirs is an intellectual front, where words fly instead of bullets. As one Ukrainian soldier told me, much to my surprise, ”Words can be more powerful than bullets.” I understand what he meant, though I still believe an armed intellectual is the best intellectual.
I’ve never thought I’d know how survivor’s guilt feels, but now I do. I look around and most people, it seems, not only feel no survivor’s guilt – they don’t even know what survivor’s guilt means. Worse yet, they have the audacity to pretend everything is just fine and nothing bad is going on in the world. There are people dying right now in Ukraine – including writers – to slow down Russian imperialism. I write articles, my humble contribution to the war against – as cliche as it sounds – evil. Doing nothing and pretending it’s all jolly good is unacceptable to me. At least now, my conscience is clear.
People often tell me that I’m doing a great job – writing my Kyiv Post articles – and I shouldn’t be so humble about it. It sometimes seems, as though nothing changes, that it’s like writing into the void. But maybe they’re right, maybe every piece of the puzzle counts.
Naysayers are going to naysay but I can tell God wanted me to get involved. I believe God likes proactive people. Kneeling for hours and clutching rosaries isn’t what makes God nearly as happy as showing the Lord what we can do. The Creator wants us to create, not pray for hours and nothing else. Intellectuals have their flaws, too, of course. Their caustic comments can really hurt others. They can be trollish, merciless, mercurial, dictatorial, uncompromising, and self-absorbed, even elitist.
Sometimes, all that intellectuals can do to atone for their sins, for what it’s worth, is apologize for their caustic comments and annoyances. ”Sorry for being so difficult. I appreciate all of you.” Not that many people are going to believe the whole contrition story.
At the same time, having intellectuals around gives you an opportunity to grow tremendously as a person – and for these curious and, at times mercurial, minds to learn from you and explore your world. Sometimes, though, ”East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” People from dramatically different worlds won’t interact with each other for long. The differences in background, the intellectual chasm, is too vast to bridge. Sure, there are rare cases, but that’s all they are. Rare cases.
Dear intellectuals, your life has never been easy. Your intellect is both a blessing and a curse in the world like ours. You see things others barely register, if they even register anything at all. Misunderstood by family and friends, and maimed by maniacs, both religious fanatics and atheist ideologues, you were always targeted by the powers that be, going back thousands of years. Maybe, in some parallel universe, there’s a minute of silence across the world honoring the intellectuals viciously slaughtered by various regimes and fanatics for daring to ask questions. It’s so much easier and safer to live a quiet, and comfortable life. But not you. When you’re asked by people why make life so complicated, if you aren’t afraid of evil coming after you, you look them in the eyes and say, ”We’re in a decisive time in history. Resisting evil is the right thing to do. Not resisting evil is complicity. And I don’t want to stand before God who’s going to ask me: why didn’t you do anything to stop evil?”
I’ve read on a forum somewhere that cults and all sorts of coercive-control groups pressure their members to study law – men, in particular. Makes sense. Cults know suing is an effective technique of silencing critics. Also, if a particular group has bigger ambitions, such as influencing, even taking over, the state – the leadership of that group is going to need lawyers – future regime’s psychological pawns. All of it paints a disturbing picture of how regimes plan their takeovers of state institutions years ahead.
Intellectuals and dissidents, blog post 207 is dedicated to you. You’re amazing. You’re heroes on your way to Valhalla. Warriors you are – but of the mind. Hope you’re in a better place.
Cue the gasps of religious radicals – in my next life, I’d like to reincarnate in an alternate reality US (without all the craziness but definitely an empire), in Passaic, New Jersey. With my memories intact. I have family ties to Passaic and Passaic is the birthplace of television. What a cool place. Plus I like speaking (American) English, though there likely are going to be variations, given it’s a different reality. And many other reasons.
