A professor at one of the Western universities expressed an interesting opinion. Brilliant, were these stupid jokes of Kvartal 95 [Zelenskyi’s comedy show before the presidency] or was it just a coincidence.
One side of this war is striking: it is presented to Western audiences as a movie a la Harry Potter.
No war has ever been presented like this in the West.
First, the epic narrative of “Good vs. Evil”, “Elves vs. Goblins”, “the evil Voldemort wants to enslave the whole world and all are so scared of his button that they don’t even dare to pronounce his name, but Harry and his friends don’t fall on their knees and fight for all of us.”
Second, this whole mixture of mysticism, game, and subtle trolling. All these videos from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Prayer (where “let my eye be clear to kill enemies”), or the recent “Plans love silence,” or today’s “Budanov’s greeting to the enemy”.
Sometimes it resembles haka performed by the New Zealand rugby team. Althouth it seems to be outright stupidity, it has an effect on the fans!
All this stuff is shown on all Western channels.
Americans are really watching it. Many like this stuff like teenagers once liked at a teaser for a new Harry Potter series or a new version of a video game.
Such presentation does not so much inform as it creates fans of “our team”.
Not to mention thousands of clips of handsome Ukrainian soldiers dancing.
How often I hear people say that our warriors are handsome, cheerful and noble!
Have you ever seen dancing soldiers of the armies of Syria or Afghanistan?
Can you imagine the director of the CIA in a video like the one with Budanov? I cannot!
And from Ukraine – easily!
And this is good.
The success of Ukraine depends on the Western support.
The Western support depends on the decisions of Western politicians.
And the decisions of Western politicians depend on the sentiments of Western voters.
That’s how Western democracy works, it cannot be denied.
What is it?
A brilliant work on shaping the opinion of Western voters?
Does someone consciously, skillfully and strategically work on an emotional level?
Are the stupid jokes of ‘Kvartal 95’ inappropriate?
It is possible to remove a person from KVN [comady contest, President Zelenskyi were involved for many years], but it is not possible to remove KVN from a person.
Was it just a coincidence?
No strategic idea. It’s just that if among the soldiers are a bunch of people with several degrees and high IQs, due to stress, they will create such pearls from time to time.
One thing is clear: no war has ever been presented like this in the West.
For 25 years, I had the opportunity to observe through the lens of the Western media a good dozen wars, from Iraq and Afghanistan, to Georgia and Ukraine in 2014, as well as Sudan and Syria.
There was always a formulaic presentation: dry, standard, focused on decisions and events.
And here there is the work with emotions. The focus is often on the soldiers. Individuals. Zelenskyi. Zaluzhnyi. Budanov. Ordinary handsome soldiers. Mysticism and gamification.
No one has insider information: is this some kind of professional department for working with a Western audience, or is it just that the AFU consists of a very high percentage of creative individuals who relieve stress like this?
Anyway, this is probably the most educated army in the history of mankind. It has never happened that a good quarter of the army has consisted of the creative class, the most proactive people with work experience. They got out from behind the computer and video camera, left the office and went to the front. Besides, they took with them their smartphones.
Tags: russia ukraine war
