In its Machiavellian, PR spin, the oligarchic-fascist
regime change is presented and hailed as “a revolution of dignity.” [1]
Štefan Füle, my former Czech co-patriot and MGIMO classmate, but now the EU
Commissioner for Enlargement who helped negotiate with Yanukovich the EU
Association Agreement much as a unilateral dictate, claimed:
If you ask me what Maidan means, I would say it was first of all about
dignity. Lack of accountability and accumulation of wealth in the hands of few
at the expense of the prosperity of the whole country made people to show
massive support for reform and modernisation. They demonstrated for a better future
for their own country, a future free of corruption and where rule of law and
human rights are respected. For many, this corresponded with a future based on
European values, which as Europeans themselves, they share. ... We in the
European Union do not run revolutions. ... Maidan itself will be remembered as
one of Europe’s defining moments.[2]
Of course, there has been no sign of
the old new oligarchic regime in Kiev to allow for more accountability and less
corruption, not to mention spreading the “wealth accumulated in the hands of
few at the expanse of the whole country.” All this decay and corruption has
only been aggressively intensified with IFM-imposed “reforms”—austerity or
oligarchs’ massive attack on social payments and supports, pensions, and
salaries, while raising living costs and taxes.
In his speech to US Congress on
September 18, 2014, Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian President, praised Maidan 2014,
which he helped to finance like the one back in 2004, in the same rosy colors:
Human dignity was the driving
force that took people to the streets. This revolution must result in an
education of dignity, an economy of dignity, and a society of dignity. Human
dignity is what makes Ukraine’s heart beat and Ukraine’s mind look toward a new
and better version of itself. Human dignity is the one thing we have to oppose
to the barbarism of those attacking us.[3]
The use of the snipers at
Maidan, the killings, torture, and disappearances of the people at the seized
House of the Labor Unions in Kiev, the Odessa massacre, the blatant lies about
deliberate, systemic shelling of civilians, hailing Bandera and Shukhevich as
Ukraine’s national hero, etc. are an inversion of dignity and a negation of “a
new and better version of itself.”
On
his part, Areseniy Yatsenyuk assured his host, the US Council on Foreign
Relations, that the regime “did everything to restore law and order” in thename
of dignity : “Let me remind you that just less than seven months ago, Ukraine
passed the second revolution in the newest Ukrainian history. It was the
revolution of dignity, when people did everything to restore law and order in
Ukraine ....”[4]
The choice of dignity as a
label and value for Maidan might seem strange. However, if we recall McLuhan’s
“fourth law” of the media (“The Medium is the Message”), which is a flip, a
reversal, then this strategy starts to make more sense, and even more so, once
we realize that Maidan brought about a “revolution” in which Ukrainian
oligarchy and Ukrainian Nazism (in its Banderite form) took over the state apparatus
and its instruments of violence and control. As argued above, the political “secret”
of Nazism is its will to treat others as slaves. In this regard, Aristotle had
some interesting thoughts on slavery and the topic of dignity:
The tasks of the various slaves
differ … But the use of slaves is not a
form of knowledge that has any great importance or dignity, since it consists
in knowing how to direct slaves to the tasks which they ought to know how to
do.Hence those masters whose means are sufficient to exempt them from the
bother employ an overseer to take on this duty, while they devote themselves to
statecraft or philosophy. The knowledge of how to acquire slaves is different …
being a kind of military or hunting skill. (Aristotle, Politics 1255b30)
[1] Vladimir Suchan, ”Štefan Füle: How Does One
Get from MGIMO to Spawning ‘Beautiful’ Lies for Banderite, Nazi Oligarchs in
Kiev and Saying It Is All for Dignity's Sake?” Logos Politicus, September 12, 2014 <
http://vladimirsuchan.blogspot.com/2014/09/stefan-fule-how-does-one-get-from-mgimo.html> Accessed on October 21, 2014.
[2] Štefan Füle , “What does Maidan
mean?” European Commission, September 11, 2014
<
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-14-591_en.htm> Accessed on
October 21, 2014.
[3] Petro Poroshenko, ”Address by the President of Ukraine Petro
Poroshenko to the Joint Session of the United States Congress,” September 18,
2014, Press office of Ukrainian President, <http://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/31252.html>
Accessed on October 19, 2014.
[4] Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, “Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Ukraine’s Challenges:
A Conversation
With Arseniy Yatsenyuk, “Council on Foreign Relations, September 24,
2014 <http://www.cfr.org/ukraine/ukrainian-prime-minister-arseniy-yatsenyuk-ukraines-challenges/p33512>
Accessed on October 21, 2014.
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