The Internet and social networks have radically transformed our relationship to time and space, making us citizens of the world, residents of planet Earth. Despite our cultural differences and specificities, the “stranger” of yesterday is today our fellow man, by his humanity and by the proximity that our interconnected world allows.
Posted at 4:00 p.m.
We can develop with other citizens of the world a compassion and empathy similar to that felt towards a neighbor. It can be extraordinarily enriching, but also very disturbing when we become “live” witnesses of their desolation, the destruction of their property and even their death. The helplessness felt in front of the expression of their feeling of abandonment can become intolerable, to the point of affecting our own psychological condition.
It is not the first time that our screens have been invaded by broadcast images of massacres and destruction that have turned human existence into chaos and horror. Once again, for more than a month, we have witnessed war crimes which, regardless of age, deprive human beings of their roots, of their loved ones, of their lives, of their right to be rescued and die with dignity. But among all the armed conflicts raging on our planet, that of the war between Russia and Ukraine is undoubtedly the most publicized at the moment. President Zelensky no doubt had something to do with it, because he never ceased to challenge the conscience of the international community and our responsibility to act, through his video clips and his live exchanges with the representatives of NATO member states.
Discomfort and responsibility
I, too, consider Volodymyr Zelensky to be extremely courageous, but I feel immense discomfort seeing assemblies congratulate him while letting him risk his life by continuing to cry out on our screens the distress of Ukrainian citizens who feel abandoned.
I can’t help but think of General Roméo Dallaire, abandoned by the international community during the conflict in Rwanda. In keeping with his values, he had taken the risk of staying put, risking his career, his life and his health; the risk of shaking hands with the devil1 to try to negotiate a truce or to ignite a spark of empathy in the eyes of those who fuel destruction. I wondered, like Romeo Dallaire2why the concept of the responsibility to protect, which had been accepted in 2005 by the United Nations Organization, did not guide certain actions at the beginning of the conflict which concerns us today.
For anyone who is not a soldier, the idea of not intervening directly on the ground with a view to preventing a widening of the conflict which would risk threatening the lives of a greater number of people may seem scandalously immoral, especially when lives are snuffed before our eyes3.
I am not a soldier, nor a specialist in communications or diplomacy. As a global citizen and psychologist, I seek to find meaning in what I witness and feel, to understand how this war affects my mental state and challenges my conscience.
Solidarity
Certainly, various protection mechanisms are available to me to guard against its impact on my psychological health, but I cannot deny its existence. I accept the discomfort it creates for me, out of solidarity and empathy. Nor do I want to minimize its consequences or fuel hatred against those who instigated it. Because I hope to continue to use my energy wisely in order to continue to be useful as much as I can be, and considering how lucky I am to still be alive.
This connection with my neighbors in the world at war sharpened my awareness even more of the precariousness of things and the fragility of certain rights that are too often taken for granted. The right to be rescued and the right to die with dignity represent privileges to which the majority of humans do not have access, war context or not.
1. Dallaire, Romeo (2003). I shook hands with the devil: the bankruptcy of humanity in RwandaEditions Libre Expression.
3. The movie The Imitation Game explores this ethical dilemma, from the point of view of military strategies.