Yep, difficult topic. In my opinion, we in general should not ban an artist, but each individual can decide wether to boycott an artist or not.
And there is a fundamental difference between Wagner and Russian artist today, boycotting Wagner will not change anything in the past, boycotting Russian artist might change something, even it is very little and of not very concrete consequences to the situation of Ukrainians. There are way better options as you have mentioned. No one is asking to boycott Schostakowitsch or Stravinsky.
In my opinion as many as possible (living) Russians who agrees to the current Russian politics need to feel their own consequences of the Russian war on the Ukraine, as every children, women and men in Ukraine are suffering from the actions of these Russian people, it is not Putin alone and all other Russians are only forced and innocent victims of their system.
and I want to add: There are Russians who do not agree on the politics of Putin, these people we should support.
War crimes in Ukraine need mourning, clarification and punishment. Democratically, civilized, cultured and according to the rule of law.
Appropriate music and people making music have always been a small sign of hope for people, even in Ukrainian shelters from bomb terror and in church mourning work.
These almost four quiet hours will not heal all souls, but our thoughts go so gracefully to the human creative works with international cast for centuries.
A great classical selection that was released on LP decades ago and wants us to rest even currently.
My mother’s parents were Ukrainian Orthodox Catholics my father’s were Belarus Jews—now isn’t that a combo?(especially in Syracuse in the 1930s/40s)— my mother’s people were sent in by the czar to kill my father’s people every time there was a famine and when I stayed at my Ukrainian grandparents they wouldn’t let me play with the Polish kids on their block—things never change do they?
When I came home from college one summer in ‘67 or ‘68 my Ukrainian grandmother fixed me a Ukrainian steak fried in lard with onions and perogis—then raised her fist at me for the way I looked and said in her broken English-“ I left the Ukraine because of people like you-you are a Bolshevik Bomb Thrower” so I went and got a haircut and a shave!!
My heart goes out to the Ukrainians.
Because other people have what you want. So you invent whatever disinformation you like to demonize them to provide justification for taking it from them. The British did it all over the world. The U.S. too. Most cultures have done it since the beginning of time. The situation in Ukraine is just one more example of this never ending cycle. Until we as a society refuse to allow our basest most greedy nature control us, the cycle will never end.
Not to delve too deeply into philosophy, but I think the difference is humans are the only self aware predators on the planet. Being self aware, we know we’re predators and theoretically should be able to ameliorate our natural tendencies. Shame on us if we don’t.
Disagree with that, but a minor objection. So, point taken.
Apes, several species of birds, dolphins are also on the spectrum.
As usual, humans will turn out not to be so special in this area, also.
2 Likes
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
102
Not only should be – we probably could. If we wanted to. But we don’t. Greed and selfishness are survival traits, and it’s hard to imagine we’ll give them up.
It’s less hard to imagine going extinct if we don’t. As we’re getting more interconnected, realizing we’re all in this together is also becoming a survival trait. The tribe is basically the whole human race now. I hope recent tendencies towards authoritarianism and turning back history are just temporary reactions to our progress in the right direction.
