We shouldn't shift responsibility for change to those who return from war

I have some bad news. It's not going to happen. And if it does, you won't like it.

I'm not even talking about the fact that a huge part of the intellectual elite of my generation, who should have become the political elite, will never return from the front. Those who were supposed to become mayors, ministers, reformers, deputies, those who would and could change something for the better will lie in the ground, and there are already many of them, and there will be even more. And of those who will return alive, there will be a huge number of wounded, maimed, or simply psychologically traumatized. Add a huge number of people who, instead of continuing to fight for the country, will have to rebuild their lives: with their homes destroyed, without jobs, with forgotten peaceful skills, perhaps without a family or with family problems to solve. Here is a portrait of the 'lost generation' - not in the Remarque sense, because all generations are present at the front, but in the political sense, because those 30+ who should have evolved to take their places in 3-5 years and then give way to those who are 18-20 now have been largely destroyed by the war, both physically and morally.

“Here is a portrait of the 'lost generation' - not in the Remarque sense, because all generations are present at the front, but in the political sense, because those 30+ who should have evolved to take their places in 3-5 years and then give way to those who are 18-20 now have been largely destroyed by the war, both physically and morally.”

Add to this, please, the huge level of internal aggression that people have accumulated, which mostly does not find a way out, and then spills over onto others - and it will spill over onto veterans as well. This is you now, brother, a war hero, our cat, pride, honor and glory. As soon as you demobilize and decide to change something even in your own village, let alone in the country, you will immediately hear that you fought in the wrong place and in the wrong way, you were not at the front, and you are a drunk and a drug addict. And not every fighter will be ready for such a psychological drop, believe me. Even those who have seen real hell around them will not always be able to resist when this hell is arranged for them by their own people.

I honestly don't want to go on, although there are many more points. The result is the same. If we want changes for the better, everyone will have to work hard. And we should not shift the full moral responsibility for the changes to the boys and girls who will return from the front. They are not the only ones who will vote, they are not the only ones who can make changes, and they are not the only ones who will live in the country. So either together or not at all.

And it's worth starting now, by the way.

Source

About the author. Yurii Hudymenko, Ukrainian politician, leader of the Democratic Axe party.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.