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Retrospective of the XII International PR-festival: «Designing the Future»
The second day of the XII International PR-festival, as we know, was devoted entirely to the theme of politics. To be precise, to the analysis of the main socio-political aspects of the crisis in the Ukrainian society and the ways going out of it.
Opened the program section «Designing the Future», participants were represented by Krzysztof Zanussi (Poland), an expert on Public Communications Rozenvalds Christian (Latvia) and a writer, social psychologist Oleg Pokalchuk (Ukraine). Addressing to the speakers, the moderator of section, vice president of the Ukrainian PR-League Elena Derevianko asked them to focus on the question of what and whether there should be any unifying national idea for Ukraine. Because key moments of Krzysztof Zanussi’s speech have already been covered in a separate issue, in this article we will focus on the other two participants of the panel.
The first speaker is widely known not only in his homeland, in Latvia, but also far beyond a PR and political consultant, political analyst Christian Rozenvalds. Assessing the current situation in the country, the expert drew parallels between Latvia and Ukraine, which, in his opinion, have much in common, was comparing and analyzing. He stressed that in Latvia, as well as in Ukraine, there are some very similar problems, which, however, they manage so far to solve peacefully. Responding to a question about the national idea that could unite Ukrainian society Rozenvalds stressed that in this case, the exceptional importance gets self-identification and appealing to the roots and traditions. And because they are, in fact, the main nation-creative factor to form national identity. He added that for successful European integration of Ukraine and its people, the government must, above all, have clear goals and objectives, and to see how they can be achieved: «The problem is that now in Ukraine there is no idea, no philosophy, no understanding, about what for everything is happening. If you do not change the rules of the game, nothing will change. If you do not understand who the new Ukrainian is living here it will remain unclear in which direction to move. It’s not a question of a changing the government: if the sense is solely such one, ultimately it changes nothing in global terms. Changes actually have to start with each of us, with small things with personal responsibility, honesty, etc. I'm afraid of that scenario, which is now conducting: just «beat Muscovites», and without changing ourselves. It won’t lead to anything good.» The expert highlighted the fact that intelligentsia should not withdraw from participation in social and political life of the country: «I am afraid that the Maidan turns into slag. That the intelligentsia departs from of this movement. People in Latvia, as well as in Ukraine, divided into two parts – those who are near «feeders» or were there and those who have never been there, hate it, but hope that once they’ll come nearer to the «feeder». There is no third option. We did it this way: system has changed, but the same people eventually came to power.»
Answering the question whether there is templated algorithm of nation, and whether it can be changed, Rozenvalds said: «I can’t say that any particular feature of the Ukrainian nation is the solution. One must first understand what to focus on. And the role of political leaders in this process is very important. Ukrainians – are Slavs, but not like the Russian or the Czechs. We must proceed from this, emphasizing on those national traits and qualities that you think are worthy and most typical.» At the end of his speech, the expert noted that the internal and external policy of confrontation in such situation – not the best choice: «In Latvia, there are many Latvians who accept the call of the Maidan to «banish the Muscovites.» Just as there are many Russians, who say: «If Crimeans could do it, why can not we?». Previously, 20% of Latvians traditionally seen the Russians as an enemy. After the Crimea, the call for a review attitude to internal Russian (in a country where 50% of the population – Russians) has maintained a much larger percentage of Latvians. While 35% supported the annexation of the Crimea. The situation is so acute today, we must first think, and then make decisions. The same applies to Ukraine.»
The second expert, who participated in the section - known Ukrainian psychologist and author of «Trembling elite» Oleg Pokalchuk – questioned the appropriateness of the search of the national idea as a kind of cipher based on the amount of shared values: «We are trying to formulate a sum of values, a categorical scale and using Spell words – appeal to the rational part of the mass consciousness that for me as a psychologist is a kind of an oxymoron. Because the mass consciousness can’t have the rational part. So I would prefer to set a different frame of perception by excluding of the spells word. Speaking about the caprices of the mass subconscious should note that we are dealing with the incompetence of the majority. Because lowering social bar of processes allows us to develop the social dynamics (that is how I described the war in a polite way), which excludes the rational consciousness, includes archetypes of revenge and other negative motivators and through the blood of the victim is pushing society in a certain direction... I think to describe and to supplement processes, we are talking about, we need using those things that lie in the field of emotional. Since the mass has no intelligence, though for some reason political leaders are appealing to it and wonder why do not get the expected result. However, this may be a conspiracy of the masses and of the person who is trying to bring this mass to self-sacrifice. Because at the heart of everything that happens usually lies some benefit. As well as mass behavior – the sum of individual motives. Moreover, the central motif of many people’s behavior is fear. Factor of fear, which every person work with, in such state is the key to his behavior. And the choice is very limited. And collectively groups of people who represent something and move somewhere (if it is really a movement and not an imitation, because very often people and groups of people mimic the dynamics, as it is definitely cheaper), and so these groups of people are still moving towards some kind of aggression.» Oleg Pokalchuk also supported the view of the previous speaker Krzysztof Zanussi on irrelevance of searching the national idea: «From the view point of the national character, the ethnic componentas a category, with which you can workin the analysis ofthe behavior ofa group of anysociety, it is secondary one. Krzysztof Zanussiis absolute lyright when he said, not because Europehas rejectednational ideanot because it is non-progressive and not fashionable, but because it does not work. This worksfor cheating a go of in terms of ethnicity, and self-components. Butfurther –no.»
Resuming his speech, Oleg Pokalchuk said: «If we try to describe the situation occurring, marking it as a peculiar,specifically Ukrainian, unique, we will make a very big mistake. But it isa temptation, whichcan’t be avoided. Trendof culture.Andin every nation, especially in the post-colonial, this is present, it can be gone through, you can recover from it. Ukrainian problem is that we tried to recover from it a few times overthe last 23 years, and all this some how ended as some unhealthy virus. Real sacrifice that occurred can really afford to develop immunity and antibodies to the fact that we need some other system of social contract within the group. Not specifically talking about the class or the nation. Somehow people will negotiate among themselves in a different way, as they will understand that it is effective.»