On a “person of hope” and the society of action

Protests are in progress in Ukraine. They are va­rious: better or worse or­ganized, mass or not nu­merous ones. There is a feeling that the po­wer has reached a human re­sources deadlock. It is obvious that the cabinet re­shuffle and for­mation of the professional team are difficult for the pre­sident. The society is waiting for a leader who can unite the Ukrainians’ po­ten­tial. Where is this person? Who is this? Where will this person come from? By the way, the topic of the in­ter­views with experts was sug­gested by political expert Vadym Ka­ra­siov. When speaking to Den’s editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna he mentioned a phrase from our newspaper: “a person of hope.”

Does the Ukrainian society have a person of hope today? Not a messiah as some might think. A person of hope is someone whom the thinking part of society is ready to invest their hopes into. It is someone whose main worldview theses coincide with yours: you have similar views on the state development, moral, people and their principles, business, etc. Probably, you read the same books. Maybe you have visited the same museums. Your reaction to Putin’s or Obama’s declarations is the same and you know that in this international situation Ukraine has to have exactly this geopolitical strategy. This worldview platform allows you to entrust your hopes to this person.

It seems that it is very simple if people share the same coordinate system. A large community based on the universal values delegates its projects and hopes to its best representative (obviously, this person is the person of hope). However, in the fragmented society without horizontal and intergenerational links and encumbered information space people of hope are replaced by messiahs that accumulate the worldview of different social groups and, finally, do not live up to the hopes of any of them. The people of hope appear in the societies able to work out their own platform of values. Or at least able to work on it.

Does the Ukrainian society have a person of hope today?

Yurii SHVEDA, political expert, Associate Professor at the Franko Lviv National University:

“I believe that a personality plays a leading role in the historical process and finally determines the behavior and the vector of the mass movement. The examples of the historical leaders who made the face of the nation and state abound. However, the role of the public leaders especially increases during the transition periods when the public moods are inexpressive, fragmented and exposed to suggestions and manipulations. Twenty years of independence are a glaring example of how the demagogy directed the creative mass energy to the development of someone’s image and well-being instead of the people’s future. Obviously, this antinational leaders’ behavior has led to the absolute disappointment of the average Ukrainians. As a result, the people do not accept the modern politicians both in the government and the opposition. Viktor Yushchenko’s role in this process was especially negative since he killed the hope for positive leaders by his actions. This negative attitude to the politicians is dangerous since it creates favorable conditions for the anarchism and various populists, small fuehrers and napoleons. However, it is possible that according to the law of self-preservation and historical wisdom real national leaders caring about the people and Ukraine will appear. However, they will not be representatives of the governing political elite.”

Roman KUCHERENKO, head of the cyclic commission of economic disciplines at the Kaniv Ecological and Information Technological College:

“Several generations of the Ukrai­nians (and not only Ukrainians) strongly believe that someone has to come and solve their problems, feed and warm them. Isn’t it MMM that has recently re-appeared in Ukraine and our compatriots started investing in it again? During the future elections they will give their votes for the unrealizable but so sweet promises... It occurs to me at times: probably, we wrongly educate our children. Probably, we should not read them the tales about the magic wand, good knights and the magic tablecloth. Maybe this is the reason why we educate trustful, impractical and permanently hungry dreamers? Equally hungry, irresponsible, inert and inactive. Only the one who will take up the thankless endeavor of changing our people’s mentality might become our hope. They will hate this person since he or she will tell them that they are not that intelligent and hardworking, that they have generated corruption and hidden economy. It is very unpleasant to hear. Is there such a person? I cannot name any. Now I can only see the politicians who are more or less successful in adapting to electors’ mentality and lulling them with the flattery about their extraordinary ‘intelligence and diligence.’ However, the society does not require anything else.”

Mykola LITKOVETS, deputy head of the Volyn Oblast Veterans’ Social and Cultural Society “Kholmshchyna”

“There is no person of hope in Ukraine today. We discuss it during our meetings. There are people in our society who know the value of liberty since our families were deported from their ancestors’ land. Unfortunately, our state does not educate the national elite and it is disappearing. There are intelligent guys, intelligent politicians, however, some of them are too young, some of them are too old, and others just lack the necessary charisma... There is nobody to raise the flag that would unite the people. I often recall Yulian Opilsky’s tri­lo­gy, one of its books is called Twilight. The first part tells about Sviatoslav the Conqueror, the second one is about Volodymyr who baptized Kyivan Rus’ and the third one depicts the time when Volyn was under the rule of the Great Duchy of Lithuania. Those who wanted our land to be independent set their hopes on duke Svidri­gajlo who was more pro-Ukrainian than duke Vytautas. However, Vytautas won and the history went another way. However, then and now we hope for another Washington or Svidrigajlo but they are not coming. I think that hard times have dragged on; however, the outbreak is inevitable. Probably, then we will see the leader who is in the shadow now. I have sad thoughts about it since under Lithuania we were in the ‘twilight,’ after Bohdan Khmelnytsky the country was in ruins and now our country is both in twilight and ruins.”