I don’t think Ukraine is the Current Thing any more – hence Zalensky’s savvy attempt to drum up waning Western interest in the Ukrainian cause – and well done to him. But for the rest of us, what is the new Current Thing? And how can we support it? Especially in a way that costs nothing but makes us look virtuous?
Not seeing any Nigerian flag and sad face emojis in the ‘ol Metaverse, are we? Yemen anyone? Syria? Myanmar? So what is the big chic thing about Ukraine? Couldn’t be that the world’s criminal/political class launders its dirty money and installs its drug-addled offspring on phony boards there, could it? Vogue isn’t going to send Annie Leibowitz to glamorize Ethiopia, I’m guessing.
Dermot O'Sullivan
1 year ago
The Vogue piece is a practical and clever move to keep the focus on the war and should also benefit Ukraine in terms of hard cash and head space (please excuse the last 2 words!).
Let’s not forget that a propaganda war is also being fought out in the west, as the comments in Unherd testify.
Ray Mullan
1 year ago
It seems to me that every war since the turn of the century has been billed as the first online war although I remain at a loss to see why that shiny gloss is supposed to improve our understanding.
Whether it is sucking up to the bourgeoisie or simply a case of the bourgeoisie having to suck it up, however you slice and dice it, Zelenskyy’s fat Fidel schtick has gone beyond the pale with this latest PR beano.
D Walsh
1 year ago
Sad to see Mary supporting the Neocons 🙁
Jim R
1 year ago
I think i’ve seen this Zelinskilander movie before – isn’t the “Blue Steel” pose the same as “Magnum”?
R S Foster
1 year ago
…hard to blame him. As the likely impact of sanctions starts to really hurt Germany, and through them the EU (certainly presaging crisis, possibly even collapse)…he will come under increasing pressure to surrender the freedom and lives of his People and Country to Czar Putin…and with the POTUS a broken reed, and our own PM gone (although Truss looks like a woman who might hold the line)…it will be ever harder to resist the appeasers, much less the straightforward collaborators (most of the German political class)…
…he needs to get his retaliation in first, and pile up as many friends in high places as he possibly can…and Vogue is as useful for that purpose as anywhere else…
This latest act…and it is an act…is doubtlessly a push to recover waning public, media and political support as narratives crumble. But as usual answers are highly dependent on the quality of the questions. Here are 2 more relevant ones:
Since Russia made it clear (for 8 years) that they had zero territorial ambitions for the Donbas, rebuffed the 2 regions’ attempts to hold referenda, and pushed relentlessly to have Minsk implemented on the basis “underwritten” by those European representative nations actually mentioned in the agreement (Russia wasn’t), why wasn’t Zelensky allowed to execute on the “peace ticket” he was elected on? Answer: Petro Poroshenko recently admitted that Ukraine only signed Minsk in order “to buy time to train and weapon-up” and that there “had never been any intention to honor the accords.”
Why was Zelensky/Ukraine effectively prevented from following through on the peace framework reached in Turkiye in March? We all know the answer to this one.
It is certain, and always was, that Ukraine cannot win an all-out war against Russia. No serious military analyst disputes this. That this reality can even be framed as “acceptable” in the context of Russia “being weakened” in the future – as has been stated by senior US, EU and NATO officials – makes it clear that Ukrainians, who might’ve had peace by now, are de facto ideological and geo-political cannon fodder in the battle to cling to “Western hegemony” as most of the world pushes toward multi-polarity.
It is likely that history will judge Zelensky harshly, and appropriately: a second-rate stage actor who, through an emergent artefact of western socio-political organization that now rewards showmanship before substance and skill, got his turn to shine on the big media stage (something even he actually admitted publicly early on).
That Boris Johnson – the man who dragooned Ukraine into all-out war (read: utter destruction) by rejecting the Istanbul peace offer – now seems destined to head up NATO speaks volumes but, alas, only for those prepared to listen.
I don’t think Ukraine is the Current Thing any more – hence Zalensky’s savvy attempt to drum up waning Western interest in the Ukrainian cause – and well done to him. But for the rest of us, what is the new Current Thing? And how can we support it? Especially in a way that costs nothing but makes us look virtuous?
Excellent comment
Not seeing any Nigerian flag and sad face emojis in the ‘ol Metaverse, are we? Yemen anyone? Syria? Myanmar? So what is the big chic thing about Ukraine? Couldn’t be that the world’s criminal/political class launders its dirty money and installs its drug-addled offspring on phony boards there, could it? Vogue isn’t going to send Annie Leibowitz to glamorize Ethiopia, I’m guessing.
The Vogue piece is a practical and clever move to keep the focus on the war and should also benefit Ukraine in terms of hard cash and head space (please excuse the last 2 words!).
Let’s not forget that a propaganda war is also being fought out in the west, as the comments in Unherd testify.
It seems to me that every war since the turn of the century has been billed as the first online war although I remain at a loss to see why that shiny gloss is supposed to improve our understanding.
Whether it is sucking up to the bourgeoisie or simply a case of the bourgeoisie having to suck it up, however you slice and dice it, Zelenskyy’s fat Fidel schtick has gone beyond the pale with this latest PR beano.
Sad to see Mary supporting the Neocons 🙁
I think i’ve seen this Zelinskilander movie before – isn’t the “Blue Steel” pose the same as “Magnum”?
…hard to blame him. As the likely impact of sanctions starts to really hurt Germany, and through them the EU (certainly presaging crisis, possibly even collapse)…he will come under increasing pressure to surrender the freedom and lives of his People and Country to Czar Putin…and with the POTUS a broken reed, and our own PM gone (although Truss looks like a woman who might hold the line)…it will be ever harder to resist the appeasers, much less the straightforward collaborators (most of the German political class)…
…he needs to get his retaliation in first, and pile up as many friends in high places as he possibly can…and Vogue is as useful for that purpose as anywhere else…
This latest act…and it is an act…is doubtlessly a push to recover waning public, media and political support as narratives crumble. But as usual answers are highly dependent on the quality of the questions. Here are 2 more relevant ones:
It is certain, and always was, that Ukraine cannot win an all-out war against Russia. No serious military analyst disputes this. That this reality can even be framed as “acceptable” in the context of Russia “being weakened” in the future – as has been stated by senior US, EU and NATO officials – makes it clear that Ukrainians, who might’ve had peace by now, are de facto ideological and geo-political cannon fodder in the battle to cling to “Western hegemony” as most of the world pushes toward multi-polarity.
It is likely that history will judge Zelensky harshly, and appropriately: a second-rate stage actor who, through an emergent artefact of western socio-political organization that now rewards showmanship before substance and skill, got his turn to shine on the big media stage (something even he actually admitted publicly early on).
That Boris Johnson – the man who dragooned Ukraine into all-out war (read: utter destruction) by rejecting the Istanbul peace offer – now seems destined to head up NATO speaks volumes but, alas, only for those prepared to listen.