Thread by @tzimmer_history

One week after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a personal reflection on the strangely disorienting experience of everyday normalcy in moments of world-historic importance - from the perspective of a citizen and a historian:

I want to be absolutely clear: Everything I say comes from an enormously lucky and privileged position of someone who is thousands of miles away from where the war is raging, who doesn’t have to worry about family or friends immediately affected by the invasion.

Obviously, how you’ve been experiencing these past few days will have been shaped, first and foremost, by how you are personally affected by what is going on in Ukraine. I am only trying to articulate a few thoughts from my individual perspective.

Even though I have not been immediately affected in any way physically or financially, nor has anyone in my immediate social environment, I have found it very hard to focus on anything but the situation in Ukraine and the question of what’s going to happen next.

I have been intensely – you might want to say: “obsessively” – following the news, trying to understand what is happening on the ground, to make sense of the complicated and often confusing information emanating from Ukraine, the reactions coming from around the world.

Some of that is my job: I’m a historian focusing on the very recent past, the immediate pre-history of the present, and specifically the recent history of democracy and its discontents in the U.S., the struggle for/against multiracial, pluralistic democracy in America and beyond.

That’s meant that I’ve been focusing on the reactions to the Russian invasion on the American Right, why conservatives in America have become infatuated with autocrats like Putin and Orbán, and how that is shaping their view of the war in Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/tzimmer_history/status/1496886564265373703

But my engagement with the war has gone well beyond the professional interest. I have spent an enormous amount of time following the events, and it has deeply affected me emotionally – I have been worried, sad, angry, hopeful, devastated… quite often all of it at once.

I want to acknowledge and emphasize that it’s crucially important, from a “Western” perspective, to critically reflect on why this particular war, and the suffering of people in Ukraine, might affected us more than events and suffering in other parts of the world.

It is of utmost importance to interrogate the many “Western” biases that can make us oblivious to the suffering by people who do not reflect our own image back at us. But that’s never to say “Care less about Ukraine” – it means “Try to care more about the rest of the world.”

In any case, it is certainly true that I have not gotten as much work done as I should have, and normally would have, over the past week. And I’ve seen people criticize that: “Stop doomscrolling and do something productive instead!” I disagree.

I know that the “Stop doomscrolling!” idea often comes from a place of sincere concern for the mental well-being of people who might be overwhelmed with a situation; and if “doing something productive” means “Find ways to help the people in need,” I’m fully on board.

But sometimes “Stop doomscrolling and do something productive” basically means: “Why are you obsessing over this far-away conflict – go do your actual work instead!” And with that I disagree and want to push back against. It’s ok, even important, to be deeply affected!

Let me be very clear: I don’t want to criticize anyone who, for whatever reason, has decided they cannot follow the situation in Ukraine closely. There can be many legitimate reasons for that – one of which is that it can indeed be psychologically / emotionally overwhelming.

I also understand that life doesn’t stop – we all have to compartmentalize, all the time. It is the great luxury people like me have right now, that our lives are not totally shattered by this war; but it also means we have to keep functioning in our daily lives. That’s fine.

But if you have been, like me, “obsessing” over the news, spending a lot of time engaging with the situation, have been affected in all sorts of ways: that’s not a waste of time, that’s not being “unproductive” – it’s being a citizen of the world, trying to understand the world.

It’s generally not a good idea to tell other people what they have a right or no right to be “upset” about – this type of “What do you care? Knock it off!” stuff is not helping anyone. And even from a more academic perspective, it seems weirdly ignorant in situations like this.

History, political science, sociology, name any other academic discipline: Whatever we are studying, teaching, researching, aren’t these all, first and foremost, different avenues to interrogate the world, in the hope of making sense of the world and our place in it?

I’m a historian. I’m convinced the specifically historical approach of interrogating the world, past and present, is distinctly valuable – and I’m sure others feel the same about their respective disciplines. But don’t we agree that’s what we’re doing: Interrogating the world?

If that’s *not* what we’re doing, interrogating the world in specific ways in the hope of gaining a better understanding of the world, then what’s even the point? Yes, it’s a job (or, if you are a student, it’s your education) – but isn’t it also driven by an underlying longing?

And if we agree that, at its core, our task is indeed to interrogate the world, then how could it possibly be “unproductive” to spend time trying to make sense of the world in such a moment of acute crisis, of world-historic significance?

Is that “unproductive”? I mean, sure, if you measure production solely by the number of publications, then I have certainly been less “productive” this past week. But I refuse to see my relationship with the world that way, and I won’t expect my students to do that either.

Not only is it entirely justified and legitimate to be affected by what is happening in Ukraine. It is also, from a more academic perspective, necessary to absorb, observe, reflect, discuss, in whatever form, for however long it takes to make sense of what is going on.

Not all of this reflection can be turned into publications down the road; some of it means you will have had less time to finish your assignments… It is what it is! Life has intervened, the world has intervened – and we need to adapt and adjust. And try to make sense of it.

I told my students this week they should take as much time as they need to engage with the situation in Ukraine, to reflect on what it all means, what might come next. I would define that as being very “productive.” It can’t always be about narrow definitions of “output.”

The world is really complicated and challenging, even for those of us like me who are extremely lucky to be where they are. And sometimes, in those “historic” moments, it becomes even more complicated and terrifying. Take your time to pause and reflect. We all should. We need to.