May 7: Reading Circles by

Reading Circle Instructions

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:14:25 UTC

Almost all:

Pick a concept/quote to the reading to discuss in the first reading circle and then use Steps 2 and 3 to run your circle.
Warm up with the starters questions on the assigned concepts:

What are your reactions to the concept/quote?
What do you already know about the concept/quote?
What does the text imply about this concept/quote?

Discuss the concepts with some of the following questions:

What do you think caused this phenomenon to happen (refer back to the text)?
What is the counterargument from the Russian Mir/ Soviet/Empire perspective?

Then, post your group response towards Point 2 (what questions you discussed & relate to the world (something similar happening to another ethnic group/place). Add your group names
Move to another reading circle on another concept following the same guidelines.
Afterwards, we will ask some groups to share what they discussed before inviting the response team to respond

A group of two volunteers (Bonus 1 % for participation) will be today's response team, whose job is to respond to the whole reading circle session with a critical mindset:

walk around to record observations how peers respond to the concepts in this Padlet and record your initial reactions in a separate post ("Response Team Reactions").
when reconvened, make a post where you highlight something important in today's session from your observations and connect it to what we discussed on May 2 https://padlet.com/shockingsizeservices/may-2-reading-circles-v44e91bbvpvmix63
You will be invited to respond to the session after two reading circles and posing your questions.

# 1 - indifferent people (NYT Natalia Yermak)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:16:14 UTC

# 2 - bribing to protect sons from war (NYT Natalia Yermak)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:19:19 UTC

# 3 - to police wars with atrocities (NYT Max Fisher)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:22:19 UTC

#4 - international courts - rubber-stamps (NYT Max Fisher)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:25:04 UTC

# 5 - symbolic justice for Pr. Putin - Georgia-Russian war in 2008

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:33:19 UTC

# 6 - metaphysical guilt (Karl Jaspers)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:40:05 UTC

# 7 - criminal guilt (Karl Jaspers)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:42:57 UTC

"Who has the right to judge?" - p. 36

# 8 -"The question is in which sense can a group be judged, and in which sense only can an individual?" (Karl Jaspers)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:44:37 UTC

# 9 - "When is the war over?" (Kakhidze cited in Botanova)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 14:55:14 UTC

# 10 Botanova - "importance of war diaries" (case of Kakhidze)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 15:30:29 UTC

# 11 - Botanova on Lysovenko "Propaganda of the Living World"

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 15:36:32 UTC

https://lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/l2go/-/get/v/65332 (Botanova - who analyzes this art)

# 12 - Botanova - "Westerners: We like to observe violence; not experience [it]." (Kakhidze, min 24)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 15:42:09 UTC

https://lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/l2go/-/get/v/65332

# 13 - deprived Ukrainian agency (from bread and basket of Soviet Ukraine to liberation)

mprikhod — 2024-05-07 15:50:35 UTC

in Botanova's talk it will be analyzed on 55th min of the talk

Natalie and Elliot

natalieefol — 2024-05-07 18:02:22 UTC

Something interesting to consider when thinking about indifferent people is considering the 2016 election. In 2016, Trump would not have won the election of people took voting more seriously and did not take the out because they dislike both candidates. Bystanders are not inherently bystanders they just enhance political and societal corruption unknowingly by not committing to their community. It's important to take this into context of Ukraine because nothing gets solved when people are "indifferent". Indifference is not even indifference, we all have a moral compass I think this just goes back to fear and guilt. We are subject to fight or flight and indifference is just flight.

Jesus & Edwin

2024-05-07 18:02:30 UTC

A Ukrainian mother called her daughter about her everyday life and her daughter painted what she was saying and what she was going on throughout her life. The importance of these stories is to see how these everyday people are harshly impacted by this war going on in Ukraine, the struggles they’ve faced, and the horrors they see. This can give others insight into what’s going on and let others know how important it is to fight back and resist the Russian invaders.

Alen and Yaretssy

2024-05-07 18:03:41 UTC

I think war is a deep-rooted issue and it cannot be completely dismissed. War usually causes trauma and trauma usually occurs for a lifetime. There will still be groups of people and communities that will portray their hatred to another opposing side. However, war usually is over when two sides have a contractual agreement, which allows the two sides to start their political and societal reconstruction. Future generations tend to hold resentment for actions that have been taken against their culture and heritage. Russia over time has broken many agreements held with other territories after "peace" has been declared, so if an agreement was reached between Russia and Ukraine the risk of Russia repeating those events is important to note.

Noe and Diego

2024-05-07 18:05:30 UTC

The art that says "Well, I will send you a postcard" highlights the fact that people in Ukraine that were in the middle of the war in 2022 were not certain of when the war was going to end. The quotes simplicity and the ellipses at the end demonstrate the fact that there was no conceivable end at the time.

International courts (Theo & Jack)

2024-05-07 18:05:54 UTC

So, after a couple years of wars, the real consequences for Putin of how he abducted those Ukrainian children have not been shown. He'd adopted Ukrainian orphans and given them Russian citizenship without parental care. Showing either ineptness by international courts or illustrating Putin's absolute power.

Symbolic justice for Putin

2024-05-07 18:06:35 UTC

Neither of us have heard of this conflict and it just speaks more to how much Putin has been able to get away with without it being an international sensation. "The ethnic Georgian population was reduced by 75%." This is an alarming statistic and shows more ethnic cleansing Putin has been able to get away with.

Response Team Reaction - Safa

2024-05-07 18:06:43 UTC

Looking at previous historical examples is a great way to assess the likelihood of an agreement Russia actually participates in and also makes one think about their motivations when lying about accepting the terms of peaceful agreements.

Response team Gage

2024-05-07 18:06:56 UTC

I think saying Trump only won because people didn't go to the polls is counter-productive to how we should look at this issue. Like Putin, Trump has many loyal followers who would die for him, and that strong sense of nationalism he has created is how he's been able to gain power over the people, and even some of eastern Ukraine. I'd ask, if Ukraine had a leader they were as loyal to as Trump supporters are to him or Putin's are for him, would the sense of nationalism in Ukraine be better at this time of war?

Natalija and Maggie

2024-05-07 18:07:04 UTC

There are multiple dragons in the image which could symbolize the different nations at play in the war. One fly the Russian flag, the other with the United Nations flag, which is far off in the distance. The dragon vomiting could symbolize the influence of Russia over the Ukrainian media and most powerful people.

Response team Gage

2024-05-07 18:09:14 UTC

Do you believe that the vomitting dragon representing Russia is supposed to represent power or weakness by the author?

Response team Gage

2024-05-07 18:10:58 UTC

Do you think that the American media is at fault for not consistently highlighting the evil nature of Putin similar to what they've been doing for leaders such as the Israeli president? Or do you believe it's our responsibility to do our own research?

Natalie and Jack

natalieefol — 2024-05-07 18:11:15 UTC

The art is very minimalist which highlights the contradictory nature that the war is very complex. This art shows the uncertainty and confusion regarding the overall conflict.

Response Team Reaction - Safa

2024-05-07 18:12:00 UTC

The sharing of personal stories and experiences is so important for the development of empathy and awareness for large scale events like the war in Ukraine, many tend to focus on the political and systematic implications of war while forgetting that innocent people live in these countries and are the ones facing the most risk when war occurs, homes and families are torn apart, stories and identities are lost and the only way to keep people discussing the situation is sharing the horrors other are made to experience.

Ethan and Edwin

2024-05-07 18:13:16 UTC

She focuses on acknowledging the victims and giving them the opportunity for their story to be told in her art, always from their point of view. No matter the situation she takes the time to allow for this reflection, and in recent times this has escalated to due to the increase in casualties. One of her core beliefs is that "human lives should not be reduced to statistics", and her painting these stories truly reflects that.

Diego and Maggie

2024-05-07 18:14:03 UTC

International Law fails to prosecute large powerful countries when it comes to actively committing war crimes. This could also be seen during the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan where thousands of civilians were killed and the U.S. was never held accountable. This is the same with the actions of Russia during the war. "Ukraine forces retook Bucha to find the streets loaded with the bodies of dead civilians," This actively shows how Russia is targetting citizens, and under international law that is a war crime. Past laws are too specific to what happened during WWII with the Nazis therefore it's hard to prosecute any other country.

Elliot and Yaretssy

2024-05-07 18:14:03 UTC

This topic is very challenging because these people are in a state of desperation and fear. It is hard to blame people for using their means in order to save their own lives. However, one could see how it's unfair that some have to fight while (more privileged) others, are exempt from standing with their country.

Response team Gage

2024-05-07 18:14:18 UTC

Do you think the choice of minimalist art is also meant to show how worn out Ukrainians have become from warring with Russia that they don't even take the time for complex art to represent it anymore?

Alen and Natalija

2024-05-07 18:14:26 UTC

One quote that stood out to us was "lives should not be reduced to statistics" which is an interesting thought since most wars and intelligent agencies utilize statistics to minimize risk. Her work represents a testimonial of navigating through history, politics, and human politics. She also utilizes real-life events and victims to showcase strong imagery of the actions and trauma they have delved into during the invasion of Ukraine.

Response Khadija and Noe

2024-05-07 18:15:11 UTC

The quote "We like to observe violence; not experience it" depicts how it may be morbidly entertaining for Westerners to see ruins and destruction in Ukraine, and now so many people have voiced their support for Ukraine. This quote seems to cover the superficiality of these statements of solidarity, even though it was a buildup of repressive acts. This aggression was always happening, but now these acts of oppression are exacerbated; people have been killed, bloodlines have perished, and landmarks have been destroyed. This is the culmination of years of repression by Putin.

Response Team Reaction - Safa

2024-05-07 18:17:42 UTC

It is so scary when large powers are unable to go checked and leaves little hope for justice when considering no the war in Ukraine but other large-scale conflicts similar to it, Russia's power is showcased in so many ways as we have seen throughout from the use of fear to the erasure of Ukrainian identity when thinking about how they will likely receive no repercussions for their actions.

Gage Response Teams Final Thoughts

2024-05-07 18:17:46 UTC

I think that compared to last class this really highlights the cognitive dissonance Putin along with many Russians have towards this war, with many articles last week from Russian perspectives not being able to grasp how truly horrible Putin's actions have affected Ukrainian people over the last years. Ukraine will continue to fight back and stand strong, but because Russians have no sympathy for their neighboring country I'm fearful that this trend of Ukrainians number one priority being survival rather than improvement is going to haunt this country for as long as it exists. I also believe that American media has been doing a really poor job of highlighting this war to our citizens, and that both Russian and Ukrainian perspectives go unknown by many Americans.

Symbolic Justice (Theo & Jesus)

2024-05-07 18:18:40 UTC

In 2006, Georgia found a Russian spy, and after that, the economic war started. This makes Russia known as a "conflict creator." Currently, Georgia requested permission from the ICC to look into the war in 2008, and Russia got away with it because they had reduced the conflict zone by 75%.

Response Team Final Thoughts - Safa

2024-05-07 18:22:07 UTC

What can we do as people to advocate for better international law and repercussions for Russia and other similar countries when they commit war crimes?
What can be done to better highlight and bring awareness to international issues concerning Putin and the new occurrences regarding the war in Ukraine?