Of Goats and Goebbels
By Nick Pelling
When history turns bad, language itself has a tendency to shrivel up and become almost meaningless. The creature in the Kremlin tells us that there is no ‘war’ in Ukraine. It is merely a ‘special’ operation. The being also tells us that “we are not going to impose anything on anyone by force.” And that Kremlin policy is “based upon freedom”. To clarify, that is “freedom of choice for everyone.” The only truth to be found coming out of Russia, comes in the form of artillery shells and cruise missiles, currently destroying Mariupol and other Russian cities. But as Russian news explains, Russia does not bomb cities. That’s a relief.
One thing seems to be clear, Europe is re-entering the world of the Big Lie. As Joseph Goebbels suggested, if you tell a lie enough times it becomes truth. At this juncture, readers may feel that we have been living in that world probably ever since politics began. Machiavelli was advising leaders to lie at times back in the sixteen century, for God’s sake. The West invented the phrase ‘collateral damage’ to sanitise murder. But, though it is true that fibbing is just part of the currency of politics, the enormous Mega-lie is surely something different. As Goebbels understood, it is an assault on meaning itself. Language becomes a black fog behind which anything can be done.
Muriel?
When I saw the image of the incredibly heroic Marina Ovsyannikova bursting onto Russian State TV News to call a war a war, I was reminded of Winston in Orwell’s 1984. The desperate individual trying to break through the wall of lies. Big Brother’s slogan, ‘War is Peace’ could not be more Putinesque. And chillingly, remember that Winston lost in the end. What are the chances that Marina Ovsyannikova will be free this time next year?
But what if Putin does not think he is lying? I recently re-read his speech given on the eve of his ‘special’ non-war war. He has some sane points. It was probably rash of NATO to swallow up so many of the former Soviet satellite states, such as Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and the Czech Republic. That may have seemed threatening. But after a while, something else began to seep out of his words. Something which suggests that he has in the deep recess of his mind an almost religious worldview. He claims in the middle of his speech that the West is trying to destroy traditional Russian values and replace them with “pseudo values”. His next utterance should give us pause for thought, “It cannot be done because it contradicts the very nature of man.” This is Putin as mystical philosopher. Apparently, he understands the deep inner nature of man.
Maybe we are not up against just lies. Maybe we are up against Putin’s twisted notion of the Russian Soul. The unique Russian way. If he thinks like this, we are all in trouble. This is the Big Lie fusing with the Big Prayer. Lies mixed with delusion swirled up in a cloud of incense. To the Kremlin creature, the Motherland is calling across the steppe.
If only George Orwell were alive to make sense of it all. But he is not. And what he has left us is not at all consoling. Winston ends up a broken and brain-washed man who understands that lies are indeed truth. But then again, Orwell had a solution to pessimistic thought – keep a goat. He had one called Muriel. Perhaps Putin will make goat-keepers of us all.
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