Valor on the Cheap

One of the uglier and more irrational responses to the Russian atrocities in Ukraine is the attempt by people here in the West generally and the U.S. in particular to vent their frustration and anger by punishing anyone in any way associated with Russia.

Sometimes this nonsensical reaction is borne of righteous indignation, but often it's merely an attempt to showcase one's own moral righteousness.

It's an attempt, at least by some, to affirm their own valor without ever having to risk anything.

Tommaso Dorigo discusses some such efforts in a column at Science 2.0. He writes:

What reason can there be for firing an artist based on his or her nationality? .... given the presently ongoing prosecution of opposers of the Russian regime, who are we to blame anybody who refuses to publicly proclaim they disagree with their country's actions?

Musicians, athletes, para-olympiad atlethes - there seems to have been an escalation, a competition for the most absurd ban....

But we have reached the top with the recent suggestions, now circulating in the world of fundamental research, that scientists should stop collaborating with Russian colleagues, stop publishing papers with them, etcetera. What nonsense! Science unites countries - are we now going to take that attitude back, and create a divide?

Who do we think we are hurting if we stop collaborating with our Russian colleagues, if not the whole world?....

There are hundreds of Russian colleagues who are just as sorry as we are for the recent events in Ukraine, if not more. Many of those colleagues have even signed a letter that condemns the actions of their government, and in so doing they have exposed themselves to the risk of being fired, or even imprisoned.

And what is our attitude now - do we stop working with them? What do we think we are going to achieve by cutting ties with people who, exactly like us, consider the progress of human knowledge their mission in life?....

If we consider ourselves above the idea of countries having the right of invading other countries, if we believe that women and men are equal on both sides of the border, if we believe that what unites us (humanity, and love for knowledge and art) is more than what divides us (language, habits); if the feeling of wasting lives of Ukrainians as well as of Russians makes us weep the same tears, we have to stop this....

If we are against war we cannot be in favor of cutting collaboration and positive interaction among peoples, which can and should exist regardless of the decision of a warmonger that happens to rule one of these peoples....

What matters is what you can do to stop the war. If you can't do anything of that sort, then sit down and stop taking decisions that have nothing to do with that, and all to do with petty revenge.

The attempt to punish people who have nothing to do with Putin or his crimes, just because they are Russian, is inhumane and stupid. Even many of those boys who were sent to Ukraine by Putin didn't want to go, they don't want to be where they are nor doing what they're doing. Whether they survive or die their fate is tragic.

Those who seek to put on display how much they despise the horrors Putin is inflicting on both Russians and Ukrainians by punishing those who are completely innocent are behaving like brutish primitives. They need to be made to realize that wisdom and justice consist in judging people as individuals and not as members of a particular race, nationality or religion.