A beautiful phrase from an old cartoon about the cat Leopold, which, for some reason, has been taken as the basis for tackling any conflicts and even wars. If you remember, there the good-natured cat Leopold lived in his neat, beautiful little house, and he was attacked by mice without reasons and causes. And so Leopold suffered losses, was injured, and at the end, he went out and said to those damned mice, “Let’s live in peace, guys!”. Well and then happy end, everyone sings, and mice slyly smile and go to invent new losses for Leopold.
For some reason, Soviet society has adopted this ideology. That’s when you are attacked by hooligans or thieves, or some other criminals, you have to stand still, blink and say in the friendliest voice ever, “Let’s live in peace, guys!”. And notice, this phrase has never been said by the aggressor, but only by the victim. Thus, the victim assumed the responsibility for the attack. After all, in Leopold’s ideology, he never says, “Hey you! Be people, live in peace. Why do you act like jackals? Be kinder to others. Be honest and polite.” No, he says “Let’s live in peace” and this “let’s” about him too. And he is no longer a victim, but a co-aggressor.
Leopold’s ideology has firmly sprouted in society. The victim was supposed to become an eternal victim, but the aggressor listened to “live in peace” and smiled slyly, inventing new ways of bullying. This ideology is clearly ingrained even in politics. Many politicians, even living in a country where war has been going on for 5 years, are afraid to call the aggressor an aggressor, blink and say, “Let’s live in peace”, like, they are not shelling our lands, but we are shelling theirs.
But I was genuinely surprised when I saw the Leopold-like ideology in the international political field. Here comes a politician from the USA, he spent his childhood with Disney heroes or Tom and Jerry, at least. From his childhood, the country did not hesitate to call the enemy an enemy, and the friend is a friend, black is black and white is white. Even in justice, they clearly understand where the attacker is, and where the victim is. And here, half an hour of negotiations with “Russian partners” and there’re first signs of Leopold’s ideology ‒ let’s live in peace, Ukraine should be more docile, more kind, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
It’s hard for me to imagine what cartoons the German foreign minister watched as a child. He lived in Saarland, and this is the south-west of the Federal Republic of Germany, here you can’t even mention the Soviet ideology of the GDR. And so, Mr. Maas went to Moscow to talk with his colleague Lavrov, and that’s all, he came to Kyiv already with this Leopold’s ideology. Where it is not about the aggressor and the victim, where it is not said how to reach out to the aggressor, but politely about “de-escalation” on both sides and in that sentence the damned Leopold’s ideology “let’s live in peace” and blah blah blah is read… and mice slyly smiling at coming up with new losses.
It’s like saying to a rape victim, “You should be more docile”.
It’s like saying to a robbery victim, “Put the jewels more convenient”.
It’s like saying to a murder victim, “Stand in such a way that it would be easier to shot you”.
It’s like saying to a country, where the aggressor tore off the land with blood, killed thousands of people, and is killing hundreds in prisons, talking about de-escalation of the conflict. But for Russia, de-escalation is the removal of its weapons and troops from Ukraine. And for Ukraine, the same de-escalation is to stop existing
I do not mind living in peace, but not with those, who kill.
Tatusya Bo