The enemy will deepen the microcracks, seeking to turn us into a pane of glass covered in a web of fractures that will eventually shatter. Our task is to prevent this.
In the age of microtargeting, there is also such a thing as microcracking – the injection into society of a network of microcracks that divide it over dozens of different issues.
Some societies are defined by major divisions. This is true of the United States, Poland, France, Germany, Britain, and others today. Ukraine was such a society in 2010 and, to some extent, even in 2013.
Today, as was the case around 2018, Ukraine is being covered not by one major crack, but by countless smaller ones. Like a pane of glass crossed by a web of fractures: it is still holding together, but if it breaks, it will shatter into countless fragments rather than two large pieces.
First, you quarrel with your friends, neighbours, or Facebook friends over issue X. A week later, you are arguing with a different set of friends, neighbours, or Facebook friends over issue Y. Then come issues A, B, C, D, P, Q, R – and so it continues. Unlike in a society divided by major fault lines, after several dozen such micro-conflicts, you no longer have a “base,” a “tribe,” or a “pack” to return to. You have fallen out with some members of that group over issue X and with others over issue Y.
This is what I call microcracking – a web of microcracks.
This is not an artificial division, because each of our disputes concerns issues that are genuinely important and painful. And in each of them, both sides usually have some measure of truth on their side. That is precisely why these divisions are so difficult to repair and so difficult to glue back together.
What is important is that these are not divisions over ideologies. They are divisions over experiences. Ideologies can be brought together into a coherent doctrine, after which the heretics can be persecuted. But everyone’s experience is different, and each person has painful “nuances” that may seem secondary to others but are personally crucial and fundamental.
How can this be glued back together? Only through common action. In a society affected by microcracking, the only possible glue is acting together. Working towards a shared result. In fact, what we have in common is usually found not in the past, but in the future.
The enemy, of course, knows where our pain lies, and so it will continue to exploit it. It will deepen the microcracks. It will search for ever new issues over which to divide us. The aim is to turn us into a pane of glass covered in a web of fractures that will shatter under a powerful blow.
Our task is to prevent this. To look for what unites us rather than what divides us. And we will find it in common action directed towards one shared goal – Ukraine’s victory.
It is extremely difficult. But without it, we will lose.
Source: NV
