I need to watch things die
From a distance
Vicariously I, live while the whole world dies-Maynard James Keenan
Despite the havoc cried from behind a legion of monitors in 2016, no one was really in the trenches. The most grizzled meme war veteran can doff his cap at the part he played in installing the Trumpenreich, but barring some self-inflicted doxing and over exuberant fedposting, his skin was far removed from the game. Stateside meme-warring during the US elections was more appropos of a wartime factory assembly line; memes were bulk distributed on 4chan, selected for popularity and effectiveness in the Pavlovian crucible of /r/the_Donald and then shipped to broader audiences through facebook and elsewhere. Despite our proclivity to all things bright and shiny, digital memes are simply new skin on old bones. Functionally, it’s Roman graffiti. Any formal alteration is simply for it to fit the media that conducts it. Dawkins got one thing wrong though; it takes a great degree of work and perhaps even more luck to perpetuate a unit of cultural transmission. It's understandable then that content creators and people who share memes online tend to use bellicose language a lot. But there is a marked distinction between the war of art and the Art of War, or at least there used to be. We've heard plenty about memes taking a “life of their own” and influencing outcomes in the real world. But what if we now bear witness to a new component of war in the digital age, a living breathing world leader who has intentionally made himself into a meme? Enter Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy.
Born to a Russian-speaking family in Central Ukraine, Zelenskyy followed a path so well-trod by aspirant comedians it's become a trope: he studied economics as an undergrad before going on to law school. After his schooling, he founded a production company called Kvartal 95, a publicly listed entertainment company whose most famous production was “Servant of the People,” a 3-season sitcom about a high school history teacher who is implausibly elected president of Ukraine after a rant on corruption goes viral. In one of the most ridiculous instances of life imitating art, Kvartal officially registered a political party and named it after the sitcom. Zelenskyy campaigned for president under the banner of his new party and was inaugurated on May 20, 2019. Zelenskyy's campaign for high office was noted for it's reliance on social media and YouTube to propel the comedian to office. Legacy media journalists criticized Zelenskyy for avoiding questions from them. Zelenskyy responded that he was very busy and that old media was more concerned with polishing its own PR than actually accounting to voters. The operant word here is “old”; if it ain't dank it's stank.
Zelenskyy enjoyed relative obscurity during the first two years of office, excepting one viral rant about corruption. It wasn't until the tail end of February 2022 that he staked his claim to a piece of international spotlight. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy has seemingly hit the ground running towards every camera and microphone that will have him. This is not to his discredit; every wartime leader has been somewhat cognizant of wartime optics. Gaius Julius Caesar was masterfully aware of the power of symbolism as he likened a shallow Italian river to an agent of fate. Winston Churchill famously used every avenue at his disposal to bolster morale for war torn Britions as well as implore the United States to throw in with their transatlantic cousins. But there is just something different about Zelenskyy war propaganda.
There's the matter of accouterments. Whether he's at his desk or standing in front of a green screen cordoned by military guards, the President is representing the yellow and blue in head to toe olive drab. I would be Jack's complete lack of surprise to learn that this choice was due to some focus group judging that it made the Servant of the People look “commanderly” and “like a wartime leader.” The president's bravery appears to be internationally sourced. The US Embassy reports that when it offered Zelenskyy an opportunity to leave his country at the onset of the invasion he replied, “the fight is here, I need ammunition, not a ride.” The sound you hear friends is the swooning of a thousand redditors. But despite the clear bravery and clear leadership of a man who is clearly at war, there is something weirdly artificial about Zelenskyy's press run. Maybe it's the fact that when he's not demanding that NATO give him a no-fly zone and the US sends him more money and weapons, he's waxing poetic about the horror of war to the likes of Lil Nas X nd Billie Elish at the Grammys.
The Sauron-like eye of media has always bookended every international conflict since media has existed. Propaganda and managing perceptions is almost a necessity during war. George W. Bush famously predicated his War on Terror ™ with a bullhorn address to first responders in the rubble of the World Trade Center and punctuated it with an address under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on an aircraft carrier. But until now, even the most manipulative wartime propaganda was always conducted under the Ageis of “objective” news coverage. Zelenskyy propaganda differs in the fact that he is pointing his bullhorn directly at us all. This new posture belies the traditional concept of the Warrior-King. While Zlenskyy may ape the style of a Dwight Eisenhower or a Churchhill, he has no substantial experience in warfare. The most ardent opponents of Russia acknowledge that ultimate responsibility for that country's actions lie with Vladimir V. Putin. The same sentiment doesn't extend to Zelenskyy, possibly because he's preoccupied with his multitudinous press obligations. The outcome to the real war over Ukraine is yet to be determined and unfortunately too many lives will be lost in its resolution. But one thing if for certain, Zelenskyy has completely dominated the war of public relations by virtue of overwhelming force.
You mentioned on twitter that going into university in 1987 meant nothing in the USSR... without knowing that everyone that has run Russia in the past thirty years was educated Komsomol. This is because you're a total idiot, that knows nothing about eastern europe or the US. You probably know how to score meth at your trailer park. You should write about that.