The Metropolitan Opera has pledged to display the Ukrainian flag on its facade for the next month.
The reason?
‘To thank Ukraine for defending democracy for the free world. The Met is proud to support Ukraine on their (sic) path to victory and freedom.’
The semantics here don’t stack up.
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Ukraine is not defending democracy. Ukraine is defending their (sic) country, their territory. Simple as that.
Ukraine – before the war – ranked lower on the UN corruption index than Russia. (which itself ranked rather low already)
Democracy is not what they defend.
But New York is far away from Eastern Europe. They (sic) don’t know better.
The Met just can’t do anything right on SD
it is just all so tiresome…
I don’t understand the problem here.
Norman rightfully criticizes orchestras and opera companies that have resumed engaging Putin’s stooges.
The Met has stood firm in its ban.
I think the issue is with the way in which they characterize what Ukraine is doing. I couldn’t suppress a bit of laughter when I read it.
You might feel different if your country was invaded and people throughout the world called on you to surrender or give up land so everyone else could continue buying cheap Russian gas.
But instead I live in a country that has repeatedly painted post-Cold War conflicts as existential battles between the forces of democracy and totalitarianism – and the results haven’t exactly been beneficial to us.
I’m glad we didn’t let the Ukrainians fall to the Russians. But I’m opposed to supporting the war as a long-term anti-Russian effort – especially when we’re paying for much of it and also running low in certain categories of ammunition as a result.
If you prefer humanitarian or realpolitik-based reasons, I could give you those too.
In the 1930s, entities like the NY Times nicknamed Joseph Stalin – Russia’s (or the Soviet’s) ruthless, inhumane, far-left leader – “Uncle Joe.”
Today, in the 2020s, the former Soviet Union, along with Ukraine, etc, don’t fit political boxes quite as clearly or quite as neatly as ideological identities were in the past.
For emotional reasons, I wonder how much resentment will arise if China muscles out Taiwan. Or how much less resentment exists towards nations like Venezuela or North Korea, etc, compared with Russia and Ukraine.
Mindless, empty virtue-signaling. Then again, what else is new. Vapidity and pseudo-morality abound.
Yes, the USA could learn an awful lot about democracy from Ukraine.
Flaccid virtue signaling to let you know that if you enter the building you will find flaccid music making.
Kerry Lynn Wilson, Peter Gelb’s wife, may be in town, and as she’s 1/32nd Ukrainian (and has been mentioning that she’s Ukrainian at least 32 times a day since February 2022), Peter has decided to do something very nice for her.
Plus, this way, he could rightly remind us that some out there do think he’s doing a fine job!
Stunning and brave.
Here anything Gelb does is criticized-but anything that reminds us of what is going on in Ukraine can’t hurt (Jill Biden’s dress etc.)Of course it’s a gesture-what’s wrong with that? People sitting safe at home on their computers, trying to be witty and critical, especially need to be reminded what happens in war.
The semantics don’t stack up because one has to read between the lines. The Met is saying that we will continue with virtue signaling (no skin of my nose) until the last Ukrainian dies for defending democracy for the free world (maintain US hegemony over Europe) and proud to support Ukraine on their path to victory and freedom (i.e., weaken Russia and it’s civilization) since it’s impossible for Ukraine to win and be free with the collective west’s current foreign policy because there’s no well thought out policy with an end game, only a bad attitude that is more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis.