Opinion: Why Are We Cancelling Russian Artists?
Cancel culture isn’t always the right decision to choose.
The information presented in this article is accurate as of the publication date and is subject to change. Opinions portrayed in this article are the author's own.
In our current time and cultural settings, we are thinking about various things as important and many of them are leading the world on an everyday basis. And one of them is politics, which we take as something so indispensable that our whole lives will change in every possible shape and form if it wouldn't exist. Politics is something that both unites and divides people around the world, making a big effect on our relationships and opinions.
We as a society have outlived many conflicts and wars (both political and military)—many of them making a visible impact on our history. And one of the current conflicts affecting our world is the Russo-Ukrainian War, which is (as I said before) both uniting and diving our population every day with every new statement touching the surface of the mainstream media. There were made some correct decisions that could change the whole direction of this conflict, but there were also things that shouldn't have been done—but they were done, causing more harm than good.
One of them is punishing the Russian population for this war. There are many reasons why was this decision not correct to make and why should we stop making this mistake–I would like to dive into as many possible aspects of this problem as possible in this article. If we would want to know who thought of this idea first, we should look at who's really controlling this situation we are finding ourselves in. With the US committing the most aid to Ukraine (and doubling the total of financial, humanitarian and military aid made by all European Union countries to 70.7 billion euros, which equals roughly 47.9% of all resources donated to Ukraine) we can safely say that the US can be one of the true leaders of this war.
In recent months (maybe even years) we could see some kind of Orwellianism effect slowly taking over most of public voices and media. In this case, there is only one truth and everything besides that is wrong and shouldn't be spoken out loud at all. Russia AND all of its citizens equals enemy and we need to collectively cancel every single Russian, so the war will stop. But there isn't a single grain of truth in this statement, making it misleading and false information, which could affect weaker and more trusting individuals in our society. We can see that many of Russian artists are having their concerts or even whole tours cancelled, with some newspapers reporting that the shutting of performances is done mainly by the West (with obvious support of Ukraine).
With Ukraine destroying every possible tangible object connected with Russia's history, it's no surprise that Russians are no longer desired part of our civilisation. Russia has long-lasting economic, political and mainly cultural bonds with Russia dating back to previous centuries, which no one (even Ukrainians themselves) can deny. There is no point in punishing someone who is more than 100 years dead because they are simply not part of our world anymore and they aren't part of this conflict either. Cancelling a whole country, including all of its citizens, culture and history for something they didn't collectively choose is frankly wrong and has no logical meaning at all.
But not only artists from past centuries are being punished. This hate crime is continuing to last until today, taking effect on present artists. And it doesn't end with artists only, restrictions are being made over all kinds of athletes. On April 2022, CBS News reported that Russian and Belarusian players were banned from participating in 2022 Wimbledon, supposedly because organisers wanted to limit Russia's global influence. I would like to write a question mark at the end of the previous sentence because that action doesn't make sense at all. „These people have nothing to do with the Russian government. They are not politicians and they have no influence on the government and their policy," said Ellen Nash in one of her articles on Evening Standard and I can't agree more.
But still, there are much more situations like these, taking place not only in the US but all over the world. If you'll trying to keep yourself in the image of current events, you surely heard of one of the most known Russian sopranos Anna Netrebko, who recently started a lawsuit against New York City's Metropolitan Opera for cancelling her performances, breach of contract and discrimination, seeking at least $360,000 as financial compensation. She was also set to perform in my motherland, the Czech Republic, at Municipal House (Obecní dům) in the capital Prague, but after constant discussions, about whether Netrebko should perform or not, the board of directors and organisers decided to cancel her performance, even though they didn't have any reasoning for making this decision.
As analyst Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute said, „Such boycotts work a lot like economic sanctions – they penalize Russian people for the actions of their president." But none of these sanctions (both economic or cultural) are going to do any harm to Putin's regime. It simply doesn't affect anything. Making any of these decisions about Russia's population doesn't affect how will the war end or who will win. It will only cause harm and no good. Somebody may object that some of these artists had not clearly said that they were distancing themselves from Putin and they only critiqued the war itself (Netrebko's case). But if you'll find yourself in their place, you would have known it isn't so easy.
If they'll condemn the war and their president, they will no longer be able to live in Russia. On the other side, if they won't do that, they won't be able to perform in most countries because of these foolish restrictions. As Russian-German pianist Igor Levit said, artists shouldn't be punished for staying silent, since speaking out could endanger their lives and mainly, they have nothing to do with Putin. Russians are trying to ingratiate with the West every day, but they will never be enough for them. And in the end, no one will want them and many of them will probably lose their carriers.
What should you take away from this? Not every Russian is a spy with bad intentions and we sometimes do things we shouldn't. Athletes and artists can sometimes be the biggest unintended victims in this whole war. Russia and USA don't really like each other, but let's hope everything will become better soon. Because in many cases, time and communication will solve everything.
Hi, guys! Long time no see. I am currently having a 2-month summer break from school, so I give myself a little break from everything, but I am back and I hope we can continue where everything ended. Today's article was focused on something I don't normally write about, but I hope you enjoyed it. I felt that I needed to share my thoughts and opinions with someone and I don't have any better opportunity than share them with all of you. Thank you for reading, it means the world to me 💕
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M.
References
Nash, E. (2022). OPINION - Don’t cancel Russian artists for Vladimir Putin’s war. Evening Standard. https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/opinion-don-t-cancel-russian-123002674.html
Saberi, R. (2022). Russian artists and athletes hurt by international boycotts: “You are treated as part of that state”. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-artists-athletes-banned-protest-ukraine-war/
Bret Stephen from NYT wrote an op-ed about this, although the main topic at the time was Boston marathon’s ban on Russian runners. His most salient point is:
“Second point: To reduce citizens of a state to an identity with the politics of their government is not just a gross moral simplification. It’s also a gift to people like Putin and Lukashenko, who want nothing more than to have people believing that they alone speak for all their people, and that their policies are universally supported. It should be possible for Russians and Belarusians to be both proud of their countries and ashamed of their governments.”
Westerners must show Russians that they are not the same as Russian governments who could ban people at a whim for a crime of having a certain identity. If we fail to do that, we will be seen as hypocrite.
Thanks for your essay. This is a subject I have not ever thought about, and I think I agree with you. To cancel cultural and artistic relations between countries must be counterproductive. It seems to me that just by having Russian artists visit the west, some sort of dialog might happen between Russia and ourselves. It won't be an official dialog, nor is it likely to affect the ruling classes, but hosting artists shows openness and may impress average Russian citizens in a positive way. (Seeing Russian tennis stars on the world stage for example.) We are losing the chance to convey the idea that we do not hate Russian poeple, it's the Russian government that we hate.