Violence’s Imaginarium: War is Hell
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen (Edited by Simon Parcher)
Publication (Outlet/Website): Humanist Perspectives
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/06/03
EDITED BY SIMON PARCHER
The road to peace starts with knowing and fearing the ravages of war.
Russian aggression in Ukraine that has destroyed whole cities and killed thousands of innocent citizens is of deep concern to citizens in the western world. Humanists now have the opportunity to help fund a colleague who has committed to documenting the Russo-Ukrainian war. Canadian Scott Jacobsen’s goal is to produce an open-source, freely downloadable account of the war through a series of interviews and articles. Here is some background to Scott’s endeavors.
Scott proposes to the Canadian humanist community: He asks you to help fund a Canadian humanist journalist for a second journey to a war zone. “I’m heading back to Ukraine and need some financial support.”
To contribute financially, go to: https://humanistperspectives.org/donate/#gsc.tab=0and leave a note when filling in the details that your donation is in support of Scott Jacobsen’s trip to Ukraine. A tax receipt will be provided.
Driven by individual humanist convictions, Scott traveled to Ukrainian territory between November 22 and December 6, 2023. He accepted an offer to join a humanist war correspondent in documenting the war triggered by the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Scott says, “I understand the relevant risks to life and well-being by traveling to Ukraine, with the potential to come back maimed or in a body bag.” As was recently stated by Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
“Ukraine is currently enduring some of the worst attacks since the start of this war… No region of Ukraine has been spared by this war… wave after massive wave of attacks continue to kill and injure civilians and cause widespread damage and destruction to critical civilian infrastructure.”
At the time of his first trip, Scott worked seven days a week at an equestrian facility, making time off difficult. Needing surgery, he combined his recovery time with this crucial journey, traveling to six Ukrainian cities during the war. He went straight from surgery to the airport.
Click here to see selected images from November 22,2023 to December 6, 2023 of the Russo-Ukrainian War. War is hell. And I have seen it.
The original idea to travel to Ukraine came from Remus Cernea, the former President of the Green Party in Romania and the Founder/Co-Founder of the Romanian humanist movement, after meeting at the World Congress and General Assembly 2023 of Humanists International. Cernea was a keynote speaker alongside Oleksandra Romantsova, the Executive Director of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Center for Civil Liberties, they are the first and only organization or individuals, in Ukraine, to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2022.
Remus Cernea, “War is Hell”, Keynote Speech, Humanists International World Congress 2023
Scott requested interviews with Remus and Oleksandra during the conference, after having been impressed by the presentations and their personalities. Thankfully, both accepted and so began the journey through the war in Ukraine. They did interviews, pretty much on the spot. Those interviews became part of a promise to continue working on the war until its cessation. Presently, they are constructing a repository of voices from human rights defenders, humanists, civilians, and the like, on the war, alongside individuals and articles written on the Russo-Ukrainian war.
What is the case for travelling to a foreign country like Ukraine, especially travelling far from one of the safest countries in the world, Canada? It seems like a bit of a head trip to go out into this area of the world during an active war, full-invasion or, what has euphemistically been continually labelled a ‘special military operation” by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.
The odd thing for Scott about war correspondence traipsing and travel in general is… he hates it! He says, “I am a home body. It’s one of the most distasteful things imaginable to me – worse than a trip to the dentist! I like basic routines, but I, like Remus, feel the need to go out and simply do the work.” Nevertheless, Scott points out that Roman Emperor and philosopher Aurelius reminds us, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Cernea repeatedly said to Scott, “I do not want to be here, but I feel I have to be here.” It’s neither lofty nor august. Scott explains, “This is quite straightforward. Most people are too afraid to travel to a war. If you can, though, at least offer support in some manner as an independent journalist, then assist others in that way. Which is to say, I am a dealer in narratives. I have to go and get the stories. Remus is a politician and a war correspondent with Newsweek Romania. He feels the same way and deals in human tales and human affairs.”
In this, his second trip to Ukraine to cover the war, Scott will be a war correspondent for Humanist Perspectives (HP) Magazine. The magazine will support him financially with donations received from Canadian and other readers. In return, Scott will write special reports and articles for your interest, in HP. Financial support in this independent journalistic endeavor will be greatly appreciated.
To contribute financially, go to: https://humanistperspectives.org/donate/#gsc.tab=0 and leave a note when filling in the details that your donation is in support of Scott Jacobsen’s trip to Ukraine. A tax receipt will be provided.
Scott’s aim is to travel to Ukraine again this year for a couple to a few weeks. Please take this article as an encouragement to reach out to correspond with Scott to recommend interviewees, sources, und so weiter.
Scott’s research and reporting promises to be more objective than most as they will be from the perspective of a humanist journalist. Although, he does not necessarily believe in the idea of a completely objective journalist. Even with the most careful and prudent of word-crafting, we have word count limitations. We have time limits. We have interest limits. We have psychological temperaments, profiles, cognitive abilities, language barriers, and the like. However, Scott says he can affirm the relatively true notion of objective language used by a journalist.
It’s simply the nature of being a person, and writing for different publications. Chomsky was right, in many regards, about the media. He argued that since mainstream media outlets are currently either large corporations or part of conglomerates, the information presented to the public will be biased with respect to these interests. Some are benignly true, though, generally speaking.
When we talk about the word count in a publication, say a news article, that’s concision in action. You have to make the point, punchily. It limits extended thought and deeper analysis. This limitation further stifles the possibility of objectivity because some points must be included, and others must be excluded, based on the judgment of the individual journalist. It forces you to make your points briefly and summarily.
Ironically, more depth has this counterintuitive duality: It allows better approximation of objectivity through more inclusion of data, if not propaganda, while better approximating the subjective impressions and judgments of the journalist since it’s more deeply crafted by the mind of the reporter. It’s both more objective and more subjective if done well – which is weird, but rarely stated in objective language, and always incorporative of the subjective impressions and judgments of the journalist (read: their prejudices of mind and valence).
Scott feels that he is lucky to have various outlets for his publications as this allows him to write at length and with a decent amount of editorial freedom. The key goal here with the live war environment is to create a repository. This includes a necessary element of reportage from the bombed sites, from the war zone – the country, to get human rights experts, to get other perspectives relevant to the involved concerned, and then compile in an online resource and then, eventually, a book project. It bypasses the limitations of “concision” and creates an online resource for interested parties through time.
Scott says, “I am no different coming to a war context as a Stray Canadian (™). My subjective impressions and individual judgment will bias the production of material, selection of interviewees, length and depth of material, frame, and the like. While, as with most journalists, I will work to report the facts accurately. So, my eternal mainstay seems like a fundamental anti-religious psychology: Not “Believe me,” but “do not believe me”; do not have faith in me, be skeptical of me, I want to encourage critical thought most in and about me, and derivatively in that which I report: find out for yourself. I’ll be, generally speaking, grateful for the correction, if any.”
To contribute financially, go to: https://humanistperspectives.org/donate/#gsc.tab=0and leave a note when filling in the details that your donation is in support of Scott Jacobsen’s trip to Ukraine. A tax receipt will be provided.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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