The army of kindness

On empathy and service

 
As I watch parts of the world come brutally undone by a war breaking countless hearts and robbing countless lives of the gift of growing older, I’m reminded with acuity the value of kindness and compassion in times of turmoil. Despite the unspeakable hostilities that pervade wartime situations, certain elemental virtues and values, as I’ll explain, remain firmly stitched within the larger tapestry of humanity.

Over the past couple of nights, as an attempt to anesthetise myself from the incessant mainstream media coverage of the ensuing cold-blooded violence, I sought an alternative news medium – video livestreams posted by ordinary citizens residing in the heart of conflict zones. These amateur filmmakers are storytellers in their own right, capturing this rather discordant music of history as it unfolds, weaving them into the fabric of virtual memory, for all to access and experience. As one content creator explained, whilst staring down into the barrel of his 8mm video camcorder, he hopes that by fearlessly documenting the war in unflinching detail he will build a groundswell of information for posterity.

The videos were often filmed through mobile phones amidst the unfolding chaos and were thus less formulaic in both tone and structure to other more classic war-journalism productions. They were refreshingly stripped of any political or commercial self-consciousness and clickbait, earning it a level of authenticity absent from much of todays’ content. Debris-filled driveways, shattered city centres and the mass exoduses of terrified civilian populations cowering under metro shelters, all represented in its full unsparing ruthlessness.

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Πηγή: waitjustlisten.substack.com