WWW.CCL.ORG.UA OPENING REMARKS ecently, I had a conver- of everything?” The moment the solution to tough prob- R sation with children at you answer to yourself, “Yes, lems until later. We must look school, and they asked I do have to take charge of for complex solutions now. me about leadership. I told everything”, that’s when you It is an illusion that war them: ‘Imagine you are walk- become a leader. Because unites. War unites only at ing down the street, and you leadership is defined by re- the very beginning, and then see rubbish scattered next to sponsibility, not by the num- there are fissures on various a bin. You would be happy to ber of followers on Facebook’. grounds that threaten to tear ignore it because you are all Public intellectuals say that the country apart as a social dressed up and, in a hurry, we live in the post-truth era. organism. Sociologists believe but you stop and start clean- Personally, I think we live that the main criterion for ing it up. And then someone in the post-knowledge era. dividing society is the dif- next to you, your friends or Having access to Google and ferent experiences of living some strangers, ask: “Why being able to get the formula through this war. And I am make your life harder? of aspirin in a second, people not talking about the divide Do you have to take charge forget that this does not make between military, civilians, them chemists. People around and refugees. Everything is the world demand quick and much more complicated. easy solutions. We might have People with opposing views been able to afford it in more do not communicate, they are peaceful times. You can treat trying to cry out. People are a runny nose with sit-ups; at hurt and very judgemental, Our task least there will be no harm to they think in black and white, your body. But if you are deal- they hit those they can reach, ing with cancer, the price of and they easily exclude is to stitch simple solutions will be high. people and entire groups Therefore, civil society solely on the basis of an emo- needs to set the trend for tional reaction to an event. complexity. And this is But we don‘t have the luxu- the country quite a challenge. Especially ry of treating each other like during the full-scale war of that during a genocidal war, extermination that Russia a war of extermination. Our together has waged. And we don‘t task is to stitch the country know whether we are in together. There are two types the middle, at the end, or just of social capital. The first is at the beginning of this war. called ‘bond’ and involves in- That is why we do not have teraction within a group. But the luxury of postponing you can‘t build a country that 4Our task is to stitch the country together