I’ve been called both recently. Have you?

On the topic of the Russia / Ukraine war, Greta Thunberg wrote: “The last time Europe had a problem this size the planet ended up with 85 million people dead,” and after an analysis of the problems and the options, she commented that any suggestion (other than to continue beating the drums of war) is branded as Russian propaganda.

I started with that somewhat inflammatory statement for a reason. This article is about why that statement is inflammatory. What does it inflame? I saw someone querying a point about Russia / Ukraine on social media the other day, and I posted a short clip of Jeffrey Sachs, which I felt supplied the asked for information.

The reply was, “I’m not listening to that idiot.”

This would appear to be where we’re at, according to the loudest voices in parliament, in the media, and on social media. On topics ranging from climate crisis, through war in Ukraine, Israel / Palestine, Sudan and Congo, to the ‘Conversion Therapy Bill’ currently before our own government, it feels as though most people have made up their minds, and are keeping their minds firmly made up by furiously batting away any information from ‘the other side’, who are all ‘idiots’ or ‘propagandists’.

That’s one of the reasons I recently went to a talk by Phil Colley, about his great-uncle who, he said, had been misrepresented on the topic of goings on in Russia and Ukraine quite a long time ago.

I’m guessing the reason my initial paragraph here is inflammatory for some people is that they’ve decided Thunberg is an idiot, and for others it’s because they suspect the paragraph is lining up to introduce some Russian propaganda.

And I’m as sure as I can be that it was someone having thoughts like that which resulted Phil Colley’s family, and more recently Phil himself, coming in for some of that ‘idiots and propagandists’ stuff on the subject of his great uncle, Gareth Jones. Jones was a linguist and a travelling journalist. He journeyed through Germany and Russia (from Moscow down through Ukraine) in the 1930s and, among other things, reported on the terrible famine raging in Russia caused by, among other things, some disastrous miscalculations in the Five Year Plans that were supposed to transform the country.

There’s a lot more to say about the intriguing story of Jones’ journeyings, but for now, what I’d like to think about is this: just over six years ago the big world made a film about him, called ‘Mr Jones’…

The film is very clear that this is the story of Mr Jones discovering that Russia had deliberately and specifically inflicted starvation on Ukrainians. You know how movie world loves a nice, simple story line – the Russians were the baddies, Mr Jones a goodie, and the Ukrainians were victims …

… and as our government shovels another enormous batch of money into the war chest, that’s precisely the nice, simple story line the establishment would like us to hear, too.

The trouble is, Jones’ real-world family were very proud of him, and did not like seeing his work misrepresented. His diaries and journalism made it quite clear that what he saw was a famine creating hardship and death amongst peasants right across the Soviet Union, a disaster caused by bad planning and a series of bad reactions to the initial problem – not a nationalistic attack by ‘Russia’ on Ukraine. Phil wrote an article for the Sunday Times, aiming to set the record straight…

… he pointed out, in his talk this week, that Jones’s grave describes him as ‘a linguist, traveller and lover of peace’, which suggests he would not have wanted his memory to become part of the rabble-rousing that seems to be tipping us towards further war, so it’s easy to see why the family are unhappy with the situation.

But what is perhaps more upsetting, and what sticks in my mind the most, is the reactions Colley and other family members have received when they try to set the record straight. No one is approaching them asking for discussions, or presenting new evidence about Jones. What they are getting is personal attacks and propaganda-based demands – demands about what others should say, think and believe.

I came away from Colley’s talk thinking about the dangerous times we are living though, and feeling that if we are to survive, we need to see those accusations and demands for what they are, pressure to conform to a national narrative that favours the interests of warmongers.

Anyone who wants to stop, rather than encourage, the drive towards war, needs to react to such demands as Phil Colley did: ‘hello, these people want me to believe x, not y. I’d better do some research of my own, and tell everyone what I discover…’

…and keep doing so, especially if that’s when the personal attacks and accusations about propaganda start rolling in.

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