Will Anti-War Rock Stars Influence Our View of the Ukraine War? Earlier this week, four days before the February 24 anniversary of Russia’s retaliatory invasion of a sovereign republic that was once part of the Soviet Union, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters accused Westerners of arming Kiev against Moscow. Criticized the NATO alliance. In a video, the 79-year-old Briton accused the US and its alleged “NATO vassals” of stoking hostilities by nominating new members to expand eastwards, in breach of a previous promise. Waters, the main songwriter of the British band Said, has been saying this for some time. Earlier this month, he also said this in a speech to the UN Security Council (at the invitation of Moscow). Waters called Russia’s aggression “illegal” and called for a ceasefire, but also sought to blame “provocateurs” in the West. The band’s guitarist David Gilmour, whose relationship with Waters has been testy, endorsed as “true” a tweet by his wife, Polly Samson, who has ranged labels from “pro-Putin” and “anti-Semitic” to the songwriter. used a wrench. “Lying, stealing, hypocrite, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, anti-woman, sick-of-jealous megalomaniac.” As if its iconic ‘flying pig’ blip had been shot in the crossfire of Cold War II.
Ukraine’s embattled President Zelensky is Jewish, but Waters had already been branded an ‘anti-Semitic’ before the war. This was not because pigs are not kosher in Judaism, but for a reason no less than hot air — the rock star’s criticism of Israel’s actions. This clearly does not amount to speaking against a religion or its people, except for those theocratic people who mix faith with the state. Meanwhile, Pink Floyd’s operatic rock music lives up not to its sound effects and psychedelic concerts, which set it apart in the 1970s and ’80s, but, like true art, to the wonder with which we perceive its message. explain and perform miracles. In their heyday, the band were ‘left-wing’ in their opposition to Thatcher’s politics in Britain, but clearly humanist in their global influence. Indeed, the lyrics of its war-torn albums are evocative in their empathy with Holocaust victims. The most famous of these, The Wall (1979) about social withdrawal by a heartbroken misfit haunted by the spotlight of jackboot surveillance, climaxes only in a bleak trial for open displays of emotion, while The Final Cut (1983) ) ) leaves clues in air raids and war zones, from his initial query on the ancient causes of modern deaths to an elegy of two suns at sunset as a sign that the human race was finally gone. No, this is not anti-Semitic music. It is anti-war. As far as Samson’s other labels for Waters are concerned, we have little to say.
Still, for a pacifist, Waters made an incongruous remark with his war criticism. While he is correct that the US broke its promise on NATO expansion, and that a less vulnerable Russia would not have invaded Ukraine, we must ultimately do what the Ukrainians want. Whatever can be created, be it through local sounds or visual works, they highly value their independence. The success of Zelensky’s comic turn as an actor in Servant of the People (2015), which catapulted him to fame and power, signaled a demand for the independence for which West is famous. The inner rebel in Waters, who has tried to knock her off West’s self-adopted halo, is a must-watch TV show. And acknowledge that Kiev has shown that it will not bow to tyranny. Nor wait for insects. It takes courage.
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