Day of Unity 2018
A January day, and a foreigner's note on the difference between a country being united and a country agreeing.
A good Day of Unity.
Something worth separating, because they get confused. A country being united is not the same as a country agreeing.
Ukrainians disagree with each other constantly and loudly, about everything, in a way that a visitor sometimes mistakes for division. Having lived here a long time, I read it differently. Loud disagreement within a shared frame is what a functioning polity sounds like. It is silence that should worry you.
Unity, in the sense this day marks, is about the frame rather than the contents. Whether people accept that they are arguing with fellow citizens about a common thing.
By that measure this country is doing considerably better than the volume of the argument suggests.
A good day to everyone marking it.
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