New York Times
August 6, 2012
Of all the bad feelings one can have about one’s own country, shame is the most painful. Righteous outrage motivates one to act; sadness breeds solidarity; even fear can bring people together. But shame not only makes you want to jump out of your skin, it also means you have already effectively jumped out of the skin that is your country.
I distinctly recall the first time I recognized the feeling of shame in myself. It was a bit over a year ago, when I watched a video of an American gay activist, Lt. Dan Choi, being grabbed and dragged off by the Moscow police just outside Red Square for attempting to take part in an illegal gay pride parade. I remember, too, thinking about what was causing me to feel ashamed: I was imagining many of my friends in other countries watching the video and thinking of me as living in a backward country.
This summer, that feeling is growing familiar. The ongoing trial of three members of Pussy Riot, the girl band that staged an anti-Putin “punk prayer service” in Moscow’s main cathedral, has been compared to the Spanish Inquisition, a witch hunt, and Stalinist show trials (I am guilty of that comparison, too). All of these comparisons give the Moscow court too much credit. The Inquisition, the witch hunters, and even Stalin’s executioners believed in their causes and fought passionately for them. What is going on in the Moscow courtroom today is a dispassionate, cynical travesty of justice.
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