Back when Chernobyl first aired on HBO in 2019, I was hooked right away. It’s a riveting historical look at what went wrong (and continued to go wrong) around the nuclear disaster, and it’s a must watch in my book. Yes, it’s got some language (and a whole lot of very grisly looks at what happens when humans get too much radiation), but it’s so well put together. I started watching it again last night, six years later, and revisiting it has already shown me a few new things.
The biggest is that I’ve now got the experience of living through a pandemic to compare this to. Not that those are exactly equivalent, but both of them test society in a crises, and it’s illuminating and thought provoking to watch how people and governments respond in those situations. The first episode begins with this line:
What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all. What can we do then? What else is left but to abandon even the hope of truth and content ourselves instead with stories? In these stories, it doesn’t matter who the heroes are. All we want to know is: “Who is to blame?”
That rang true 6 years ago, and it resonates even more with me now in a world where deepfakes and AI posts are eroding anything that was left of our confidence in believing what we see. First it was “That could have been Photoshopped,” and now it’s “That could be AI.” This lack of certainty is used by politicians, businesses, and the media as a tool to accomplish whatever works to their advantage. I’m not saying I disbelieve anything I see anymore, but I definitely approach everything far more skeptically. To move from a world where truth was considered objective and ultimate, over to a world where truth is whoever’s story connects with you the most? That’s deeply frightening.
And then look at this quote:
For is that not the sole purpose of the apparatus of the State? From the Central Committee all the way down to each of us in this room, we represent the perfect expression of the collective will of the Soviet proletariat. Sometimes, we forget. Sometimes, we fall prey to fear. But our faith in Soviet socialism will always be rewarded. Always. The State tells us the situation is not dangerous. Have faith. The State tells us they do not want a panic. Listen well. True, when the people see police, they will be scared. But it is my experience that when the people ask questions that are not in their own best interest, they should simply be told to keep their minds on their labour– and to leave matters of the State to the State. We seal off the city . No one leaves . And cut the phone lines. Contain the spread of misinformation. That is how you keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labour. That is how your names become inscribed in the hallways of the Kremlin. Yes, comrades. We will all be rewarded for what we do here tonight. This is our moment to shine.
As I watched the first episode, I was struck with how Communism and Capitalism are two sides of an arc that actually turns out to be more of a circle, where the end result of either is functionally the same: the many being controlled by the few. On the capitalist side of things, there’s the reassurance that business will do what’s in the best interest of the people, because those are the same people that buy their products. On the Communist side of things, there’s the reassurance that the government will do what’s in the best interest of the people, because they represent the people and are part of the greater whole.
In reality, too many people end up doing what’s in the best interests of themselves. And because when you act like that, you tend to do better than people who do not, you end up with those people being the ones who are in power, gaming the system to make sure they continue to profit off it as much as possible.
Yes, this is a cynical way of looking at things, but when I see the fallout of Chernobyl and the way our government is currently treating its citizens, the pictures are far too similar for me to see anything else.
As I’ve worked on my current project (which takes places in East Germany in 1979), I’ve had to understand the point of view of loyalists to Communism. Put myself in their shoes and understand why they thought they were right. Why what they were doing wasn’t just necessary, but good. And when you take the time to try to understand things on that level, it helps bring a clarity to things. I’ve tried to do the same with Trump loyalists.
Man. This post has gotten out of hand, so I’ll end it there. All I really set out to say was that Chernobyl remains an incredible show, and if you haven’t seen it, you really should watch it.