Failure to Pro vide Help. War and the Remo val of Moral Dimension

Abstract

Taking the research instruments of the autobiographical narrative interview method, which creatively draws on concepts developed by phenomenology, ethnomethodology and conversational analysis, as the basis of my reflections, I undertake an analysis of the answers of two women in response to the researcher’s question about their reactions to the outbreak of full-scale war in Ukraine. It is posed, because neither of them mentions these events in the main off-the-cuff narrative line, although both interviews were conducted in late 2022. In the foreground, they talk about the sense of fear and uncertainty that lead to actions to ensure the safety of themselves and their loved ones, but in the background, they try to explain the lack of or minimal involvement in helping those fleeing the chaos and atrocities of war. I will show that the need to explain the fact that (almost) nothing has been done in this case is due to the failure to fulfil a basic rule of social life – to help the Other in a situation requiring it. The selection of cases has two justifications: firstly, the opposite worldview declarations of the interviewees – Marianna describes herself as a Catholic, Kornelia as a feminist and atheist; secondly, their different socio-biographical situations – the former is married and the mother of five children, the latter is single, sharing a flat with her sister and caring for a dog. Both, however, while appealing to a common sense (which strives for the seeing the everyday reality as taken-for-granted and gives a sense of familiarity), are at the same time entangled in the neoliberal mechanisms of “governing through freedom” that translates into their attitudes towards those experiencing suffering.