We are Easterners, we live in a shared destiny, we move forward together and we create. The towers of Kyiv were hit by missiles, to which there is only one answer: EAST UNITE. This is the vocation of the Hype&Hyper editorial team and we believe it is our shared future.
In our first printed issue, we gave a thorough justification for why we think it important to use and redefine the term: EAST.
“After years of traveling and marveling at the world, I had to realize that we are simply different, and we have to articulate this, we have to tell about it. This is a fact that is neither good nor bad, it is simply so. Fortunately, we’ve learned to tolerate a lot of things in recent decades, so maybe that won’t be a problem either. Sometimes it seems as if there would be an expectation towards us, Eastern Europeans, to be like others, to be like the “West”, as it is spelled in capital letters around here. Sometimes, we don’t agree with this. Nevertheless, whether we want to be different or not, the reality won’t change: we are different. And very few people know us. That’s why we’ve launched HYPEANDHYPER and that’s why we spell EAST in capitals. A fundamental life instinct for us during centuries was that as creatives, scientists and artists, athletes and entrepreneurs, if we want to achieve something really serious and make a truly lasting impact, we have to leave this place. We can return, but the eastern half of Europe was given a worse hand of cards due to its characteristics. As George Friedman wrote in his analysis, this region is actually right in the middle of the plain that “runs from the Atlantic coast and eastward through northern Europe to Moscow. All major European wars in over three centuries have been fought primarily, if not exclusively, on this plain.”
This is exactly the situation in which we can find ourselves now! Russia’s war against Ukraine can be analyzed from a thousand angles and with varying degrees of depth, from the claim that ‘Putin has gone mad’ to the point that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Western analysts, from Kissinger onwards, have indicated that Russia will never allow the West, and, as an integral part of it, our region, to encroach on its supposed sphere of interest and defense zone.
From our perspective, however, these analyses are overridden by the fact that there is only a thin border separating most of our countries from war-torn Ukraine, while all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are welcoming the masses fleeing the war, and sometimes we can almost hear the battle with our own ears.
Our conclusion at this stage can only be one. Like history, events induced by geopolitics repeat themselves. Since we have been writing Hype&Hyper, we have been striving to help and and accelerate the process of bringing the countries of the region together, because we have no other option but to stand together against similar attacks. In this case, too, only unity and cooperation can guarantee that Russia will not launch attacks against countries beyond Ukraine, that we will not be the theatre of war for the great powers, and that we can actively shape our own destiny. The countries of the region need to work together to form a close community and take joint responsibility for each other. It is time for the great Central and Eastern European Plain to become not an empty space, not a theatre of war, but a regional powerhouse that radiates security and strength.
The countries of our region have such an economic, civilizational and political heritage that offers a well-defined, distinctive and identifiable alternative, which can be interpreted as a point of reference, which maneuvers as a force field on the slippery slope of world politics.
We at Hype&Hyper do not do politics, but we have to ask: what do we have in common? We are Easterners, we live in a shared destiny, we move forward together and we create. In 1956, Hungary was the only country to rise up against the communist oppression in the region, but the heroes were trampled in the mud with tracks. In 1961, the Berlin Wall tore families, destinies and Europe in two. In 1968, the heart of the world had beat together with Prague when, one spring month, Czechoslovakia showed that the peaceful power of community is stronger than arms. In Gdańsk in 1980, solidarity as Solidarność showed the people of the region what the working man of Central and Eastern Europe was worth. In 1981, after the declaration of martial law in Poland, the snow-covered building of the Wujek mine was washed in the blood of striking miners. And in 2022, the towers of Kyiv were hit by missiles, to which there is only one answer: EAST UNITE. This is the vocation of the Hype&Hyper editorial team, this is the aim of our campaign, and we believe it is our shared future. Join us!
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