“We are losing to the youth.” German Jr. criticized Russian agitation and propaganda
In Russia, a language that is understandable to modern youth for speaking on patriotic topics has not been found.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Russian director Alexei German Jr. expressed this opinion in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
He emphasizes that for him there is no such memorable date as May 8, which is celebrated in a number of countries as a day of remembrance and reconciliation.
“There is Victory Day - a painful, difficult, heroic victory that claimed millions and millions of lives. And we are a state that, despite all its costs, managed to launch a man into space just 16 years after the end of the war. Rebuilding the destroyed economy without any help. We didn't have any Marshall Plan. And half of the country was simply destroyed into dust.
So you ask about the war. For me this is a sacred thing. I believe that talking about the equal responsibility of the Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany is not only incorrect, it is vile and disgusting. And such conversations can really destroy the country,” says the director.
At the same time, he believes that government structures that deal with young people are “very inflexible.”
“There is a certain confusion in concepts when agitation and propaganda replace everyday life in working with young people. A person’s desire to stay to work and live in his own country should be supported by rethought government policy, innovation, and assistance to young businesses. It’s a complex, multi-faceted story,” says Herman.
He is convinced that the number of leaders who talk about patriotism and whom young people listen to is minimal.
“At this stage, the battle for youth in large cities is lost. Because the language has not been found, the measure of sincerity of these conversations has not been found, they look extremely unconvincing from the lips of all authorized parties. I see it. On the other hand, this is a global trend. Everywhere there is a demand for a change in the establishment and style,” emphasizes the publication’s interlocutor.
He also urges, in conversations with young people, not to justify the greatness of the country by what happened 200 or even 50 years ago.
“People want to have their own Cupertino (the town in the USA where Apple’s headquarters is located), their own Elon Musks. So that a new Twitter would be invented by a Russian programmer. They want icons. But not imposed or dead, but active, which can communicate with them in the digital space and which they can like. And even this icon will answer someone. This is another degree of affinity and admiration for symbols. The symbols must be here and now,” the director said.
According to him, it is very difficult with symbols in Russian ideology.
“Or some [symbol] is found and begins to inflate. But, by and large, it is not the state that should inflate symbols, pump oxygen into them, it is the symbols that should move the state. They must be the face of the state. And that's the problem. Young people love new models: telephones, computers, clothes, cars. They want their state to have a new design. And our agitation and propaganda came from 1918. But a hundred years have passed. People are proud of others,” Herman concluded.
English version :: Read in English "We're Losing to the Youth." German Jr. criticized Russian agitation and propaganda.