Russia (without) the future: What are the dangers of being “hoodwinked” in politics
Ilya Varlamov decided to go into politics. He does not exclude such an opportunity - and almost certainly will not miss it. And it will be quite in trend. In a dangerous trend. At one time, Stalin said that personnel decide everything. A well-known and correct phrase. Still relevant today. But it has a special interpretation in politics.
Who do we see in it in recent decades? After the collapse of the USSR - and, in fact, suicide - former local leaders, Komsomol workers, and later young reformers, also not without a communist past, moved to the front row. And we saw how easily people, marching under red banners with socialist slogans on their moist lips, sold the country, sawed it off, took it away, snacking on black caviar and making fun of their competitors.
Afterwards, law enforcement officers came to the fore. Precisely the first, because they were always present and controlled reality. Not a step without them!
Well, who do we see in power now? More precisely: who is being pulled there, renewing the ranks? In fact, these are characters of two categories.
The first is individuals with seniority. That is, athletes, for example, or the so-called “leaders of Russia”, “new leaders”. The latter characters are especially noteworthy. They are no different from those who build a career in business, but still start not with the position of a loader or merchandiser, but with something more respectable. They speak roundly, smoothly, patriotically. But this patriotism is not even vanilla, but is so emasculated that it is almost dead. People don’t believe such things well, but they are also needed to fill the corresponding voids.
But the second category is much more interesting. And, by the way, Varlamov refers specifically to her. These are the so-called high-guzzlers with exclusively trendy thinking. They, these decisive gentlemen and ladies, say what seems to be very bold, decisive things - they say, we’re about to make some noise here, we can’t live like this, down with power. In fact, these characters, of course, will not rush to any barricades, because they feed from those they criticize. The most prominent representative of this layer is Sergei Shnurov.
There are also more disguised guys - like Yuri Dud, who seem to work in an exclusively oppositional field. Fierce criticism of the authorities, fiery speeches about Russian Mordor and the like are included.
Well, there are a ton of intelligently patriotic formations that bulge out like hernias – like the freshly-minted “For Truth” party, which is an absolutely stillborn project.
It's interesting what's going on here. In fact, these characters, brought to power as not just leaders of public opinion, but “politicians of a new type,” do not represent anything. Their rating and status are a consequence of two factors. Firstly, let’s pay tribute to the brilliant ability to navigate trends and catch hype. Secondly, the efforts of the current powers that be, creating new simulacra leaders for the masses.
The danger for the people and the state here is that, judging by the statements, there is an illusion that such a scheme works. As if someone could really be satisfied with Shnur and Dud as leaders. But this is precisely an illusion that exists only on the upper layers of perception. If we look simultaneously both in depth and into the future, we will see that such tactics - and strategy too - are doomed to failure; Moreover, they drag both the flock and the shepherds into the abyss, because such fig trees a priori cannot bear fruit...
So what to do? Firstly, forgive the tautology, it’s time to do exactly what, and not create an illusion. In practice, this means looking for specific people with specific achievements. It’s surprising – tragically surprising – that at a certain moment we, as a state, cut off thousands of the most promising people who create and nurture real active patriotism: I’m talking about production workers, teachers, hard workers.
Yes, this may seem strange, but today in Russia it is necessary to go from the opposite, moving away from media and hype and moving on to the concrete affairs of those who are in the shadows, but actually ensure the existence of this life as such. They can be called people of labor or people of knowledge - that doesn’t matter, what is important is that they are busy with real things, and not with simulacra passed off as popularity. Only this way can ensure the savings of the people and Russia in the future. The path to promoting specific people, not media people, to the front row.
Russia (without) a Future: The Dangers of "Dandelions" in Politics