Bad times

I'm tired of looking at their movements through the keyhole. And try to understand what will break me, an ordinary Russian citizen, from these movements. Let's better talk about you and me. I recently read how they were looking for police officers in Moscow with “passable English” (so that Manchester United and Chelsea fans wouldn’t fight), and I remembered an old joke from the times of stagnation.

A man comes into a bottle collection point and tries to get rid of empty whiskey bottles. The receiver, of course, refuses, and when asked “why”, he mockingly answers: “There are no containers, SIR!”

I strongly suspect that in our case there will be no container either. Because by our standards, it is very easy to restore order among fans. You already know how. A club on the neck of one, another, and the third himself will understand that he is doing something that does not correspond to accepted standards of behavior. We went through this at matches, at marches, at pickets and rallies. They have no other law enforcement officers for us, neither with passable English, nor with manners, nor with a minuet... If in this case it is possible to solve the problem with the help of existing personnel, then it will be an interesting story - with some kicks and batons in the usual language, and with others: “Can I help you?”

Actually, I’m talking about the times of manners and the minuet, which (times) are coming again in the country... Can this be considered a signal that they will not descend to complete indecency? You will say, I’m talking about them again. No, I'm talking about us. They are what we allow them to be. Sometimes it is very difficult to cope with them when they have already been allowed. As allowed over the past 8 years. Or are these the times? After all, there were times of denunciations and there were times of well-wishers rushing to inform. And there were times when, stunned by their own courage, they went to the square. And Yeltsin, who was generously slandered today, could be forgiven for anything. Maybe because they were not spoiled - neither freedom nor sausage? There were queues for sausage, although they say that Moscow was fattening. I stood there myself, I remember. And I remember the drawing of lots for orders with scarce products in each organization. In general, when they went to save democracy in August 1991, they were preoccupied with problems of the spirit. Not the belly. But, as experience shows, this does not last long. We can assume that we have not experienced reforms.

Reforms are a change in the surrounding reality. When reality changes, it would be necessary to change the course of action. When you are on a stationary platform, and the platform suddenly moves, you behave differently - you balance, do not approach the edge, and so on. But for some reason, when the country’s platform “moved,” many believed that for them everything would be the same as before. Endless tea parties in the workplace and lazy simulation of activities. And someone left a cup of cold tea and went to earn money. I personally know professors who traveled to Turkey by shuttle, and engineers who worked as a cab driver at night. There's nothing wrong with that. Although, of course, it was a shame to lose my status.

So, it was the hardest for those who did not want to do anything in the changed situation. And, as a result, he hated those who did not sit idly by. Moreover, a lot of people got bruises and bumps while doing something. But this is also normal. They lost money in pyramid schemes, and then realized that free cheese can only be found in a mousetrap. There was a normal process of realizing that manna falling from heaven could not exist by definition. And it was difficult to manipulate people who realized in their own skin the physical law of conservation of energy.

Well, at this point you can remember the elections of 96, when the Kremlin got scared of the communists and used administrative resources. They were involved quite modestly. No one stopped Zyuganov from organizing opposition rallies, no one drove him out of the media. Among the supporters of the communist restoration, those who themselves did not want to do anything prevailed - for various reasons, including good ones. Older people who, perhaps, were nostalgic for their own youth, and, perhaps, for that same sausage for 2-20. Young people, of whom there were significantly fewer. By the way, history shows that it is young people who are most easily “led” to the idea of ​​social equality. Utopian idea. That's why they are young. And on the opposite side of the barricade there were those who deliberately did not want to return to the “scoop”. And the published turnout for the '96 presidential election was not much different from the published turnout in 2008 (69.81% of voters in the first round of '96, 68.89% in the second and 69.61% in 2008).

The difference is that in 96 there was not a single republic in which voters, one after another, with passports, announced that they did not go to vote, but they were counted... And in 2008 there was Ingushetia. By the way, rest assured, a similar situation in 1996 would not have remained a secret. It was a different time.

Today's accusations against liberals of plundering the country are not supported by numbers - in Transparency International's world ranking of the level of corruption during the years of Putin's rule, we dropped from 47th place to 143 (the higher the number, the more active the bribe takers). That is, the bottom line is that they make fiery speeches calling for a fight against what they themselves created (or we allowed them to create). We have long been hopelessly tired of their lies, and the degree of our indifference to what is happening is such that they feel unpunished. Those who are not ready to allow further instantly find themselves on the margins or even idiots. After all, life has become easier - don’t interfere with the one on top, don’t go against the flow. Follow these simple rules and don’t interfere if your neighbor is being hit. And don’t be surprised if they beat you, but your neighbor doesn’t care.

A new gray era has already arrived. And the louder the slogans that are fed to us from the Kremlin wall, the thicker this gray color is around. Now, according to the new president, we must become one of the best countries in the world. Only no one announced the parameters. And they have long been known - life expectancy, the number of serious diseases, the degree of comfort of life in large cities, ecology, safety... Well, how do you feel - based on these parameters? However, corruption, the issuance of sweet pieces of the state as fiefs to loyal vassals, and nepotism make it possible to increase the number of those for whom everything is okay. But it is not a fact that you personally will be included in this number. And the average temperature in the hospital is 36 and 6. And you and I understand everything, we’re just living in a bad time, when saying “no” means ending up on the list of outcasts, marginalized people, or just idiots.