You can't understand the Olympics with your mind

Specialists in ethnolinguistics and ethnoculturology often hear irritated: stop fussing about your national specificity! All this is so archaic, all this randomness, freedom, open spaces! People already have completely different values, but language preserves this by inertia. Indeed, a lot has changed. Yet some cultural stereotypes are remarkably persistent, such as the idea of ​​what “we” are like.

Here, for example, is an advertisement for the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Posner’s characteristic voice-over:

“We are people of extremes. We earn hard in the north and spend easily in the south. We ride just as well off-road as we do on-road. For us, even the New Year can be old. When we take places, then for everyone, when we win, it lasts for a long time. We believe in ourselves so much that we make others believe in us. We won’t succeed as usual: it will be a great Olympics. Olympics for the whole country. Everyone's Olympics. Go". In another video (and a whole series of them is planned): “We are people of extremes. Even in space we can be the first on earth. For us, even weakness can be strength. Even in the heat, we get chills on our skin. We lose as beautifully as we win. We love as we are. We meet in such a way that you can no longer part with us. We are holding the Winter Olympics where the whole country vacations in the summer.” And again the slogan that Posner pronounces at the end of each video: “We won’t succeed as usual: this will be a great Olympics. Olympics for the whole country, Olympics for everyone.” And again Gagarin’s “Let’s go!”

Well, very uplifting and very unifying. But let's read it again slowly.

We are people of extremes.

Well, it’s clear - if you threaten, then it’s not a joke, if there’s a feast, then there’s a feast. In general, as Dostoevsky’s hero says, I would narrow it down.

We earn hard in the north and spend easily in the south.

Again, all kinds of contrasts: north-south, difficult-easy, earn-spend. And, of course, there are open spaces: my native country is wide, from the southern mountains to the northern seas. From Japan to England. Equal to four Frances. Chocolate candies “Native spaces”.

We ride just as well off-road as we do on-road.

Well, that's daring. He slammed the glass, took the collective farm tractor - and well, over the potholes, along the torn and muddy roads. Even if this does not attract tourists to the Olympics, what is more important is that we are the best. If you have nothing to brag about, you can boast that no one has such bad roads as ours. True, after the Nevsky Express disaster, the victims could not wait for help for several hours, because ambulances still do not know how to drive off-road as well as on roads.

For us, even the New Year can be old.

This is just for the sake of paradox.

When we take places, then for everyone, when we win, it lasts for a long time.

It’s clear to everyone: the whole world, community, conciliarity, collectivism. Not without some mischief, as usual.

We believe in ourselves so much that we make others believe in us.

in Russia . Yeah, you can only believe

We won’t succeed as usual: it will be a great Olympics.

Oh, yes it is. To become special cannot be measured by a common yardstick. Third way. In general, we again insist that we are not like everyone else. And if we wanted to, it usually won’t work out that way.

And again - We are people of extremes.

Yes, yes, we know. These extremes are further illustrated by a rather random set of formulations:

Even in space we can be the first on earth.

For us, even weakness can be strength.

Even in the heat, we get chills on our skin.

It must be said that in general the existential intensity weakens in the second video. The matrix remains the same, but the material is already scraped together with difficulty.

We lose as beautifully as we win.

This, of course, is a little different from that opera. The authors decided to remind who the birthday boy is, so the topic of sports arose.

We love as we are.

I don’t know what this is for. What do you mean it's pretty good? Or that you will love a goat too?

We meet in such a way that you can no longer part with us.

Oh, now we remembered another important thing - hospitality, hospitality. Moreover, it is persistent - as in the verb to treat (Demyanov’s ear). A kind of aggressive sincerity. We will not part with you for anything in the world.

We are holding the Winter Olympics where the whole country vacations in the summer.

And again irrationality (Well, you can’t understand Russia with your mind!) - albeit purely external. What is so supernatural about the fact that in the summer in Sochi, as in Italy or Bulgaria, you can swim in the sea and go skiing in the winter?

Actually, no special deconstruction is required here: all this can be read in an elementary way. The authors themselves said something about the specifics of the Russian national character. Another thing is interesting.

Suppose this were voiced by, say, Nadezhda Babkina. It would look like a completely natural setting for the Olympics in Russia. Local flavor: Gzhel-Khokhloma, towels, kokoshniks, loaves and nesting dolls, Russian weeks at McDonald's, prowess, scope, broad Russian soul, ehma - it was not there. Or, for example, Nikita Mikhalkov’s signature falsetto. Also nothing - there would be such a melodic declamation on the themes of Russian national mythology: And the gypsy daughter follows her beloved on the night by the kinship of a vagabond soul. He's Russian, that explains a lot.

But no. The authors did something non-trivial. V.V. Posner is a presenter of analytical programs. Analyst and thinker. Speaks thoughtfully and balancedly. And spoken in his insinuating voice, with intelligent intonations and a slight foreign accent, the words acquire a completely different status. As if all this was being said seriously, without a hint of a smile.

And thus, a two-hundred-year-old idea, which has long since turned into popular print and kitsch, is presented as a national idea. We thought for a long time, searched intensely - so what? Extremes and irrationalism, assertive soulfulness, a special path, and necessarily to rush somewhere along the potholes. Where? Doesn't give an answer. And other states and peoples keep moving further and further away. This is Russian PR, senseless and merciless.