Not for profit...

The Russians have again upset sociologists. That's not what they dream about. They just want to live quietly, without frills. Women still believe in the rewards of hard work, and men believe that Emelya is the coolest of all. New Izvestia provides the results of a sociological survey conducted by researchers from the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Article title: “Lazy Emelya as a mirror of the Russian dream.” The Newru.com portal informs readers that “Russians dream of money, not love.” And I suddenly felt so offended that I tried to read more carefully the data given in the article in order to understand whether the accusations against Russians of laziness and lack of wings were justified.

So, 40% want to “live in abundance, to be able to spend money without counting pennies.” Our citizens are not interested in yachts and other Courchevels; they want to take a break from petty savings and breathe more freely financially. At the same time, only 11% of respondents dream of “contributing to the development of Russia,” and only 6% dream of meeting true love. It's sad, girls, you can exclaim here. But... In fact, we simply don’t know what people meant when answering this question. Maybe they already have true love (we don’t have a distribution of answers by age group, we don’t know how those who are and those who are not married answered). And the majority may have a good job, so only 7% are aware of the need to dream about it. There is a good job, but they pay little for it, you can only dream of wealth.

What I mean is that maybe we are not dealing with selfish, wingless pragmatists, but with completely happy, simply poor and tired people?

Let us note that 33% of respondents have a completely “lofty” dream - to live “in a more just and reasonable society”; the same number dream of good health. Most likely, according to the rules for compiling a questionnaire, the number of options that a respondent can choose is limited to two or three, with a maximum of five. And people choose basic dreams, what they need, but what has not yet been achieved or seems difficult to achieve. The rest either exists or, according to respondents, can be achieved independently, without special “dreaming”, if the basics work out. Maybe the majority are already on the way to a good job, a good family, and great love. Or they believe that this will be less of a problem than a “more just and reasonable society.”

It’s a shame, of course, that only 11% of respondents dream of making their contribution to the development of Russia. Although I would like to know the distribution of answers by age and professional groups. Maybe someone has already made this contribution, but I’m not sure that Russia found it useful. Maybe it’s not a lack of desire, but a lack of understanding of what kind of “mite” is needed. Or in the reluctance to contribute to such development, the trends of which we are now observing. For example, does developing the recently adopted Federal State Educational Standard for high school or inventing the Unified State Exam mean making a contribution to the development of education? If yes, then God forbid from such a “mite.” Perhaps someone simply does not believe that their efforts will be appreciated, that they will be able to “do their bit” by adhering to their principles and values.

It was not without reason that Emelya won the men’s game. He is not only lazy, he is also cunning, like most heroes of Russian fairy tales. The heroines there are hardworking, kind and wise. And the heroes are reckless, brave and cunning. And today, in areas where painstaking daily work is needed, requiring skill, patience, knowledge, but very meagerly, although guaranteed to be paid, it is mainly women who are employed. That’s why Cinderella won for them (although it doesn’t seem to be a Russian heroine). Where the risk is high, but the reward can be great - in politics, business, finance, mostly men. And, apparently, it is not hard work that is rewarded there, but something completely different. Something ephemeral, a miracle caused by your resourcefulness and wit, but acting according to its own elusive logic. If you grasp this miracle, it will show you off, even while lying on the stove.

The media often provides data from sociological surveys confirming that our national character is not a gift. I am sure that in the original research materials the reasons and factors that determined certain results are analyzed in detail. Only in the reports all this is ignored, and the unattractive features of the sociological portrait of Russian citizens are savored: they are lazy, and inert, and their dreams are mundane. But one might wonder that perhaps Russians are simply well aware of their social experience. And these surveys are, first of all, a reflection of our lives, and not of our vices? And in this case, lamenting the results of sociology is the same as blaming the mirror if... Well, by the way, you yourself know what “if”.