Translated material
KGB mantra “Start with yourself”
Today I listened to the broadcast of the St. Petersburg “Echo”. Volunteers from “Beautiful Petersburg” were in Natalia Kostitsina’s studio. Suddenly a pensioner calls and asks: “Don’t you think it’s better to pick up a shovel yourself and go clear the snow?” Like, don’t be active, start with yourself.
And it’s not even that the woman doesn’t understand why it’s better to learn to control power than to take the shovel ourselves. No, I'm not at all for lazy people. I only want our fellow citizens to understand: if they paid for snow removal, hot water or garbage removal, then the snow must be removed, the water must flow, and the garbage must be taken out.
Unfortunately, a significant proportion of our fellow citizens sincerely believe that it’s all about you. "Start with yourself! Start!" they scream incessantly.
This is a KGB method of manipulation that has infected some compassionate workaholics. To blame all the troubles on the citizen, to cause him shame, to redirect his attention and to convince him of the futility of the idea of interfering in big affairs.
"What does Putin have to do with it? Start with yourself!"
“Instead of going to rallies, it would be better to hold a cleanup day in the yard.”
"We will not win elections until we start political education with ourselves."
“Don’t count money from government purchases—it’s rude to look into someone else’s pocket.”
Do you recognize brother Kolya? Both Putin at briefings and naughty trolls on the Internet are drowning us out with this mantra. Start with yourself, start with yourself! Where did you go, you bastard, roaming around the squares? No, citizen, your business is small. And you are responsible for your life yourself. Start with yourself and, please, finish with yourself.
Don’t fall for the trick, the attempt to trick you into conscience, complex, sense of tact and education. You can and should poke your nose into officials' wallets. It is much smarter and more worthy to force those to whom you are doomed to pay to work, than, unfastening the money, to take up the shovel yourself.
"Start with yourself!" - This is a classic GB move. As a distraction with false news feeds, as an answer to one question by another.
When you are advised not to go to a march, but to take a walk with your child in the park, when you are told to look in your pocket, not your deputy’s, when you are advised to help your parents, and not other people’s fire victims, always remember - you are dealing with either fools or mercenaries . In such a difficult year, it is important to remember them. Don't buy into propaganda or super-stupid kitchen-stool wisdom.
I've already started with myself. I didn’t vote for United Russia, I didn’t steal from the budget, I didn’t kill old people. She didn’t even throw cigarette butts on the sidewalk. I started with myself - and?..
Don’t believe those who advise you to sit quietly and start with yourself. These are either fools or servants of power. Because only the authorities benefit from the people who prefer to solve all problems themselves. Both our own and others.