Have you signed up for foreigners?

Do I want my country to be European? Let’s say I want branded jeans for 40 bucks, so as not to overpay the extra 200 bucks. And if my country makes these jeans, to support its own economy, within the framework of quotas for the import of foreign fashion, so that these are cool pants, amazing, and not just any baggy trousers that leave blue streaks of cheap fabric dye on your legs.

Moral - I want my country to remain my country, but at the same time it would be as pleasant to live as European countries. Let it be European if it makes it more pleasant to live in. Oh, Europe (I roll my eyes), the charm of the visible advantages of truly legal states with a developed social security system.

Believe me, this is what Ukrainians think, who essentially just want to live better. However, like Russians and even (you won’t believe it!) Europeans, about whom my conversation will go.

So, since the very period of the socialist system, we have become accustomed to thinking of “abroad” as a magical world of dreams coming true. We dreamed very quietly, but in the 90s, having received not only windows, but also entire air corridors to Europe, Asia and the States, we did not change our attitude towards “abroad”, as to the concept of an exclusive, obviously improved life. Participation in this super-world gives us visible advantages over other sedentary individuals. Visiting a “foreign country” as prestige, an indicator of status, class advantage, the opportunity for a better life, decent earnings and a prestigious marriage.

The interest of the female population in sites for searching for a foreign prince is still not fading, students happily go to study under special programs that include low-paid work, social networks are full of photos “Me and the Vatican”, “Me and Toledo”, “Me and Provence”!

Do we think that doing business “abroad” is easier? Do we want to buy real estate? Whether we think about the political course of both countries, whether in relation to the European, Asian, Star-State space, does not matter. One thing is important: we stopped believing in our own country.

No, this does not mean that we have ceased to be patriots. If someone says a Ukrainian is a fool, or a Russian is a degenerate, we will be mortally offended. And we will even show the speaker which of the interlocutors is the owner of these unworthy “titles”.

But we are accustomed to the fact that our country is for some reason a country that has ceased to be a good country, from which, as if from a gateway, it is more pleasant to look at the neighbor’s good. And the longer you look, the more it, outside the window, becomes almost native, your own. But this is an illusion. We close the window, look at the passports and see the regional registration there.

We have stopped believing in our own strengths, and there is no stimulus from the outside that forces us to change our future for the better. So, no one is kicking from above, laziness from within, progress is far away. Let's watch it, progress, like TV.

We try to behave like foreigners, we look at them, fit, running in the morning to their multi-story offices, with shiny teeth, clean-shaven, they are so different from us. In fact, all that distinguishes “their” culture from ours is a more accurate and rational distribution of forces and resources. In fact, countries with much less initial data for further prosperity live much more culturally and purer than homegrown people.

Can't we do like them? Hypothetically, of course, we can. We have earth, water, air, arms and legs, we have the sun that warms us all. There are some decaying and wildly growing enterprises, there is a country, some kind of system, to which it is quite possible, by lifting up your trousers, to adapt. In principle, if even within the framework of the most seedy family, time management is carried out and quite well-organized labor is squeezed out of all individuals without exception, then you can increase your income and improve the general living conditions.

But no one needs this. After all, it is much easier to be involved in a better world through envy of foreign powers than to rejoice at a washed cup, a frying pan scrubbed to a shine, or the conversion of a garage into the workshop of your first enterprise.

Let's imagine for a moment that we have been declared a country of the European Union. For example, Mary Ivanna from apartment 7, receiving her pension benefit, only became more angry with the government: “Well, my dears, the pension was raised by a pretty penny in total, and it’s a European country, ugh!”

We imitate European trends - we lie on the lawns on sunny days, dress in their "humanitarian aid", go to photograph their countries and comically introduce English words into our vocabulary. I have always been amused by young people who know what a “trend”, “fix”, “fake”, “start-up” is, but are “fake” stuck on the question “Who is Tsiolkovsky?”

For some reason, we do not strive to borrow foreign accuracy, economy, moderation, the desire for order - that is, the very qualities that made “those” countries “advanced” economically, legally and culturally.

But what about gay pride parades, legal marijuana and other dirt, you ask? Abroad is not as “neat” as stated above! Why, they do a good job, using clear methodical actions to keep such manifestations in check, without making them archetypally prevalent for their sovereign majority.

Here's how to create such a nation in order to love your country. Ukraine is trying, puffing up. Russia never puffed up, because everyone loved her anyway. But, damn it, both of our countries have not been particularly successful in recruiting ardent patriots.

Why were emigrants drawn to Russia before the revolution, but on the contrary, we are drawn outside. Expanding the boundaries of consciousness? Can't sit still? Do we have something to show other nations? Do we want assimilation?

Why don’t we want to openly admit that our social institutions, with all the subsidies, reforms and numerous innovations, are rotten through and through?

We have everything to be happy, but our companion - devastation - has not changed since Bulgakov’s times of vectorless pluralism.

I’ve been traveling around Crimea for several months now, filming a lot. A beautiful region, blooming, fertile, incredibly attractive for investment. But what do I see in the end, driving a couple of tens of kilometers from Simferopol and further along the Feodosia highway - devastation. Abandoned gardens, dirt on the roadsides, abandoned ancient buildings, people living by tent trading in the centers of small seaside towns. And endless rallies in Aksenov’s “Symfi”, blocking the already difficult traffic with progressively European (!) hours-long traffic jams.

I know for sure that a few kilometers from Moscow, in that very coveted Moscow region, pressing the gas pedal to the metal somewhere on the Volokolamsk highway, there are the same semi-abandoned villages of “elite villages” with one pharmacy for 3-5 villages with a picturesque name Ivanovskoe.

Point at any point on the map of Russia or Ukraine - a fertile place, touched by devastation, with a small or slightly larger reservation zone for wealthy citizens.

Perhaps the problem of European thinking, worldview and lifestyle is in ourselves. This is not a desire to imitate them. This is more of a subconscious desire to change oneself and the world around.

After all, somewhere inside, we are infinitely devoted to our land. We love him, we remember the Victory, echoed by another parade. We are proud to be a great people. Only for some reason we are very sad about our, alas, refracted greatness.