Importers

A month ago, the Saratov governor Valery Radaev distinguished himself. His call “Give the seventh Saratov iPhone!”, Turning to the director of the refrigerator factory and replicated by journalists, caused a surge in professional envy among pop humorists. As soon as the passions were subsided, the governor decided to consolidate his success. He solemnly promised that in the very near future our regional center would gain priority in another area, becoming the flagship of industrial production of black caviar-already, from day to day, the laws of nature contrary to ...

The end of the 40s and the beginning of the 50s of the last century is the time when the Soviet Union officially cursed the Marshall Plan and surrounded itself around the perimeter with an “iron curtain”. At that time, a Neolimpian sport under the name "struggle against stunted to the West" arose in our country. They fought not on carpets or tatami, but at the desk. Having reached the feathers, they fell to the sources not too reliable (today they would say - "fake") and then proudly announced that from time immemorial we were ahead of the planet of all. And the steam locomotive of the Cherepanov brothers invented before the Englishman Watt, and in a balloon, the Russian Higher Kryakutnoy went on flight long before the French brothers Mongolfier, and there’s nothing to say about the radio: the Italian Marconi, of course, vilely stared the priority of the Russian genius Popov.

Stalin died, and the mania of state greatness subsided surprisingly quickly; Only the joke "Russia is the birthplace of elephants" reminded of it. However, not even seven decades have passed, as the story repeated - in the form of a farce, erected square. Today's Russia quarreled with the nearest neighbors, surrounded itself with impenetrable cordons, drove itself into an impasse with antisancies and aggravated this nonsense by the public executions of foreign food. After that, a long and clumsy neologism "import substitution" was drawn on Russian standards.

The import substitution, which citizens are repeated from each iron, is the triumph of the surrogate, the initially unequal replacement of the first grade by the third, the attempt to somehow adapt to the fact that, under the current state course, we are simply not able to correct

What is its meaning? In fact, these are familiar Stalinist rakes - the only difference is that the vector of a rake (that is, the stalk) is now turned into the past, but into the future. Previously, we called for a doubt help to Plusquamperfektum, now we are hiding behind the foggy Futurum . We compensate for the absence of today's victories by promises to win tomorrow: to catch up and overtake the ugly West according to the quality of the products produced by him for export, and, in spite of the enemy, to reach the world level where we hopelessly lagged behind during the USSR.

The promises are realized? Not in any way. Actually, no one thinks to actually fulfill them. In fact, the import substitution that citizens are repeated from each iron is the triumph of the surrogate, the initially unequal replacement of the first grade by the third, the attempt to somehow adapt to the fact that with the current state course we simply cannot fix it.

We overlap labels, use palm oil where the recipe requires a creamy, plug the mysterious “cheese product” instead of cheese and wean the remaining reserves of elite cognac with a twenty -ruble hawthorn. Soon, the auto industry will begin to rivet from backing spare parts a rattling rubbish under the guise of Volvo and Mercedes. And what? With the help of an ax and chisels, we have already adapted to our needs democracy, invented in Athens, and the right invented in Rome. A little more - and the State Duma will amend the laws of physics in order to be densely called black, and rewrite the multiplication table in order to continue to call the economic failure with an unbridled take -off ...

Governor Radaev, with the name of which I began these notes, only the visible embodiment of existing trends. Yes, Valery Vasilievich understands in fish farming in the same way as in electronics (he calls, for example, sturgeon fry with larvae), but is not afraid to be known as an ignorance. After all, this is only in a normal country the head of the region should be reckoned with the voters of the region, and our governor depends entirely on the federal center. From the point of view of career prospects, to be an irresponsible talker - and even a jester Gorokhov! - Today it is more profitable than slowing down on corners. If in the capitals the politician turns into a clowning, then the province will pull up to new standards. He who eagers to get into the stream knows the recipe: it is better to overpower than undergoing.

In the end, shaking the air, the Russian government does not intend to replace anything for itself. Already something, and our authorities will always have enough imported iPhones and imported caviar.

Roman Arbitman - Saratov writer

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the editorial office