Leaders and mayonnaise

Why "The Irony of Fate" is more interesting than Vladimir Putin

What can a party leader talk to reporters about a few hours before the congress of his own party? Especially if this leader is a real star, the party has a faction in parliament and serious victories, even in the past, in the country - elections, and at the congress the leader is nominated as a presidential candidate?

Guessing is useless, you still can't guess. “We applaud that this year's New Year's Eve will not feature The Irony of Fate. We have previously opposed this picture, which brings up the cult of drunkenness, ”Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the permanent leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, said on television.

The leader, by the way, is not completely in control of the situation; Eldar Ryazanov's Irony of Fate will be shown on December 31 on the Russia-1 channel and several other cable channels. But here "First" - for the first time in ten years - refused to show the film. On December 19, this news almost eclipsed even the speech of President Vladimir Putin at the forum of the All-Russian Popular Front. In the feeds of agencies and on the websites of newspapers, comments on the decision of the "First" from political scientists, politicians, singers and artists were in a continuous stream. “The time has come, and ( channel. - NT) refused. They know better,” said Valentina Talyzina. Barbara Brylska said that in her homeland the film is not associated with the New Year holidays! By the way, isn't there a reason for an angry note from the Foreign Ministry against the Polish revisionists? However, there is no time to think - Andrey Myagkov, the leading actor, has already reacted to the situation. “I don’t have any ideas about this,” Myagkov said with the utmost honesty, and dozens of social and political media circulated his words with lightning speed.

You think this is a joke, but this is a symptom. An indicator of how much in a country where the political sphere has been consistently cleared (all ten years during which Channel One showed the unfortunate Irony of Fate), official politics has become uninteresting. It does not occupy the minds of ordinary citizens at all - and this is understandable, the authorities can write this down as an asset, and this is what the authorities aspired to. But it seems that the minds of the forced participants in the political process are also not very interested in it. The fate of the old comedy is more interesting and important for the leader of a political party, who is about to officially become a presidential candidate, and for those who, on duty, listen to his discordant speeches, than his political program, for example.

Living politics is dying, being replaced by a dead ritual. Zhirinovsky's participation in elections with a predictable outcome is a ritual. And it does not matter at all what he will say to the public before the party congress. Nobody cares. He doesn't care either. The bravura chatter of another speech by the undisputed winner of the elections is a ritual. What difference does it make what he says to the enthusiastic members of the ONF? The same as always: it is necessary, he says, to preserve freedom and stability. Although he buried both freedom and stability about three years ago, if, of course, not earlier, with his own hands.

The authorities have destroyed the remnants of legal political competition. System politicians accepted the proposed rules of the game and turned themselves into an unnecessary, insignificant, boring background for real life.

He could tell a scabrous anecdote or read a poem by Lermontov. Or even dance, for example. The shining eyes of the enthusiastic members would not go out, the lured political scientists on TV would not stop looking for and finding evidence of the inhuman wisdom of the President of Russia.

The authorities have destroyed the remnants of legal political competition. Systemic politicians accepted the proposed rules of the game and turned themselves into an unnecessary, insignificant, boring background for real life. No one will notice their disappearance, and the upcoming elections are the best proof of that. As part of the ritual of swearing allegiance to the leader, it does not matter at all what names will be on the ballot - you can safely enter some Lyapkin and Tyapkin instead of Zhirinovsky and Boris Titov. No one, except Zhirinovsky and Titov, will find the difference, and no one, except Zhirinovsky and Titov, will experience sadness.

But the decision of the "First" not to show the "Irony of Fate" is just the scrapping of the ritual. This causes interest (empty, of course, as meaningful as the commentary of the actor Myagkov, circulated in dozens of publications) and vague anxiety. The film, which all Russians seem to know by heart, is an indispensable backdrop for the preparation and subsequent consumption of Olivier, richly flavored with mayonnaise.

But this divorce of systemic politicians from politics is good news. It is often argued whether the non-systemic opposition can seriously compete with Putin or not? Nothing to argue about, the answer is no. Because the opposition is often clumsy, sometimes just ridiculous, yes, so what? - trying to make politics. And the leader with the backup dancers do not try. They just pretend, less and less imaginative, more and more frankly bored in the process. And this is a so-so strategy - because interest in politics is on the list of basic human properties.

* The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors