Well, what to call it?

The competition "Novaya Gazeta" for the best official name for "Pension Reform"

Raising the retirement age at first was called. Look at the news archives: a month ago, the State Propaganda began to compete of convincing citizens that a later entering a well-deserved rest is, firstly, a harsh necessity, and secondly, a great gift and a way to extend youth. However, after a couple of weeks, the propagandists guessed that their legend failed. Both the explanations are contradictory, and the term “increase” clearly suggests that nothing good is to wait. Some bright head suggested for the conspiracy to name what is happening of a pension reform.

The “new” in the latest publications on the topic actively protested against such a term: this is not reform, but simply withdrawing money from citizens.

And the propagandists unexpectedly agreed with us, although for completely different reasons. It turns out that “reform” is a negatively colored word in the modern Russian political dictionary. When citizens hear about “reforms”, they instinctively hide dollars under the mattress. So the State Media is now forbidden to talk about “pension reform”.

The message was distributed about this by the Rain TV channel, and in this case the reliability of the words of the source of journalists is easy to check. It is enough to turn on the TV and see how what is happening is called in the news. And then compare with what was called, for example, a week ago. Anyone can make sure that there was a reform and all went out.

Now, on our official New End, raising the retirement age will be called "Changes and Transformations in the Pension System."

And with that name, of course, you will not go far either. Imagine folk riots against “changes and transformations”. Or the question: what happened to your stability? Here, you see, individual changes and transformations have occurred. Or, finally, the correspondent of the state television channel chopping with delight, the leading report from the places of these same changes.

There is also a bureaucratic version - say, “adjustment of a separate parameter of the pension system”, but this is also not very inspiring. It seems that you can try a proven past political era. “Modernization of the pension system” - sounds moderately optimistic. But the trouble, and we fell ill with modernization, the attitude here in people is the same as the reforms. “Young technocrats” will come in costumes, talk about the digitalization of the economy, and when they leave, the audience will grab wallets. That is, it is clear that here the government and propaganda will still have to understand the brains and come up with something more fun.

In general, the invention of smart and beautiful words that the authorities will call some rubbish is a long-standing domestic tradition and, perhaps, even an industry. At the end of the 20s, the authorities came up with, for example, collectivization. The rapid exchange of money with the devaluation of the ruble in 1961 was called "a change in the scale of prices." In 1979, during an invasion of Afghanistan, the immortal term “limited contingent of the Soviet troops” appeared, which the wits proposed to apply, for example, to the Mongol-Tatar ISU (“a limited and temporary contingent of the Golden Horde in Ancient Rus'”). In the same era, military and financial support for the regimes friendly to the Kremlin at the expense of their own population was called "international assistance to fraternal peoples." Nowadays, the Moscow authorities have immortalized themselves with "renovation."

Even against this rich background, however, the current linguistic throwing about the retirement age has specifics. The “reform” was ordered to be carried out urgently, despite the fact that no one supports it and no one is ready for it, including even the most faithful supporters of the current government. Hence the Orwell's instability of terminology, which changes from week to week: what was an increase yesterday is known today as a reform, and tomorrow it will be a separate measure for regulation. ” The point is not that we again come up with an official slang to retouch the unpleasant aspects of Russian life, as has already happened many times. We cannot fix this slang and determine at least some convenient term.

At this difficult hour of political dyslexia, every conscious citizen of our country should come to the aid of the government. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev actually get excellent memes, but this time something went wrong.

Therefore, the "new" announces the competition for the best name for pension reform. How would you suggest calling the increase in the retirement age to officials, deputies and propagandists?

For details, contact the comments. The best censorship options will be published, and we will determine the winner with reader voting. The popularly chosen term will then be transferred to the government.