Translated material
President and his mission
What Putin counts on, what to expect from him - Columnist NT Ivan Davydov continues the discussion
The question “what Putin is counting on,” or even, in a stronger form, “what Putin hopes for,” seems quite legitimate (the first article from this series Andrei Kolesnikov is here ).
However, its production itself involves the presence of a questioning picture of the world in the head of a completely formed picture, which makes such a question possible. The questioning question is already convinced that the country has problems, and that Putin has also problems. The rating falls, sociologists record the growth of the number of protest moods, the authorities, looking for money, are forced to go to unpopular measures that only strengthen protest moods, the leaders of the leading world powers look at the head of Russia with fear, and this is still in the best case, the sanctions are finished off the economy, and so on. These are not empty theses, any of them can be proved, based on facts. However, for our conversation, this is more interesting - the picture of the world that allows the question “what Putin is counting on” suggests the presence of another presumption, less obvious than the above. The questioning question implies that Putin also believes that he has serious problems. That Putin has a secret and genuine - most likely even deeper than his critics - knowledge of the situation in the country, and, focusing on this innermost knowledge, Putin is forced to constantly think about how to get out of those troubles into which he himself drove himself.
But are there any reason for such a hypothesis?
Our president is an approximate viewer, even an ideal viewer, the only, perhaps the inhabitant of the same magical country, about the successes of which Russian television channels lie daily to Russians
Viewer number one
dated March 5, 2012
I have declared state propaganda responsibly, because for many years I have been regularly watching information and analytical programs and political talk shows on the meter channels of Russian TV-my own picture of the world, also integral and consistent. It was built mainly on lies, distorting and ignoring the facts, but it still does not become less holistic from this. The main theses of her are well known: the homeland was surrounded by enemies, in the service of external enemies - the enemies of internal, “the so -called opposition”, the goal of enemies is evil for the sake of evil, the destruction of Russia, since Russia is like a bone in the throat or like a log in the eye. Russia stores the true values that the West has long lost, and therefore is the center of gravity for healthy forces in the West (that is, as a rule, of various ultra -right), and powers that are not consonant to obey the dictatorship of a unipolar world (like Iran and North Korea). Around Russia - Hell and Chaos: migrants, gays and other liberals are attended in Europe, about Ukraine and there is nothing to stutter, the central television channels about the troubles of Ukraine have been telling almost constantly for many years in a row. But Russia, under the wise leadership of Vladimir Putin, blooms, is ready to repulse the enemies, for which the best weapon in the world is constantly being improved, and for citizens there is a paradise, or almost paradise, and every day it is more and more joyful to live.
I repeat: for some reason it is customary to believe that the king in his head is some kind of adequate picture of reality that is different from this gum for mass consumption, in accordance with which he builds his policy. Here are just any objective data to confirm this thesis, we do not have it.
I will give a couple of vivid examples, between which are the three most difficult in the history of Russia. In January 2015, when the war in the Donbass, of course, was the number one theme, all state television channels talked about how in Kharkov a certain armed man in camouflage shouted teams in English. From which the expected conclusion was made - foreign mercenaries are fighting for Ukraine. A couple of days after the release of monotonous stories about the Kharkov mercenary, the president in St. Petersburg met with students of the National Mineral and Smart University “Gorny”, with whom he shared his own fears regarding the Donbass War: “We often say: the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian army. In fact, who is fighting there? <...> In fact, this is no longer an army, it is a foreign legion, in this case, a foreign NATO legion, which, of course, does not pursue the goals of the national interests of Ukraine. ”
The President then behaved himself not just as a bona fide consumer of propaganda jelly. Everything is even sadder: he looked like an old woman at the entrance, who, having heard a piece of news from the corner of his ear, turns her into a long story about the upcoming and inevitable end of the world. From a person in camouflage to NATO legions is still a decent distance.
The second example is fresher. After the English press spoke about Petrov and Boshirova, the Russian TV went in a cheerful tantrum. The regulars of the talk show were amazed at the inept lies of the Russophious British, and one particularly vigilant spectator, whose call was the air in the program “Time to show” on the first, even said that the surname “Boshirov” was invented by chance, and should record the connection between chemical weapons, which was supposedly used against Sergei and Yulia, Skripyle in Salisbury, and the faithful ally of Russia Bashar Assad, who allegedly uses chemical weapons against his own people.
A little later, at the Vladivostok Economic Forum, Putin actually repeated the main line of television propagandists, saying that “Petrov and Boshirov” - “of course, civilian”, and pronounced their interview. What happened after the interview of Margarita Simonyan, everyone probably rinses: the “information special operation” was prepared so clumsy, the “traders of the Bada” lied so ineptly that even the most loyal citizens have no doubt-yes, these are special services, they clearly did something muddy in England, and the special services themselves in a deep crisis, since they were so employees incompetent.
From where the obvious conclusion is - Putin or, as that vigilant viewer, sincerely believed that Grushnikov and the Novice were ineptly invented by the British in order to denigrate Russia, or subordinates simply did not devote him to the details of the upcoming information stuffing. It is still unknown what is sadder for the country.
There are many such examples. You can recall the president’s speech at the Valdai Forum in the fall of 2015, when Putin, discussing Ukraine and Syria, simply repeated before the audience consisting of foreign experts, the tops of Russian propaganda. You can accommodate the thesis of the messages to the Federal Assembly with Kiselev programs. There is only one conclusion: our president is an approximate viewer, even an ideal viewer, the only, perhaps the inhabitant of the same magical country, about the successes of which Russian television channels lie daily to Russians.
With a person, arbitrarily cynical and deceitful, if he acts rationally, you can still try to agree. But with the supreme priest of his sectarian shower - no
Holy state and its priest
But still, between the old woman at the entrance, which retells television horrors, and there is some difference by the president of the Russian Federation. The old woman is a spectator and nothing more. And the president is not just a participant, he is the creator of the reality that he and the old woman tells him about. It was under his leadership that the country rose from the knees, it was he who returned the stolen Crimea to his native harbor, he confronts external enemies, he overcame all the troubles that remained in the inheritance from the dashing nineties. It is difficult not to believe in your own mission, that you are chosen (not in the boring sense that connects this word with the election procedure, but in what it has in the famous film “Matrix), if all the people are told about your greatness. Here he seems to be believed.
Vladislav Inozemtsev, in his new book, “The Non -Professional Country” makes the center of reasoning the specific ideas of Russians about the state. The state here is the highest value that fills the meaning of the being of an individual. The state is a maximum abstraction, it has neither intelligible properties, nor, moreover, duties to the population, but any representative of the population must sacrifice everyone in the name of this state - from property to his own life.
Is it possible to use this concept to explain any past and future troubles of the Fatherland is a controversial question, but if you follow the rhetoric of modern united Russia, you will agree: the current elite worships to such a state, thinking of its part, and people-something like fuel for the work of a state machine. Remember - "People are the second oil"? Putin in this scheme is the supreme priest of the cult of an abstract state. Again, we can recall everything that he spoke of sovereignty in recent years is, because the main fetish of state officialdom, in order to understand that he himself also represents his own role.
He has a mission - to protect from any threats is an abstract state, a state in itself, and there can be no too high price here. Words about paradise for the faithful after a nuclear war, who have excitedly excited, sound even worse if you keep in mind that not just the leader of the nuclear power, but the chosen carrier of a special mission pronounces them. And many little things become more understandable from this point of view.
Why is Putin regularly and straightforwardly trying to deceive “Western partners”, although partners and critics of the regime within the country willingly catch him on such a lie? Yes, because he has a mission, for which any means are good for the implementation. Where did these eternal absurd delays in meetings of any level, which are the further, the more comic they look? For him, there is nothing comical in them - it is just a way to show ordinary people, even a high -ranking that a person communicates with them a completely different kind and calling.
Where does the ultimate tolerance of the crossers from the nearby circle, who are not even shy in subordinates from the nearby circle? Just the soldiers of the light who shoulder to the shoulder with the great leader lead the battle against world evil, have to forgive small pranks. Their victim is much worse and higher than ridiculous comfort growing from stolen cabbage.
To what, we asked ourselves at the beginning of this protracted conversation, is Putin hoping? The answer is - Putin hopes for God. On God who chose it to protect the abstract state. Strictly speaking, this state is God.
And this is terrible for real. Because with a person there is an arbitrarily cynical and deceitful, if he acts rationally, you can still try to agree. But with the supreme priest of his own sectarian shower - no. You either worship with him his deity, or you are his enemy.
And at the same time he has riot police, an army, a fleet and a nuclear button.
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Andrey Kolesnikov, "Patriarch of All Rus' is required"
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