Andrey Movchan: “What does pride have to do with it?”

“In recent years, the official Russian language has begun to increasingly use the word “pride.” “We remember, we are proud!”; “Pride in our athletes”; “Our past is the subject of our pride”; “We must be proud that we are Russians.” “; “Pride in our achievements” and so on became template phrases in propaganda. Following the propaganda, our citizens also picked up this phrase in application to a variety of subjects and objects: now they are proud of their nationality, ancestors, the size of the country’s territory, fellow citizens, flag and coat of arms , history (and everyone knows some of their own history) and so on. The common feature of all these “prides” is that their subject is located outside the proud individual, and as a rule, very far from him,” the economist writes on his Facebook page.

“I am proud of my ancestors who defended Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, how can you write such a thing!” - one lady writes to me on FB in response to my comment that the large-scale projects organized by Muravyov in Kamchatka and the Far East were controversial in terms of effectiveness, costly, and in particular the order for the defense of Petropavlovsk, in which many brave Russian soldiers died, was meaningless - that’s all anyway, the city was abandoned after a few months, but the aggressor never occupied it - there was no need to.

If the ancestors of this lady really defended the city, then they deserve respect and at the same time sympathy - on the orders of a high-ranking bureaucrat, they gave their lives without any meaning. But what does pride have to do with it?

The meaning of the word pride, meanwhile, is very clear: “pride is a positively colored emotion, reflecting positive self-esteem; the presence of self-respect, self-esteem, self-worth. In a figurative sense, “pride” can be called the reason for such self-esteem” (Efremova’s explanatory dictionary).

Can having a distant hero ancestor increase positive self-esteem? Where is he and where are you? What connection?

It turns out - maybe, if you inspire society that the achievements of the past and the victories of complete strangers are enough for your personal self-esteem to be very high. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t done anything in life, are deprived of all rights, even the right to go to a rally, that you can never be imprisoned, that an ambulance will stand with you dying, allowing the car of a regular official to pass, and in the hospital, if they manage to take you , there will be no medicine, that you haven’t chosen anything yourself for a long time, and the state offers to impose all decisions on you, even what to read, what to watch and with whom and how to sleep - the main thing is that you have an ancestor in the fifteenth generation who fought bravely ( however, also, without having any rights, except the right to die for a foreign sovereign, in the next “game of war” unleashed by him).

Having imposed such terminology on society, you don’t have to be afraid of its demands for freedom, opportunity, equality, openness, control over power (as well as people’s attempts to break out, become someone, create something) - people are already doing well, because Suvorov crossed the Alps , great-grandfather defeated the Germans, the country is the largest in the world, and Arshavin scored many goals: there is something and someone to be proud of!

By the way, pride, even in the correct understanding of the word, is not a very positive thing. Dahl's dictionary does not distinguish the words “pride”, “pride”, “arrogant” at all. Pride is the most important sinful passion, expressed, according to the word of St. John Climacus, in the rejection of God and the contempt of people. So even if you actually have something to be proud of, that is, you personally have a dignity that sets you apart from others, do not rush to do this - it’s better to just be glad that genes, upbringing and circumstances were favorable to you.

The word “pride” is used most correctly in the famous film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears” - there the older heroine says to the younger one: “Well, why hide it? Our breasts are our pride!” Our. Not Marilyn Monroe. If we teach every Russian, when hearing the word “pride,” to look at his own chest (or whoever has something visible), and not at the chest of his great-grandmother or Anka the machine gunner (accordingly, not at anything of Batu Khan or Vladimir Lenin, but at his own) , society will have to change its attitude towards itself - and finally try to do something (yes, at least implants).

And seeing the breasts of Anka the machine gunner or the naked Khan Batu, you can experience a completely different feeling - “admiration”. And here’s where it gets good – admiration is “a state of being enchanted by someone or something” (the same dictionary).

So let's admit: we, as Russian society and as Russian citizens, have almost nothing to be proud of (breasts and so on are almost the only exception). But we have a lot to admire. And this admiration should inspire (look at the meaning of this word in the dictionary!) to actions that will ultimately give us reasons for pride (and we will still think about being proud, or, following the Christian rule, simply rejoicing).”