Scary parrots. Leo Rubinstein about the eternal theme of "malicious abroad"

I still tremble, having read or heard the words, phrases or whole verbal passages coming from the echoing state corridors, literally reproducing samples of discursive departments of party-government thinkers and rites of the late “scoop”. Samples of the very one that also caused a massive, gloomy laughter in half with painful heartburn. And now!

But today, as if nothing had happened, they reach us in the form of perky sewer spray all the same “Western patrons”, “overseas puppeteers” and other “some in the West”.

And at all times - almost so - like a God from the car, the theme of "interference in our internal affairs" does not lose its dashed relevance to the surface.

When they say that all the protests and all the personal or collective manifestations of discontent are organized, planned and financed by the only true policy of the native leadership, or that more often, a mythical “West”, when they say that these or other domestic politicians, philosophers, practices, theorists, artists are the guides of “Western values” when they say “foreigners” about “foreigners” Agents ”working in the“ interests of foreign states ”, when they talk about all this, the first thing the question arises, whether it is or not whether they lie or do not lie.

But this question is far from the most important. And not only because it is quite easy to answer it - yes, in most cases they lie.

But no, not only the fact that they lie. They lie, for example, always for any reason, and not so sensational news.

The theme of the immanently malicious “abroad” is so tenacious and so seductive for many and many generations, prone to totalitarian methods of managers who have managed and their full -time or freelance propagandists - and in different countries, and not only in ours, so that you should not be especially proud of such uniqueness - also because the most important issues are not assumed there.

And of all the main issues, the most important is not a question, or not these, so to speak, exposure. And the most important question is: "Why is this bad?"

Because it threatens traditional values ​​and national interests? Great.

But in this case, it will not be difficult to list at least a couple of such precious values, such emeralds of the Yakhontovs that would find a fatal incompatibility with the values ​​suffered by the modern civilized world, part of which is historically our country, I like the adherents of wretched collective farm aesthetics and morality or not like it.

But no, these questions and, moreover, the answers to them are completely not provided for by the rules of the endless game, in which the power with the population entrusted to it has been played for centuries, for the most “deep” part of which it is clear for a long time that the West is terrible because it is the West, the abroad is harmful and dangerous, because it is a abroad, and the “foreign” is tolerable only when it is pants, boots, cell phones and fly on vacation, but to fly on vacation, but to fly on vacation. Not when it is personal freedom, respect for personality and the flowering variety of private interests, habits and aspirations.

A stable and even, we can say, an unshakable concept, according to which everything that happens not on behalf of or with the permission of the local authorities is organized and paid from behind the hillock, the unpretentious souls of the faithful inhabitants of the Fatherland are amused.

And their happiness, of course, is that it is not very common for them to think about something that is located a little deeper than this smooth, polished languages ​​of many generations of the surface.

And if suddenly, by chance, at least a little thought about it, it would turn out that the mentioned concept was described by the word “Russophobia”. And this is the case when it is continuously repeated in all contexts and in all cases, the word has at least some intelligible meaning.

And how else can you identify the concept, indirectly, but unequivocally claiming that Russian citizens are not at all citizens, but a meaningless and limp rabble, incapable of the will of active and even passive actions that go beyond the framework of purely domestic existence.

This concept is based on a persistent conviction that people are in principle not able to think, speak and act without order and without leadership.

And if they, people, say and do actions not at the direction of the “party and government”, then, therefore, at the direction or instructions of “others”. Arithmetic is nowhere easier.

“Who taught you these nonsense? From whom did you get all this? " -the party father of my school friend was boiling, when he, a thundering teenager, said something at the table that noticeably, and sometimes quite radically deviated from ... well, in general, deviated. And I can’t convey to what extent these issues insulted him.

All this is more or less clear, and for a long time. But I, as usual, especially occupy language, or rather stylistic issues.

More recently, shortly before the historical triumph of the great zeroing, among other news, this flashed: “The West can intensify attempts to split into Russian society before voting on amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. About this Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev warned in an interview. "

This secretary, a native of the same office where, as you know, there are no “former”, where the cold heads are cooling over over the years, hot hearts are charged to the state of their heads, and pure hands become so clean that it is useless to even try to launder, this secretary, which, due to the same circumstances, is, firstly, of course, well-informed, and secondly, secondly, and secondly He will not lie, among other things, he said: “Steps are planned to intensify information pressure on Russia in order to erode Russian spiritual, moral and cultural-historical values ​​that form the foundation of statehood, and reduce the sense of all-Russian identity of the citizens of our country. The main tasks are to make a split into Russian society, to impose the values ​​and models of development that are beneficial to them, to be able to manipulate public consciousness. ”

An amazing thing!

If we completely neglect historical, cultural and all other contexts, if we forget that we still live in the twenties of the XXI century, and not in the thirties or forties of twenties, but to focus all our attention only on-the content and on the formal-stylistic features of this and all similar embarrassment, we can assume with some embarrassment that Nothing has passed in the country for almost a hundred years in the country, in the political and public consciousness of its citizens, nothing has changed at all.

This kind of speech, the rhetoric and stylistics of which has not changed for years and for decades either lexically, or syntactically, nor intonationally, nor, moreover, meaningfully, I hear more or less all my life.

Gradually, in my mind, a completely obvious metaphor arose and enriched with colorful details over time. A metaphor, which was based on an important reduction, which I had gleaned in childhood from the encyclopedia.

It was from the encyclopedia that I once learned that parrots live for a very long time. And talking parrots of their speech

The repertoire is mastered in the first years of their life, after which many years reproduce it without any changes for many years.

They grow up, study at school, grow up, their owners are aging and dying, new ones appear, who also get and die in their turn, and the parrots, as if nothing had happened in their creaky voices: "... to impose the values ​​and models of development that are beneficial to them, get the opportunity to manipulate public consciousness."

Eyewitnesses told me that in the mid-70s, one such parrot from the Knowledge society said something so magical that I remembered this for my whole life.

“The activities of the Western special services,” he said and made a meaningful pause so that the public could realize the entire ontological horror of the very concept of “Western”. “The activities of the Western special services,” he repeated a little less forcedly, “are aimed primarily at our youth and (attention! - L. R.) to the thinking part of our intelligentsia.”

The years and decades passed, as they say, the signs of time have changed unrecognizably, and the parrot is not only alive, but even in appearance and not very old.

Should I rejoice at this?