The heyday of Europe

Is it difficult to see it by changing the optics

Wherever the Russian man lives, no matter what he did, whatever title and nationality (Russian is not blood, but fate), sometimes Europe is worried. Her great revolutions, vivid promises, damned questions, terrible disasters, excellent revival, foggy sunsets. To him (whoever he listed himself-Scythian Asian or European) all this is not alien.

Therefore, his "sunset of Europe" of Spengler will excite his "sunset. Berdyaev, Stepun, Frank and others - draw up a collection of articles about him. And Lenin writes that "this is the cover of the White Guard organization." And he sends them with a philosophical ship to where they will cultivate the Russian branch of European thought.

Our world is, including the market for the exchange of ideas. Its participants give birth to them, offer, reject, absorb. Many are successfully adjacent, enriching each other.

Aggressive claims of the “only true”, such as Marxism-Leninism or racial superiority, suffer defeat. Europe needs not exclusivity, but the joy of diversity. She welcomes and shares her. Like the idea of ​​his unity, created with the participation of the hero of the Russian branch of the local thought of the philosopher Alexander Kozhev - mentor Camus and Malro.

She has long been scaring others: “... to Paris? Tea, is it filthy there?! " - exclaims the merchant in a prominent novel, sharing the anxiety of the Muscovites of the times of Peter I. Others attracts: “I would like to live and die in Paris! ..” - the poet sobs - the prisoner of Red Moscow.

And beckons not only as a place of sensual pleasures and mental exercises or a battlefield, but as a smart, tender schoolgirl, in which a maniac-mentor is looking for signs of smoldering. And requires correction. And not by buying a sewing machine, in which the best young men once saw a way to save the fallen women. And not flogging - this is not a Comme il faut. And public censure.

At the same time - it’s a marvel! - He addresses him to the Russian audience.

And she is not used to it. And it is easy to see in a preoccupied mentor of the scheme, which is spent to captivate the girl in the mesonin and use, or - a frightened conservative, to whom everything new is vicious.

What signs of “sunset” he does not charged with Europe: the omnipotence of the bureaucracy, and the enthusiasm for regulation, and oblivion of the Christian foundations of being, and the rampant postmodernism, multiculturalism and tolerance, and special attention to the poor and guests from Africa and Asia.

He sees that way . And if you change optics? And in the fictitious "vices" of tolerance and attention to the poor to see the good? And in the bureaucracy - a flaw, affordable correction?

Europe has repeatedly “digested” ideas that came from outside. It will digest and injections of migrating crops. She also reduced the power of the central bureaucracy in favor of the regional and communal. Reduced the share of planning in favor of competition.

Calls are transient. Values ​​are unshakable. They are not just inscribed in article 2 of the European Union agreement. Millions of people share them:

respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality; the rule of law and human rights, including minority rights; Pluralism, refusal of discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity, equality of men and women.

The annoying emphasis on vices and “sunsets” tired of the Russian reader. Isn't it time to interpret about virtues and prospects? Including general.

After all, the frightened people remember how recently media, politicians, military and diplomats discussed Russia's place in NATO and the pan -European house. And the benefit that will give him their businessiness and the ability to use natural wealth.

Now everything is different. But is it difficult in the light of those projects to see the current conflict with a temporary ailment? Heavy, dangerous, but cured deviation from the norm?

The draft report of the Committee on International Relations of the European Parliament talks about creating a democratic society in Russia, recognizing the results of honest elections, observing the rights and freedoms of citizens, abandoning aggression and converting promotion into education. Really - in vain?

- Is it all possible? - asks frightened.

Reply version: This is a design question. Strategies. The ability to turn the emotion of protest into energy -decision and responsibility.