When the adults left

I'm probably five, my grandmother leads me along the garden - that's what we called the square on our street. We go to the store, and there is a chance that they will buy me sweets (sticky caramels without wrappers, sugar sprinkles, others are not sold in our area). And my grandmother is holding my hand. And I should be happy, and I'm terrified.

Because in the morning I saw on TV how the world ends. The world is black and white, the TV is also black and white, but that only makes it worse. Some kind of program about the consequences of a nuclear war - they were shown a lot then. Here is a house (and I can see it now - two floors and a gable roof), next to the house there is a tree. And suddenly a gray wind sweeps it all away. The house is folded, the tree disappears, only gray nothing remains.

Grandmother can save from any trouble, but she cannot from this one. This wind is stronger than grandma. And a separate horror is that I can’t even explain to her how scared I am.

A little later you will understand why I am saying all this, but for now let's return to the present times.

It is foolish, of course, to look for some special signs in the fact that people who were over 90 are leaving. Who lived a long life, were sick. Gorbachev, Queen Elizabeth… Godard. He also knew something about the black-and-white world - and better than many.

And yet in social networks there is an endless stream of records that now the 20th century has truly ended. And it went, and stupid, and ... And there is something in it, and you can hardly restrain yourself so as not to write: “Did you notice, did you understand? Now the 20th century is truly over.”

Publicists of the past liked to talk about the spirit of the era. I will also pretend to be a publicist of former times.

The twentieth century began with a terrible, unprecedented war that crushed continental empires. And a couple of decades later, another war happened, even more terrible, completely unprecedented. The art of extermination of people has reached unprecedented heights. A weapon was invented, developed and used that could bring about a real end of the world.

And only after that - not immediately, slowly, very slowly - the twentieth century began to think about what it was doing to itself. And he began to comprehend, invent and build a new world. Politicians, intellectuals, business tycoons, poets, musicians, and directors probably thought that each of them was busy with something of his own, solving his own problems, realizing his own ideas about what was right and what was not. But in fact they were building a new world.

In which the greatest value is a person. Not some outstanding person, not a gloomy genius, but the most ordinary. Any. Every. A boring layman who rarely thinks about lofty matters and is mainly concerned with how to provide himself with ridiculous comfort. Everything is for him. It cannot be dismissed, it cannot be reduced to the figures of statistical reports, it cannot be sent to kill and die for the sake of great ideas that some genius came up with. Or crazy, there is generally a fine line.

Of course, there was a lot of hypocrisy and cynicism in all this. By and large, it all concerned only the West. With everything that is not the West, they tried to do the old fashioned way. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. In Vietnam, the Americans did not succeed, and they are still making films to figure out: how is it? Why? How is it that they did not succeed?

And the great maxim formulated by Orwell - "all animals are equal, but some are more equal" - continued to work ("the new ethics", about which we argued so much until recently, is simply a rebellion against this formula). Injustice, in general, was enough inside this new world, and even more so outside, but nevertheless, something happened in the 20th century. Albeit in a limited area, but still there was a place where - with all conceivable reservations - a person could feel that he was really valuable. That his life is important, that he will not starve to death, that he will not be dressed in an overcoat and sent to a trench for no one knows what. He will have a home, there will be plenty of opportunities, including the opportunity to lament for those who are less fortunate. A noble occupation, by the way.

And most importantly, his house will not collapse like a piece of cardboard, his tree will not be blown away by the gray wind. There will be no nuclear war.

Since we are talking about the departed, then this: Russia forgot this after many upheavals, but the neighbors remember - it was Gorbachev who did it. Thanks to his efforts, people stopped being afraid that one day some celestial being from Moscow or Washington would press the red button and everything would be over. This is a great merit. Probably his main merit.

And, of course, if he did not understand, then he felt this truth of the new world, he tried to drag the Union into the very territory where a person is the main value. Not a "proletarian", badly drawn on a poster, but a living, real, ordinary person. By the way, I think that it was this impulse that finally finished off the Soviet Union: the cannibalistic colossus simply could not bear this. But it's a long talk, it's not today.

And it turned out that it is very convenient to live in this world. In this world, you can remain a child for a long time or always. The 20th century was the century of adults. Like all previous centuries of human history. The French historian Philippe Aries generally believed that Europeans noticed childhood only late, only in modern times. And earlier it was not up to that, and children were seen as small adults - and nothing more. He learned to walk - here's a sword or a sickle for you, depending on which family you were not lucky to be born into - and forward. True, not all colleagues agree with him, but the idea is beautiful.

The child is defenseless, the child is weak, the child needs care, the grandmother needs to lead him past the kindergarten, holding his hand. But if there is no one to protect yourself from, if the problem of survival does not need to be solved, if the whole world around is a space of care, then you can continue to be a child until old age. Well, we did. It's more comfortable for a child. Responsibility is at a minimum, pleasures are plentiful. Publicists of the past (for some reason I already remembered them) liked to talk about the "infant ages of mankind." So, over the past decades, we have not matured, but rejuvenated. Returned to childhood. Or fell. Choose which verb you like.

I called this text: "When the grown-ups are gone." I will commemorate the great ones who left us with a kind word, but I will immediately make a reservation: this is not about them. It's not about physical age at all. And Biden, you know, is not a young man, and Russia is not ruled by a boy.

I'm talking about something else. There is a feeling - after all, it was promised about the "spirit of the era" - that the children accustomed to comfort played and got bored. There is no sophism here, no attempt to justify oneself or one's country. I remember who started the last (perhaps actually the last) bloody game, I regularly watch Russian TV for 15 minutes a day, listen to people who call for more kills for big money and joke funny jokes about the prospects of nuclear war. They return my personal childhood: the house took shape, and the wind carried the tree away. It’s not so scary anymore, I managed to do something, but I still feel sorry for the Earth. The planet was normal, in vain they are.

And even separately, it is somehow insulting that it was Russia, my Russia, that ended up in the forefront of those who decided to nullify all the achievements of the 20th century. I almost understand why it happened, but it's still a shame that our leaders speak the language of the wildest archaic and that their words resonate with their fellow citizens. And yet, I think the problem is even bigger than our boundless homeland. It's not just about us.

Gone are the people who remembered how hard this dubious comfort went to some part of humanity. Which were the bridge between our carefree era, tired of carelessness and deciding to find adventures on ... Well, you know, on which part of the body, not rubber, adventures are usually sought. Between our, I will finish the phrase, era and those truly terrible times, from which mankind escaped not so long ago. They were almost invisible, but they held our hand, or something, reassured us, did not let us turn into a ditch.

With them, it was a little ashamed to be really naughty. After all, you were children, remember this feeling - even if they don’t punish you, it’s still embarrassing, you still want to be good.

I don’t know if today’s teenagers of all ages will be able to grow up. But there is no one else to rely on. Or themselves, or - no house, no tree.