The Dark Times

Russia is in dark times today. And it is falling deeper and deeper and no end is seen in this dark abbys.

If we look to world statistics, Russia takes the first positions in most scary categories such as number of orphan children, suicides among children and youth, number of alcoholics and drug addicts, bureaucracy, etc. These numbers do not shock, however, as much as when you hear about another crime comitted in your district.

Just a couple of days ago a schoolgirl was raped and badly brutalized not far from her school. And this is nothing new to our provincial city. Such cases occur here and in the neighbour villages quite regularly. And what is worse, nothing is said about this in media. Local TV-channel (owned by the region's governor by the way) is created to transmits good news only. Even if there is nothing good, they are skilled enough to represent any news as positive. And what about the regular crimes? Media shuts eyes to it, government shuts eyes to it, society shuts eyes to it... And as long as all of them shut eyes to the growing problems, we'll be falling deeper and deeper...

Optimists (or I would better call them ignorant individualists) would say "things are not that bad. Crimes and poverty are everywhere. As for me, I live quite well." And here is the main obstacle: individualism. As nowhere else it is seen that our society is a society of individualists: no one cares about the others, everyone thinks about him/herself only, everyone pursues only his/her interests. What is the most favourite phrase of the 21st century? "It's not my problem!" And no one ever thinks that one day everyone gets a problem. And society which does not help to those in need turns into a jungle. Italians have a good proverb for this: Ogni magnio ha un guadagnio et non si magnia (Every bug gets its earning and doesn't complain). This is the same situation with the society of individualists - fragmented individuals servive as they can, some do better, some do worse, but all of them shut their eyes to the problems hoping that they do not reach them, they shut their mouth because they instinctively know that they are alone in this soсiety of individuals.

How easy it is to govern a country of a bunch of isolated individualistic optimists! They do not even see how deep in shit they are. Even if they see it, there would be no one by their side to support them.

"A Person of which Quality Are You?" Or on the Old Good Inequality

The more you work - the less you gain.

folk wisdom supported by facts :)

Yes, like all the times before, our world is leveled into different types of people - superior and inferior, the masters and the servants, the rich and the poor. We are proud to live in the 21st century - high-tech, internet, knowledge economy and stuff. However, as the social composition concerns, we are nothing different from any other century before. We still live in the times of contrasts, unprecedented discrepancy in people's incomes both within and among countries.

I remember once at my work I had to find a room for one VIP in a hotel not far from the airport from which that "VIP" was to depart early in the morning. I had bad luck - all the hotels were booked. Then I had no other choice than to report to my boss that since there are no free rooms, the VIP would have to spend a night in the airport. My boss rejected: that person cannot stay in the airport like others! Well, I attempted to pursuade him, that there was nothing scary in staying at the airport, moreover, he was not travelling to work, but to have rest, and as for me, I spent many nights at airports waiting for morning flights, was he anything special? Yes, special! - my chief objected, - don't you understand: he is a person of another quality, he is superior!.....There was nothing else to add. It was insulting, but damn it, he was right, I am one of those millions "inferiors" who do not have any social or economic security and who have to fight for their survival.

Some years ago I sincerely believed in omnipresence of the meritocracy system, that everyone is an architecture of his own fortune, that everyone can achieve much if not being lazy, and all that kind of "american dream" bullshit. Meritocracy is a myth. And in Russia it is more often the case than anywhere else. There is no vertical mobility in the society. It is rigidly stratificated and the stratas are 'frozen'. In other words, the system does not provide room for people to get away from their social environments, and if you are born poor, you will die poor.

I hate it when people accuse others in their poverty saying something like "so why d' you work as a miner, no one forced you to do it, change your work, become a businessman, everything is in your hands!" It's definitely stupid to say so. Firstly, can you imagine the world where everyone is a businessman? There must be someone who has to be a miner, a cleener, a driver, a farmer... Secondly, I am strongly convinced, and I will always assert, that poverty is not the people's fault confined to it, but the state's. Surely, one can give examples of successful careers, enrichment thanks to one's abilities and hard work. Maybe it is the case in several most developed countries. But definitely not in ours. And the tendency shows that things are getting even worse.

To bring concrete facts that substanciate my words: discrepancy in salaries at our institution reach the number 100, i.e. the person with highest salary earns 100 times more that the person with lowest salary. And these are the official data of only at one organization! But there are also "inofficial incomes" of the upper-level persons which in other words is called corruption. And I am even afraid to imagine the gap between the maximal and minimal salaries on the level of the whole Russia.

I every day witness staggerring contrasts: in the center of the city one can see amazing new houses, the price of which goes off-scale. At the same time, in 10 min from the center there are lots of houses with no water or gas in the house, with toilet outside in the yard, not saying about hot water - it is a luxury. Is it still 21st century?

Yes, people live in this house. I know several families who live there. Moreover, they pay monthly for utilities, which are in fact absent.

There are also homeless who live in such 'holes' underground:

And at the same time the houses of the "superiors":

Protected by the fence so that no 'inferior' would get inside. By the way, I knew one of the builders of this very house which was constructed several years ago. A young man, he had to work at several places, literally day and night, once he told me in dispair: "I have built so many beautiful houses, and still I have not 'diserved' to buy even the smallest flat for myself; with what I gain for my work I will never be able to buy any lodging..."

Random Thoughts

Salut, c'est encore moi et ma philosophie :) Finally, I did it - created my own blog :D For about a year I was going to do it. Not that I was too lazy (well maybe partially I was); the reason was two-fold: first, I am a reserved person by character and I usually keep my thoughts in secret; second, I am rather for saying nothing than saying nothing wise. However, fashion for blogs won my principles and ... let's see if there is anything wise I can tell to the world :D

The blog will be devoted to my philosophy, or "raison d'etre", since there is nothing more interesting to me than inquiring into the sense and nature of things. Well, I guess everyone one day starts searching sence in everything around and everyone finds his own sense... The most long-thinking of those guys became the most prominent philosophers :) I don't of course claim to be a philosopher... we'll see though what gonna be in the future :)