Then the famous film director invited the audience to further reflect on the topics of digitalization and education, and also touched on the issue of a unified register of population information.
One of the points that is worth highlighting, perhaps, is the mention by Mikhalkov of Sobyanin in the context of the Smart City project. The director refuses to believe that the mayor of the capital, who “knows what living life is” and “how the moss smells”, really “might think that what we are offered on the basis of the research of foreign futurists and specialists is what we need ". But first things first.
In the introduction, Mikhalkov went over the headlines in the media, noting that “hell knows what” was written about him and he was extremely surprised by “this shaft of assumptions” (“the Kovalchuk clan is fighting the Chinese clan”, “he was tired of Putin”, “he was expelled Kremlin ”, etc.), and it doesn’t occur to anyone at the same time: the director speaks about that and in these words, because he just thinks so.
“All the time, some hidden meaning is sought. What kind of society do we have that does not even cause a simple thought: does he just think so? I have children, great-grandchildren living here, my ancestors lived here. And it concerns me”, - Mikhalkov said.
The director told about what he learned from the media: the approximate cost of the campaign, which was launched after the release of Besogon TV, “Who has the state in his pocket?” - 600,000 dollars. “Good money. And hardly anyone spent their personal funds”, - the director said.
In addition, he said, some media people were offered decent amounts for participating in a new campaign against Besogon. And this is not just about rumors and speculation, but about very real people who were offered very real money. “Of course, those who told me about this refused. But I think there were those who did not refuse”.
One of the topics on which, in the opinion of Nikita Mikhalkov, does not disappear, but only increases is distance education.
The director recalled the words spoken by Vladimir Putin during a recent meeting on the development of education: “The figure, modern communications open up enormous opportunities, but do not replace live communication between teacher and student. Creative, team, comradely environment of school, university, college.
I consider all rumors and stuffing that distance education will replace or supplant full-time, and that traditional schools and universities will be closed, I consider it as an open provocation. Moreover, the education system not only teaches, but also educates, in many ways forms a personality, conveys the values and traditions on which our society is based”.
The director also cited the words of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin: “Modern remote online methods can help, be a great help, a tool in work, workshops via the Internet can be conducted. But nothing can replace the very university, university environment that forms class doctors, class engineers, class teachers”.
“The highest statesmen in the country say such things. But on May 27, the State Duma adopts the Law on the procedure for distance learning, in the event of the introduction of an emergency mode or high alert. Probably, it would be worthwhile to correct for yourself the idea of what the real results of distance education are, all that parents, children, teachers really experience? ”Mikhalkov asked rhetorically and showed a very eloquent video clip from the Internet.
Doubts and a sense of danger in this regard concern not only us. The director mentioned the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben and his article of May 25, “Requiem for Students”, published on the website of the Center for Political Analysis.
In particular, the Italian writes: “What was obvious to the careful observer, namely that the so-called pandemic will be used as an excuse for the ever wider spread of digital technologies, has now become a reality.
We are not so much concerned about the upcoming transformation of training, in which the element of physical presence, at all times so important in the relationship between students and teachers, finally disappears, as well as the group discussions at seminars, which were the most lively part of the training, disappear. An important part of the upcoming technical barbarism that we are experiencing is the erasure from life of any feelings and the loss of persons forever imprisoned in the spectrum of the screen.
...Professors who massively agree to submit to the new telematic dictatorship and conduct their courses only online are the ideal equivalent of university professors who swore allegiance to the fascist regime in 1931. As it happened then, most likely, only fifteen out of a thousand will refuse, but, of course, their names will be remembered along with those fifteen who refused to take the oath”.
Then Mikhalkov recalled the words of the famous psychotherapist Andrei Kurpatov about the influence of technology and addiction, "which today's person and especially the child fall into, and what it can turn into."
“Essentially, we are dealing with a pandemic of digital autism. This is a condition where young people cannot maintain long-term psychological contact with each other. They are not interested in the inner world of another person. Other people became replaceable for them, because they do not see the value of each of them individually, ”Kurpatov said, referring to an interesting experiment, the task of which was to find out what is the impact of a person on the phone.
“It turned out that just the physical location of the mobile phone affects the amount of RAM and mobile intelligence. Memory and intelligence increase when the phone is not near you, and you get dumb when you have a phone. This is one of the four basic points that we have encountered in terms of changing information consumption. Today we are experiencing a division of the world not only into rich and poor, but also into silly and smart”, - the psychotherapist stated.
Nikita Mikhalkov emphasized: “That is, online learning is not only a physiological problem, but also a moral one. And for humanity in general, and not just for children”.
The director again remembered German Gref, who “is introducing digital platforms in 15 schools, but wants to introduce another 50 and even 100”.
“It’s appropriate to ask why the chairman of Sberbank is engaged in training and digital platforms.“ This is not my question, but there is a question. It turns out that the pandemic is a native mother for this kind of activity, ”Mikhalkov noted.
In support of this statement, the director quoted Gref himself: “... The threat of the spread of coronavirus became an additional incentive for the speedy introduction of a digital educational platform. Challenges provide us with new opportunities”.
According to the head of Sberbank, "from kindergartens to universities, including universities, the entire education model must be changed".
In this regard, Nikita Mikhalkov offered the audience an analysis of the Education 2030 program , noting that we need to delve into and understand this as soon as possible, because, “when it is adopted, it will be too late, they have been working on it since 2013”.
“What does the president protect? He talks about life, about childhood. About the opportunity to exist and develop among their peers. Pigging a pigtail next door neighbor, scampering along the corridor, laughing, playing hide and seek, banging the offender’s briefcase, sitting with the hated teacher in additional classes ...That's about it. This education of a person in society is impossible if people - and especially children - do not have a tactile connection with each other”, - Mikhalkov is convinced.
The Education 2030 program has a section called Death of Formats.
“In accordance with this plan, “they must die” by 2025: a diploma of graduation, that is, Gref’s dream of destroying exams, a system of scientific journals and citation standards, an author’s textbook, etc. will come true. And by 2035, a comprehensive school, research university, text (book, article) will have to “die” as the dominant form of knowledge communication, ”the director said, showing screenshots of the relevant documents.
“The culture of reading a book is leaving. Everything rests on the screens and the mouse. Anonymization occurs. Degreasing. The degradation of the printed word. And even before this, the teacher in our traditional understanding should disappear. Because it should be replaced by artificial intelligence as a mentor. This is not conspiracy theology, my dear critics, these are official documents!” -, Nikita Mikhalkov emphasized.
The program is elegantly veiled by the terms: “optimization”, “innovation”, “progress” ... And with these camouflage words, it is implemented.
According to the director, people who advocate the Education 2030 program suggest that its meaning is to regulate the country's foreign policy, and those who oppose it are those who focus on Russia's domestic policy.
Unexpected events that may interfere with the implementation of the program are marked under the item “Black Swan”. The collapse of Russia, in accordance with it, can become a reality in the period from 2022 to 2027. “In this program, there is nothing that should save the country. This program may not be implemented because the country has collapsed. Well, how is it? ”Mikhalkov was indignant.
The director clarified that "the brains that came up with this" are entirely foreign. The program is based on the work and concepts of foreign experts. Mikhalkov gave the names.
“All these people - they know what our person needs? Do they understand who we are? Do they understand that four times in a century we raised the country from ruins, out of collapse? The revolution, the civil war, the Great Patriotic War, the collapse in the 1990s ... And all the time on the edge ... They know what a Russian person needs? Do they understand its essence? We are given a clue what we should be according to the ideas of those gentlemen who do not know the fuckers about us, and if they know, then only that they want to know what is beneficial for them to know about us. And what do they know about us, and what do they write about us? It is they who announce sanctions to us, and after that they provide the basic basis for the education of our children in the Education 2030 program? Well, turn on your brains finally!”, - Nikita Mikhalkov called.
In addition, according to the author of Besogon, “what Gref and the company offers” does not mean the whole country, and cannot imply.
“This is a colossal division, the division of the country's inhabitants into those who are at the center and can use these benefits, and those who are there, somewhere. But we do not think that all this will lead to the fact that the attitude of the province to the center will be aggravated in the direction of negative and rejection? That, in general, by and large is one of the dangers of the collapse of the country.
Then Mikhalkov turned to the topic of “Smart City”.
“I ask you to moderate your ardor of those who scoff at us when we talk about chipping and so on. Take it easy. Read on the official website: “Wearable and implanted medical digital devices” and even “gene therapy and genome editing”.
Based on the work of futurologists, an absolutely anti-religious trend is announced. Purely anti-religious. I am now turning to believers, of course, because unbelievers will make us laugh. But here is the denial of such a phenomenon as a person as the likeness of God - it must be understood that for those who deny this, it is also a religion. And it is called transhumanism.
A concept that supports the achievements of science, which should free a person from many troubles, from diseases, from death, stress ...This manilism strikes out the most necessary human aspects of life: love, passion, attitude to parents, children, history...
It is the push-up of everything that makes a person human. This is digital Auschwitz. And this is not my wording, but the wording of those scientists who wrote open letters.
Who are the authors of this futurological Smart City? Kurzweil, Pearson, Millard, Koplin, Johnson, Evans and others. And all their forecasts are adapted to our reality, to our capital. Did they hear Dolgoruky, Kalita, Godunov? They know about the Time of Troubles? We can trust that these people know what we need? ”Asked Mikhalkov, speaking to the audience.
Next, the director went to specific people. In particular, to the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin .
“I could be wrong a thousand times. And I do not say this because I want to whiten it or protect it. I just know this man. He was not born in Moscow, in Siberia. He could be in the taiga for weeks, he knows what a living life is, a living relationship, he knows how moss smells. He is brought up differently. Well, can he really... I do not believe in it. I do not believe that he can really think that what we are offered is what we need. I repeat, this is not about slurping soup. But to surrender like that to people who offer us their concept of our life...”, - Mikhalkov noted.
According to the director, existence in such a paradigm is possible only if a person is mechanized, digitized, he does not have a name, but everyone has his own number.
“I’m not even talking about the fact that this was condemned by the Nuremberg trials and that people who do not have a name and surname are clipped off the memory of the family.
Yes, all this brings great convenience: the button here and here. It is very comfortable. But we do not think that we are gradually becoming dependent on it and lose our own will? But they cut off the light, but did the battery run out? And you became nobody. Shit. With the number you forgot. Fine?
And this is not just inhumane, it is a huge threat to the country's security”, - the director emphasized.
Nikita Mikhalkov expressed bewilderment at the fact that the State Duma adopted the law on a single population register without due discussion, and recalled that in the UK, for example, they introduced such a register, but then refused, because they recognized that it was impossible to ensure the safety of citizens' data.
The director quoted Putin as saying: “Not only the images of our citizens are collected and used - biological material is collected throughout the country, for different ethnic groups and at different points. That is the question - why do this? And they do it purposefully and professionally. We are an object of great interest”.
Nikita Mikhalkov said that the draft law states that a citizen until 2026 will not be able to "even just see his data".
"Six years? Why? Articles of the Constitution are violated. Everything goes against what the president says. He says: “minimizing the composition of the processed data”, and this single register is aimed at the maximum collection of this data”, - Mikhalkov said.
In Besogon, an excerpt from an interview with the retired FSB Major General Alexander Mikhailov was shown, which told recently that one could “buy any database at the intersection of Prospect Mira and Sadovaya-Sukharevskaya, including border control bases”.
“Can we even admit the minimal danger that experts are talking about? How can this be?”, - Nikita Mikhalkov asked a question.
The director noted: “I absolutely do not care what they say about me. I'm not interested in the desire of someone to convince or blame something, I'm interested in the desire to think about it. It's not about falling into hysteria, going out with demonstrations...
We must understand exactly what all this brings to those who do this with us, and to ourselves, those with whom they do it. What is the final meaning? Facilities? Yes. Comfort? Of course. Speed? Yes. All Yes. But what is behind this comfort? Let's think about what we get in terms of comfort and what we lose in terms of national and personal security.
I am absolutely sure: technology, progress, number - yes... Just let us draw the line between where we need it to live more conveniently and where our life ceases to be ours, where we lose power over it. And the worst thing is that having lost, we don’t even notice this”.
As a post-script in Besogon, very strong, soul-taking, appeals by Russian national artists regarding the danger of creating a single digital register were heard.
The full recording of the Besogon TV program "Over the abyss in the lie" can be found here.