The agenda of universal guilt as a relay race of suffering

Alina Vitukhnovskaya, writer

In principle, they did this before, but they did it within the framework of competition. And now they are so carried away that they stupidly grind everything that comes in their way, including themselves. Many now state the rejection of former values. What is this if not the victory of the notorious "modern world", sprouting like a flower from the ruins?

And in these ruins, something curious is happening. The same revaluation of values, as it is. “How is it possible, while living in Moscow, not to go to theaters?” cultural snobs are outraged. “I’m bored there”, - the man replies. Or even not responding. Because it's boring. I do not remember. Most boring. Boredom is the other side of culture. Especially violent. Bad. That is, Soviet and post-Soviet. But boredom is also a form of sincerity. Ontological subjective honesty. How was I when I was born? In infancy? In childhood? Badly. And boring. Boring. And bad. The rest is a cultural imprint, the vanity of vanities and the languor of the intellect.

An educated person always pretends that everything is interesting to him. Lies. No, he's lying. There is no will to even lie. What the hell are theaters anyway? I'm looking at the "special operation" theater. The whole world is a special operation, a big scam in general. The old world is long gone. And not in connection with any political events. It's basically outdated. In the new world there are no theaters, relationships, all these gender games, at least as they were presented before. It has no thins. Etc. Etc. Further everywhere.

Past norms and behaviors, desires, entertainments - all this is a huge suitcase without a handle. And it's hard to carry. And it's a shame to throw it away. Of course, you can pretend that all this is not so and buy tickets for fashionable performances. But exactly what to depict. Observe propriety and non-existent rules. But I won't. I'm just bored. And there is no motivation. I want to spend time on my true desires and goals. And among these desires, obviously, there is not the slightest desire to suffer. The impression that all the worst has already happened to me. And the measure of suffering is exhausted. The same can be said about the world as a whole. Despite the ongoing tragedy, people do not want to experience mental turmoil anymore. Their pain is physical, political (social), but not existential. The poet Lev Kolbachev writes about this:

“This is really a struggle for a resource. And this resource is Russian (in the imperial sense, but inspired precisely by Russian culture) existential suffering. In fact, since about the middle of the 19th century, imperial power has had only two allies: resentment and Russian existential suffering.

In modern conditions, there is a clear division: the resource of resentment is concentrated in the older generation (and a relatively small number of *infected* young people), the resource of Russian existential suffering is in the younger one, primarily in zoomers. And if resentment belongs to power firmly and tightly, then existential suffering was rapidly flowing away through the sclerotic fingers of the Kremlin's gerontocrats.

It flowed away in two ways: * into the sand * and * into other people's hands *. The first is the fundamental rejection of *real* Russian existential suffering in the conditionally unbeaten generation, its carnivalization. This is such a space of meanings, where instead of Nekrasov or Dostoevsky - Prigov with "Militzaner" and Sorokin with "Children of Rosenthal", only (most importantly) it is filled not * from above *, by the forces of a handful of conceptual intellectuals, but * from below *, by a mass of shoegazers , post-bards like Monetochka and Elizarov, doomers and abstract hip-hopers. By transforming the space of Russian existential suffering into a carnival space where they pour a free Blazer, they demonstrate that *in fact* there is such an abode in the world where a Russian man does not suffer (the fact that this man / woman wears colored hair, piercings in all places and beards from the barbershop does not at all cancel their involvement in this Nekrasov nature). And since there is no way for the Russian without existential suffering (well, we were taught that way), let it be part of the carnival ritual, let Yudushka Golovlev dance with Prince Myshkin, and the lyrical hero Ryzhy with Ivan Denisych. And all this under the Dusty Rainbow Pioneer Camp or ic3peak.

But I will go further than Kolbachev. And I will say that we can get along just fine without suffering. And personally, I was “not taught that way.” Rather, I suffered from objective circumstances - from domestic to social. But I don’t have this “Russian” learning to suffer.

Returning to the topic that I touched upon in recent publications, namely, the topic of collective responsibility, I want to note that it is heavily involved in domestic sadomasochism. When some sufferers want to spread their suffering over the suffering of others. One journalist literally relishes the photos of the victims, and these photos make him only desire to lock up all Russians, without exception, in the hell they find themselves in. Because in this way he will feel some relief when he is convinced that literally everyone in this world is bad. Otherwise, he will experience constant anxiety. A sort of Marquis de Sade in a "humanistic" wrapper.

As long as the West is buying oil and gas, using other services of the Russian Federation - such as the disposal of nuclear waste, no sweeping accusations should be made against all Russian citizens in a row. They are unconvincing, inconsistent and incorrect. Moreover, I believe that the summoners themselves, who voice them, understand this very well. And even if the West completely abandons this practice, general accusations will remain only a way to settle political scores for the sake of changing market conditions.

Despite the imaginary unambiguity of the “repentance agenda”, anyone who has logical thinking and has not succumbed to emotions understands that de facto people are divided not on the basis of their ideological affiliation, complicity in crimes, etc., etc., but on the principle of their economic viability and/or connections. Rich people are not actually involved in the conflict. The poor and beggars participate, sharing the remnants of their poverty and dubious preferences. And therefore, all the more so, the effectiveness of the idea of collective responsibility tends to zero. It is a way of switching the attention of those same beggars from their real problems to some "geopolitical" and pseudo-moral ones. And therefore, it is no different from the Kremlin propaganda. And it just completes it.

The second task of the “general responsibility agenda” is to get some of the syslibs-pseudo-oppositionists out of harm’s way, who started talking about the protest, monetized it, and then successfully merged it. What is important is that they did not allow the protest to move from social to political. And watch your hands! Now exactly the same thing is happening. For the "moralistic" rebellion will never become real. Only economic can be real.

The split that destructive agendas have brought into society plays into the hands of only the authorities. To quarrel everyone with everyone, not offering a way out other than reflection - enchanting stupidity! But it's not just stupidity. But also meanness. But not only meanness, it is the ontology of the Soviet man, the essence of which was the desire that no one should get anything. Nobody. Nothing. Therefore, every generation leaves behind ruins.