If you want to share the pie - pay and participate. Citizenship as a free choice

Dmitry Luchikhin, philosopher

I keep thinking about citizenship as an increasingly problematic phenomenon. And it seems to me that it's time to divide the status: into citizenship (a conditional term, you can come up with a special one) by birth, and citizenship by conscious choice, for example, initially at 18 or 21.

The first status fixes the fact of birth. Gives the right to live and enjoy all social rights. It cannot be deprived under any circumstances, so that even in the electric chair, the individual will sit down as a citizen.

The second defines the individual as a member of a voluntary, self-organized community that manages and organizes his life together. With the assumption of the corresponding rights and obligations.

It is the second citizenship that gives the right to participate in any form of management of public institutions: the right to choose, the right to be elected, the right to hold managerial positions in public institutions. But it also imposes obligations: the obligation to protect the community (state) in the event of an attack, the obligation to participate in events when a special situation is introduced due to natural or man-made disasters. Surely something else.

A citizen of the first kind owes nothing to this society, since he does not participate either in its organization or in its management. He just lives in his territory.

But an individual can be forcibly deprived of a second citizenship, in case of a systematic violation of his legislation.

An important point of such a scheme of organization of society is the free choice of acceptance / non-acceptance by an individual of a second citizenship. With the possibility of free (that is, exclusively at the choice of the individual, and not a special commission), changes in status according to certain rules. That is, so that there are no conflicts of the type before the elections, he accepted the second type of citizenship, and immediately after the elections he refused. But nevertheless, he changed his mind, matured or became disillusioned - and it's only up to your decision.

It seems to me that this scheme resolves many problems and conflicts of a modern democratic society. (We are talking about normal, democratic communities. It makes no sense to talk about voluntarily authoritarian ones. You won’t get through them with any indirect tricks. They will “digest” everything for themselves.

For example, the passive part of society, which has no desire to be responsible for the rights it does not enjoy, can no longer be bribed or seduced by populist slogans. They simply do not participate in decision making. And not as infringed, but voluntarily choosing their position. Having the ability to easily change the choice. But not on the eve of the elections, not for a couple of kilograms of buckwheat from a sponsor.

And it is much more difficult to manipulate the active part of society.

This removes the problems of desire / unwillingness to participate in the defense of the country, because the status of a full citizen could not have been chosen for oneself. No need then to resort to archaic memes about the motherland. You are a responsible shareholder in this society, and you are equally affected by profits and losses.

I'll tell you a secret that this part of the people who voluntarily separated is their nation. Well, or maybe even protonation, the embryo of the nation of this people.

And finally, all this "segregation" has a natural horizon of completion. As soon as there are no more people in society who want to live passively, like a vegetable, the division of society into citizens of the first and second class will also end. And the people will finally turn into a nation.

P. _ S.

In the original text, I wrote that, naturally, everyone enjoys all the benefits. But most importantly, no one solves the issue of his status for a person. In the commentary, I proposed a scheme - a month after the election to change the status in order to avoid manipulation. And that's all - if you want to share the pie, pay and participate, plus the duties of a full citizen in which case. No longer questioned as to their legitimacy. If you don't want to, be content with what others decide for you, as for everyone else. Now that's how many people live. But above all, if you have consciously chosen to participate in the division, you will already be more conscious about this, and not like now, when it is your right - you should / don’t. Maybe at first everyone will accept this status, and then slowly, those who do not need it, will refuse. It may be more correct to formulate it not at all as obtaining full citizenship, but as an opportunity to refuse it with certain bonuses - minus tax, you are not obliged (but you can, of course) to participate in mobilization there, in military service, etc.