Nations, people, ideas.

@ 01.12.2022

The problem of ideas in everything - in life, in work, in politics, in society - has always been acute. People, for the most part, still need to know what they live for and why they work and where they are going. On how correctly formulated the tasks set for themselves depends in the end their implementation in practice.

The author is not going to give any ready-made recipes, like "three-in-one" advertising, and he has no right to do this. But we can, I suppose, look through the history of nations which have passed through certain stages of their development and the ideas which have guided them.

The life of any society and state has always been built according to certain principles.

In different epochs they have certainly differed. Let's not look deep into the darkness of centuries, and look at the not so "ancient past".

The need to consolidate society around a single idea, the unity of people to overcome this or that adversity has always caused difficulties. Usually it was important in crucial periods of history, revolutions, revolts, national liberation wars.

For example, from the history of the United States, where the entire history was built mainly around one fundamental institution - the Constitution. This document, a monument to history, amazes everyone with its longevity, stability and efficiency. The preamble, quoting a paraphrase, says: "All men are free from birth, endowed with equal rights and the pursuit of happiness. Concise, succinct, and accurate. The idea of unity, there it is. It is probably this idea that prevented this multi-ethnic state, a patchwork quilt, from being torn to shreds along ethnic lines. Of course, we cannot say that everything there is so perfect. Think back to the days of segregation, the Negro ghettos. Indians, indigenous people of the mainland still live in reservations.

The great French Revolution, along with the English bourgeois revolution (there was such a figure as Cromwell), which shook the foundations of centuries-old European monarchy, gave another slogan or appeal (call it what you like), relevant to this day: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". True - she (or rather in her time) also invented the guillotine. The result was a kind of two-faced Janus.

But let us look at Russia. It is still closer and (unfortunately or fortunately) more understandable. It was so long ago that I don't remember exactly in what century it took place. Count Uvarov's "theory of official nationality" appeared. The life of the entire (almost entire) empire at the time was based on three pillars: "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and the people". It seems clear and there are no questions. But in the then rapidly developing conditions of capitalism this ideology of industrially backward Russia did not last long. And in its place did not appear a new one. How, in what year and at what price all this ended, I think, is well known to all.

Well, the Bolsheviks did not ceremoniously. The "land to the peasants" - resulted in the dispossession of the kulak, forced collectivization, the villagers were actually attached to the land (they simply were not issued with civilian passports). "The fight against the enemies of the people" - filled concentration camps with millions of prisoners whose slave labor was used to bring the inevitable "bright future - communism" closer. But the most comical fact of Soviet history, it seems to me, is that in the era of victorious materialism hundreds of millions of people worked believing in the idea, this one and only idea of building a society of communism. Which, after all, could not be realized.

Now by these examples, I hope the reader will be convinced that by using ideas, ideology, and manipulating public consciousness, it is possible to achieve almost any results. From an advanced society in all respects with a high standard of living that recognizes, respects and protects human rights and freedoms. To a totalitarian empire with an all-powerful state apparatus, what Orwell ("1984") called Big Brother.

In today's context of globalization, underdevelopment, and the general fight against terrorism, one must not go to extremes. We must work, every day, to set ourselves real tasks and make every possible effort to realize them. I think it is ridiculous and even foolish to rely on anyone, on anyone's help.

Everything a person does or does not do belongs to him alone, irrespective of any other conditions. Yes, the results of labor can be taken away, appropriated. The desire and will to work, to create, to achieve results can never be taken away. This idea is eternal and immutable.

All that man (as a species) is at a given stage of development, he owes only to himself and his labor. It is thanks to this that cities, countries destroyed by wars and natural disasters were rebuilt, becoming even better. There is no need to invent anything. All this was invented long before our time.

comments powered by Disqus



Free place





State Society Authority