Historic Moment
Articles about the past and present
№3
What is the benefit of studying history?
Today, in the age of high technology, when everywhere and everywhere you can stumble upon advertisements for the latest mobile phones, which have long been more like televisions and are not yet able to talk instead of the owner, the thought of immersing yourself in the depths of time for the sake of understanding some important truths will probably seem strange and even inappropriate.
Indeed, why open historical works written in the centuries shrouded in oblivion, if all the wisdom of life, it would seem, has already been embodied in the modern creations of civilization - smartphones, computers, flying and driving drones, "smart" watches and other creations of technical genius?
They know the answers to all questions, and just watching them work takes the imagination not to the past, but to the future, which promises to be even more automated and therefore carefree. And on the way are such new developments as the Internet of Things and unmanned electric vehicles, the mere mention of which brings to mind scenes from science fiction films.
Alas, as the experience of human society shows, a technical breakthrough made on the basis of the rapid development of natural and applied sciences does not necessarily entail an equally powerful humanitarian breakthrough. On the contrary, the passion for newfangled toys, which one can do without, pushes personal development far into the background, and often cancels it out altogether.
It is no coincidence that today the average person is usually called an "ordinary consumer", as if his entire life consists only of consumption and earning money for new purchases. This speaks of the erasure of individuality, spirituality, lyricism and other qualities that together form what is commonly called humanity.
However, it is worth opening memoirs and chronicles of events of the 18th-19th centuries, as from their pages this very humanity, the struggle for the lofty ideals of freedom and equality, as well as honor, conscience, convictions and principles will flow like a stormy river. Moreover, - history books will introduce the reader to bright and strong personalities - politicians, military leaders, educators, poets and scientists.
Even a short description of their biographies full of passions and achievements will be enough to understand how goals, aspirations, dreams and desires have narrowed and simplified since then. That is why the "ordinary consumer" needs to at least sometimes break out of the cycle of primitive needs and read historical novels, memoirs of bygone eras, polemical articles by eminent writers of the past, works of educators, philosophers and publicists who lived and worked several centuries ago.
This question naturally arises while reading Klyuchevsky's "Historical Portraits."Although this long-written collection unobtrusively tells about real politicians and scientists of the distant past, it is much more interesting to read than modern advertised novels, openly claiming popularity, but sometimes empty and uninteresting.
As befits a real thinker, who can hardly keep up with the flight of his imagination and therefore often deviates from the topic of the next biography, Klyuchevsky in one of the chapters begins to reflect on the fact that the political order, which in one country ensures social harmony and prosperity, thoughtlessly transferred to another soil, can cause trouble, destroying the familiar centuries-old way of life there.
It is difficult not to agree with this conclusion, observing how the repeated attempts of Western politicians to make the rest of the world happy by transferring the presidential-parliamentary system of government there run into, if not desperate resistance, then sometimes an outright misunderstanding of how it is possible to preserve a state at all by dividing powers between several ruling branches. Sometimes this obsessive political virtue brings the situation to the point of absurdity, which is directly stated by Western activists themselves, who have volunteered to "help" other nations "become more equal and happier".
For example, I recall the story of a participant in a political mission sent to hold elections in a tribe that had not at all joined civilization in the usual sense of the word. A helicopter that landed in the natives' domain was immediately surrounded by local residents shocked by this spectacle.
"And so we, ignoring the wild and enthusiastic cries of the natives, take out propaganda leaflets from the helicopter and begin to talk about the advantages of some candidate," the aforementioned activist describes the further actions of the visiting democratizers.
Perhaps, his honest report on the senseless propaganda work he has done shows in the best possible way that there is no need to impose one's successful and well-established socio-political system anywhere and everywhere, including tribes living according to ancient customs, traditionally ruled by chiefs.
Ironically, the "rest of the world" responded to the West in kind, as the news reported unexpectedly, but quite logically from a historical point of view. Some rude young men suddenly began to demand that young people walking around London observe Sharia law, which in this case meant a ban on wearing short skirts and drinking alcohol on the street.
The news went on to say that the police officers called by passersby were unable to detain the "politically active" Islamic migrants. However, they managed to remind the West that everything in this world is mutual, and therefore it should think about whether it really needs to bless another "backward and oppressed by dictatorship" country with democratization.
Much has already been said about drunkenness being an evil that must be fought.
Not so long ago, a lot was done in this regard, so people who lived through the 1980s remember Gorbachev's campaign to combat the green serpent very well. Today, the ideologists of that merciless war on mass alcoholism are usually sharply criticized and even scolded for some so-called excesses, excessive repression and other "anti-human" measures. Alas, it is precisely this rhetoric that conceals under its guise of philanthropy and forgiveness the very danger that contributes to both the revival of drunkenness and its new spread.
This danger lies in condoning alcoholism, turning a blind eye to it, looking at it through one's fingers. It is even surprising how many vivid images describing such a truly criminal disdainful attitude towards certain destructive social phenomena can be found in the Russian language. This suggests that the people's consciousness actively considered the criminal negligence of the authorities and generalized the results of this understanding in the form of catchphrases.
Today, three decades after the beginning of Gorbachev's anti-alcohol campaign, during which drunkenness has returned to mass life and has once again become entrenched, it is difficult to agree with those who believe that Gorbachev and his comrades went too far in some way. Time, like an empty glass, has easily refuted the theses that it was impossible to cut down vineyards, limit the sale of alcohol to two hours a day, burn out this evil with a hot iron, and that it was necessary to fight it "somehow gradually."
Wine and vodka can be bought in many stores today, and not only for a two-hour period, and cartoonish images of local troublemakers with explanations that they, "having reached the point," constantly beat up family members have disappeared from the visual propaganda stands near the local law enforcement departments.
As a result, the green serpent, once again released, has gone wild and, without any kind of humanity, leaves in its path not only ruined lives and families, but also, what is especially terrible, houses burned by drunken residents, people maimed in drunken fights, pedestrians crushed by drunken drivers.
When you see all these destructive, terrible and often fatal consequences of flirting with alcoholism and turning a blind eye to it, you involuntarily recall the second half of the 1980s, when the passersby who had fallen asleep there "having had a drink too much" instantly disappeared from the streets, sobriety was imposed on family life, and society breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that life had become safer, calmer, better.
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