Now you can. A couple of days ago, discussing Yegor Zhukov’s speech in court, as well as his political views and videos on YouTube, would not be completely ethical. Approximately as with Greta Tunberg - no matter how you treat her, you have to make a discount on age and obvious mental ill health. But Zhukov received a suspended sentence, left the courtroom with a star, the hope of the opposition and an employee of both Echo of Moscow and Novaya Gazeta at the same time, and in addition he also declared that he wants to become president, and therefore we can easily ask him as an adult.

Egor Zhukov, son of an astronaut, executive director of the Skolkovo space technology cluster and author of the rationale for the construction of the Vostochny spaceport, is a handsome guy. The blogger, who was charmed by libertarianism in his American story, is a fan of Jordan Peterson, the new right, a fighter with cultural Marxism, feminism, postcolonialism and other leftist muddy concepts, as well as with Greta Tunberg. I bet Ain Rand loves too. The simple idea that he gleaned from the entire Western right movement and which he chews both in his videos and even in that very famous speech in court is very simple: we need to build a society in which everyone bears individual responsibility for himself. The state does not give Yegor Zhukov this responsibility, so he is against it. Therefore, in his videos, he called for a fight with the “system” by all available (including illegal) methods, and therefore, in fact, landed in the dock. It looks logical. Nearly. But it’s worth a little look at the new hero - annoying discrepancies strike your eyes, once you notice which, you can no longer ignore them.

In court, Zhukov blamed our state for defending traditional Christian values ​​and does not want to build a society on a fundamental Christian principle, that is, on love for its neighbor. It sounds spectacular, but it’s a populist stamp, unrealizable as much as unrealizable “freedom, equality, fraternity”. Total love sects, but not modern states, are built on universal love. Moreover, this principle runs counter to even his beloved libertarianism. The Libertarian ideal is a society where everyone is responsible for himself and defends his individual interest. The right-liberal economy is the principle of "how much I worked, I ate so much." Competition in which the fittest survives. The state is standing aside and keeping quiet, its functions are minimal. This is a model that can really lead to the flourishing of industry and sciences, but it has nothing to do with love. On the contrary, this is a world in which competitors tear each other apart, fight for a place under the sun, go over their heads, and no one particularly restricts them.

Moreover, the state in which Yegor Zhukov lives is now much closer to his ideal than any country in Europe. Russia's economy is liberal. There are low taxes, it is easy to open businesses here, and yes, in our country, unlike in Sweden, only the one who works really eats.

But the new hero does not see or does not want to see these contradictions, and we have just begun. Zhukov is a student at HSE. For those who do not know, this is a state educational institution created in the image of the most liberal western universities. An oasis in the center of Moscow, a reservation for the children of the very ten percent who (I am now quoting Zhukov’s speech again) “concentrated 90 percent of the country's wealth in their hands.” Zhukov’s father received a salary from this very state all his life and took a direct part in the work of his institutes. And if a young man calls for “taking responsibility”, it would be logical to start by answering for his own words: put student on the table, give up daddy’s help and go to earn his bread in full accordance with libertarian ideas, on his own.

Milo Yannopoulos (Zhukov should be familiar with this name), one of the most prominent publicists of the American and English “new right-wingers,” called libertarianism “a child’s idea,” and the riot of a young student at the Higher School of Economics is a good confirmation of this thesis. While in Europe, the little sick girl Greta Tunberg protests against what is the basis of her civilization and calls for abandoning cars and airplanes in order to stop global warming, in Russia a healthy guy calls for overthrowing the “regime”, in which, as he himself admitted, passed his whole life, and which became the basis of his well-being. He says that “taxes are evil”, but it’s on them that others have paid that he studies at the “tower”, looks at Jordan Peterson’s YouTube partners and buys his new gadget. A hateful government system allows him to dream about tomorrow. It is to dream, and not to think boring thoughts about daily bread. Let's be honest: in a libertarian paradise, where everyone “freely competes”, and the state observes, does not intervene and whistles in his mustache (hi, nineties!), Zhukov would not last a day.

Now Yegor Sergeyevich is at a crossroads. He was released, and those forces from which he, in theory, should run headlong, seized him and began to sculpt from him a new protest hero. It was they who saw in him the new Greta Tunberg, a girl "for all good, against all bad." It is they, the crow's settlement of Echo of Moscow and Novaya Gazeta, who will now try to embed it in their schemes and sell it as a "young face of protest." I can’t say, but I suspect that thanks to them, in that very speech from the Zhukov’s court, all these high-sounding phrases unlike the usual speeches of our hero on YouTube appeared about universal love and how broad his smile is. And the guy is already giving in to their flirting, is already softening: until recently Crimea was undeniably Russian in his videos, today “a second referendum is already needed”.

I compared Zhukov with Greta Tunberg - I believe that such a comparison would have been extremely unpleasant for him. Egor, you have not yet become her, but only on the path of this transformation. You already speak in populist cliches, and from “my whole life passed under Putin” to “you stole my childhood” is just one small step. Your ideas are contradictory and completely unrealizable, but you still want to believe in the sincerity of your intentions. There are many ways to build beautiful Russia of the future. Do not let you make a girl who reads common words from sheets written by someone else’s hand, do not touch those who vulgarize and destroy all life - my advice to you, from a boomer - to zoomer. If you do not believe me, look at what they turned the once “young promising politician" Alexei Navalny.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.