The US Congress approved a bill to dismantle the monuments to the Heroes of the Confederation in the Capitol. They decided to direct the spontaneous processes into the legislative channel, thereby intending to pacify the chaos. Fear of him does its job.
Of course, the current campaign against monuments is a private affair for the States. They want - they set, they want - they demolish, they beat off their noses and hands. But the very thought that we also went through all this, and, as a rule, during times of catastrophic upheavals does not allow us to dismiss it. We know all too well what the battle with our own history leads to. She does not forgive this, taking revenge on the split. Yes, and world history knows a huge number of examples of clearing the bridgehead of the past, when one civilization goes into decline, and something new appears on its ruins. And it all starts with the destroyed monuments. Under the guise of humanism, justice and universal human values, something terrifying may well creep in - from projects of dystopias of the near future, which the same Hollywood gushes with, dreaming of its prophecies to come true.
Rome and the barbarians, the fall of Constantinople ... What a long way to go when, quite recently, and close to us - Ukraine began to write its new milestone in history on the rejection, opposition and rewriting of the old. And of course, the monuments there were demolished. They are accused of many things, they are afraid of them - as if while the old ones are standing, the new ones will not be put up: they will be perceived as impostors whose age is short-lived. In Europe, many are also trying: rewrite the history of the Second World War to fit their format, and monumental signs of reality - for demolition.
Now a historical time bomb has appeared in the States. Moreover, she revealed herself in the form of an absurd cocktail. It is extremely difficult to isolate where it is about justice, where outright speculation and political struggle with an admixture of Hollywood theatricality, and where attempts to urgently generate special bonds for artificially prolonging public consent.
The very appearance of this theme of the monument fall is symptomatic, it is an indicator of serious diseases of society, where bilateral racism is mixed with vindictiveness. There is a flirtation with dark instincts, there is an emotional boost to society, where political battles between Republicans and Democrats unfold on the surface of a colossal rift, as well as a special operation "to remove Trump". At any cost.
It is difficult to predict how the current processes in the States will turn out. It is possible that the socio-political Yellowstone supervolcano is waking up this way. In the meantime, it is obvious that the authorities are trying to reduce the degree of tension of public confrontation and redirect its energy along specially designated channels in order to gain time.
The current situation is very much like the plot of the Hollywood thriller "Judgment Night". Near future: life in the States follows the law issued by the new founding fathers. According to it, once a year at 12 o'clock, a controlled chaos is declared in order to rid all other days of it. At this time, any crimes are resolved, the hunt for people begins. Cleansing night, many look forward to it more than Christmas.
The blood of this night is the basis of well-being, including the economic prosperity of the country, it holds the society together. Gradually "doomsday" becomes a pillar of state policy.
In "Judgment Night" a new America appeared with its new world order, which fully fits into the context of a liberal belief in universal human values. The scenario of this “night”, as well as the current trend for the demolition of monuments, is a means of maintaining the current order, prosperity, but at the same time a method of formatting reality, when people become bound by energy and a thirst for destruction.
Every time after the demolition of this or that monument, we have a slightly different world, which will no longer be the same. When all the undesirable monuments are dealt with, it will be necessary to find new objects for the application of destructive forces.
So you think: who is next? Either they will arrange the very "doomsday" for some country, which will be declared the focus of evil, or the Indians will show their voice and demand to endure and repent before them, and so on ad infinitum and until everything is cleaned to the very foundation.
One way or another, but in connection with these events, parallels constantly arise with the recent national history, when the demolition of monuments was on our agenda. When everything and everyone was destroyed. When they looked like those very barbarians dancing on the ruins of Rome, and after crying. I also remember the famous perestroika film "Repentance" by Tengiz Abuladze, which shows a special ritual of digging up a corpse and throwing it off a cliff. Maybe show it to the Americans for edification, so that they know what happens when a large-scale war campaign begins with its own history?
In the epilogue of Eduard Limonov's book A Foreigner in Time of Troubles, the protagonist, who has visited perestroika Moscow, tells his woman a fairy tale “about a strong and powerful people” who began to perceive their history as “unjust violence and a chain of crimes”. As a result of the outbreak of the crisis, this people "ceased to be great." Because he began to "strive for abstract sterile justice." Something similar, sterile, and now increasingly manifests itself in the States, sterilizing society.
Then, after all, during the Soviet perestroika, an unprecedented and destructive experiment began to instill historical nihilism, which became an ideology. Nihilism is total and hopeless, which removes any authority from the pedestal and destroys trust in any authority.
Then the whole big country went headlong into this nihilistic "construction" and even began to enjoy it and sing of its misfortunes. She began to profess the principle of maximalism: for the sake of "truth" you can do anything.
“The story didn't need to be touched. After all, Khrushchev took Stalin off the pedestal in 1956, why was it necessary to destroy the socle of the state and go deep into the soil? " - says the Limonov hero, and his reasoning is very relevant to the current American situation with a growing mental crisis. But there, apparently, they took a path similar to the Soviet Union: the creation of a utopian structure of the system and society,
relying on the ritual - as if the demolition of monuments can heal society and remove age-old contradictions. Therefore, it seems that the monuments are only the first victims of the current policy of utopianism of distilled universal human values, the diktat of the main road of civilization. Utopia requires sacrifices, from time to time it will release its inner beast - devouring, destroying.
They love to reproach Russia for the allegedly eternal serf spirit and slave psychology. If you parry and remember the history of slavery in the United States, it was usually stated that the society there is more progressive and all the bad things have outlived, and now let's take an example from them. Well, like, for example, Germany, which long ago repented for the horrors of World War II. But we cannot repent correctly, therefore: you give a new restructuring! But it turns out that no one is forgotten there, and nothing is forgotten. Ulcers, resentments can bleed for centuries, especially if you periodically pick them out. We can do it too. Pick out. Let's confess. Yes, and they urge, teach us this with enviable persistence.
What to do now, what to do in order to keep up with the next ultra-fashionable standard democratic trends? Conduct another revision of Russian history? Learn the rules of demolition? Methods for revealing the unreliability of this or that monument, the wisdom of releasing public steam?
However, we ourselves are aware of all this. They built a new beautiful world on the ruins of the old one, and more than once. They demolished monuments, demolished temples, then destroyed other monuments, so that everything would be done again from scratch, from the cleared bridgehead. So they almost entered the inertia of the evil infinity of schisms, smashed everything to dust, and then grabbed their heads, although initially it was about restoring historical justice and other good intentions.
It is now clear that the antidote to all these schisms is the line of succession. Now is the time to save monuments. Both the temple and the monument to Lenin, because they are not just frozen traces of history that can be erased if they interfere, but its special ties that sew civilization, saving it from schisms.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.