Не могу не отметить, что за последние год-два...

I cannot but note that over the past year or two, the priority in the “official ideology” has clearly changed: if earlier it was suggested to us that for the sake of a full stomach it is worth it to part with ideals and principles - democracy, human rights and the moral and ethical side of getting food, - now it turns out that it is possible and necessary to fasten belts in the name of spirituality, traditional values, the Russian world, protection from geyropa and other traditional things that quite fall under the definition of the words "principle" or "ideal" (albeit a very dubious one) .

It is clear that these two messages are aimed at different target audiences, at different “classes” of the population. The first - on the "cost-effective", which needed to give a signal, direction, opportunity and rules of the game without rules for integration into the Empire and the Vertical, the second - on the "people", to whom the presence of principles and ideals is just the same class closer by virtue of education and mentality, and which needs to regain the ground under its feet in the developing conditions.

Therefore, I hasten to disappoint optimists who believe that the "people", having seen empty counters, rising prices and falling incomes, will hurry to arrange Maidan on the streets.

After all, if earlier the first formula was safe, because the "people", although they were dissatisfied with the rampant "immorality" and "gangster capitalism", still voted "for" directly or indirectly, because they were frightened by the risk of "returning to the hungry nineties," now the second one has become safe, because the “cost-effective” ones have already carried out their “iPhone riot” at the permitted time and within the permitted framework, having exhausted their steam reserves for a long time.

I will say more. "People" may even think that now we will live worse, because "all the money went to the Crimea and Ukraine." And this thought, despite the seeming courage, despite the proximity to the conclusion that the party and the government did something wrong, despite the less pleasantness of the leader than the formula "we will live poorly due to the actions of the West," is still safe for regime - after all, it allows you to calm all doubts about the correctness of the decision by tugging at the standard strings of "fascists", "NATO military", etc. etc., and leads away from a much more dangerous thought.

The fact that there is nothing new in feeding friendly regimes, and current problems in the economy lie in mediocre politics for at least 14 years. The fact that the "fat" oil years were spent primarily not on improving the living standards of the population, developing infrastructure and the economic and legal environment, but on enriching the ruling elite and strengthening the regime. The fact that both then and now we live significantly worse than we could with a competent policy, and the only achievement of the “nest egg” created at that time was that a fall may turn out to be with a lower elevation.

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