certainly, humanity is not going in circles. But not in a straight line. And not even in a spiral. Perhaps, its trajectory is more difficult to describe, than astronomers write an acceptably accurate formula for the multidimensional spiral of the Moon's motion, that revolves around the earth, in turn revolving around the sun, the latter is around the center of the Galaxy, and the Galaxy, in turn, is around the hypothetical center of the Universe.
However, one thing is undeniable. We meet something recognizable time after time, familiar, we have met before.
"There is something, what are they talking about: “look, this is new”; but that has been for centuries, who were before us". (Ekll. 1:10)
No, well not so much, of course. certainly, every war and every civilization, each city and each battle is strictly individual. However, they contain elements, already seen or at least similar to them.
And now we are in front of another such déjà vu. We've already seen it all: helpless Europe, predatory attitude towards one's own past, confused masses of people, attempts to rewrite history in favor of triumphant victors from Spain or France, Germany or Holland, border lands between conflicting parties under attack, religious (or bordering on the degree of deafness to someone else's point of view with faith) massacre, redistribution of accumulated joint centuries-old labors inheritance…
legacies. That's it. Here is the keyword, which will explain a lot to us.
Indeed, in what is happening now on the territory of the ex-Ukrainian SSR, and in the future - on much wider fronts of the world (now you can talk about it directly or not yet? Okay, I'll take a chance) for some reason, one very important aspect was left unnoticed.
This is not just a war. This is the War of Succession. And although historians prefer to narrow this type of conflict and limit it to the events of the 17th-18th centuries, let's take the liberty of returning this random geopolitical and geohistorical find to its true value.
After all, with each "turn" (let's get by with a simple metaphor of a spiral, let it be incomplete) peaceful or conditionally peaceful development accumulates a certain volume inheritance. Fatty territories of fertile Italy or Livonian access to the Baltic Sea (at that time - the nodal point of trade), Polish agricultural magnateries and Austrian craft cities - everything could become the subject of succession wars. And let the throne be a symbolic prize, possession of which made it possible to influence the politics of the whole region, but in fact, more and more of the most diverse trophies went to the winners in such wars.
What have you done with your dream?!
And with every turn of human development inheritance became more and more important. From relatively minor feudal clashes over some champagne or Thuringian, the Limburg or Rügen inheritance came at the beginning of the wars for the Spanish, French, Austrian, Italian heritage, and now we have something completely new. Remember these words of mine.
Today it's not just about, which of the princes will be "on the throne". And not even in, what territorial gains or losses will the participants in the next “war of succession” have. properly, the phenomenon of the last two months is precisely that, that the geopolitical legacy and Real Legacy do not match. So, what about the second for some reason - amazing! no one writes or speaks.
Many discuss the geopolitical legacy of the Ukrainian SSR. Where will the new "lines of force" go?, what territorial processes can start, which participants will "get rich", what enterprises will get or not get. It is understandable: all eyes are riveted directly to the cloth of the table, on which the game takes place. This is the geopolitical legacy.
But in fact it is War of European Succession. Like this, no more and no less.
After all, for at least three thousand years Europe has been accumulating. Achievement after achievement, idea after idea, public establishment after public establishment, good for good - all this was stored, orderly, cataloged, improved, improved.
That's why those who came to Europe (especially if you look at it from the window of a tourist bus, and not from a bumpy local vehicle to a place of hateful work) strikes order, lickiness, right, “matching” screw to screw, house to house. Because all this has been polished and equipped for decades and centuries.
It is comfortable, of course, excel in the rules of chivalry, when Russia, which stood before the Mongol flood, bleeds like a dam for you. It is convenient, of course, talk courteously about lofty and subtle matters, when thin materials for your clothes are woven in India, jewelry for them is mined by Argentine pearls, and yachts are being mined in the mines of Africa right now. When the cobblestones of your cozy Bruges are stacked for money, taken by the severed hands of the children of Congolese workers and peasants.
But be that as it may, and Europe for many hundreds of years nurtured whole treasures in itself. High Literature and Mighty Science, ideas of humanism and complex philosophy, the dream of freedom of speech and the justice of the world order - all this and not only this, one way or another, either originated, or was developed, or got a new breath in Europe.
And what did Europe do with its dream?
Europe is a camp. And the children cry
In the twentieth century, into which Europe entered in the relaxed bliss of decadence, the dream suddenly exploded with Hiroshima and Dresden, torn apart by Auschwitz and Majdanek, went into a tailspin of Nisha and depleted uranium Basra cassettes.
Mighty, shining, the golden height of the wealth of the European heritage suddenly turned into an abyss. It turned, that omnipotent science is capable of wiping humanity off the face of the earth; that the subtlest philosophy easily becomes at the service of the most inhuman monsters; that so cherished freedoms without the slightest problem can be turned into an object of bargaining - or they can be an instrument of blackmail. what. what. what.
Overcoming - more specifically, apparent overcoming, but we only now understand! - this "black man" of the European heritage cost the world tens of millions of lives and decades of subsequent comprehension, doubts, misunderstanding, despair before the paradoxes of human development and history.
But by the beginning of the Viscous Third Age (which we wrote about in a previous article) it seemed, that at last the shadow of the black man receded forever. "Soft porn and hardcore videos - life is beautiful and amazing", how it was sarcastically described right on the equator of this Third Age. "Those, who decided to taste everything, the door is open there, where are the sparks and the can-can", already at the finish line it was picked up.
However, something kept getting in the way.. The chosen jacket for a neighbor turned out to be out of size - just like in the story of M. Zoshchenko. And not because, that the clothespins were attached to the jacket, then filmed by some rascal. And because, what, as it turned out, European heritage needed a host. Too much effort has been invested over millennia and tens of generations. Too many lives have been paid for it. It meant too much to too many.
Of the options for action at this fork, Europe chose everything at once. In it were those, who appointed themselves the guardians of the entire inheritance - like the catacomb scribes in the dystopia R. bradbury. In it were found (rather, a large part came from outside) they, who simply turned away from this legacy and refused to know it. Finally, found those, who began to meticulously review this legacy, share, shift, sort and certify.
And that, correctly! - those pieces and things from the inheritance, that have not been certified, were subjected to humiliation, but, fortunately, non-lethal procedure cancellation. Well, a little, what my grandparents loved and invested their strength and soul in! By this act I call you a fish, as one Spanish missionary said to a piece of meat. By this act I call you non-existent, canceled, impersonality - said millions of modern neo-inquisitors.
Not servants of Enlightenment
This third way turned out to be the most massive and, apparently, attractive. It's so tempting - canceling William Shakespeare in all its diversity and historical concreteness, keep the plots of the now genderqueer Giulio and Romeitta or there the racially correct Iago, Othello and Desdemona. 'Cause it's so tempting canceling Adolf Hitler and British racism, leave the idea of fascism in any of its modifications (in many ways attractive to many in Europe, let's not lie to ourselves). It's so tempting - canceling Russian origin of Pyotr Tchaikovsky or Boris Pasternak, keep the magical rhythms and melodies of their works, their reflections and searches.
That's just the division of the inheritance went the wrong way, which was supposed by the newly-minted privatizers, who appropriated, among other things, also the right to issue only quoted vouchers for the privatization of one or another piece of European heritage. Inheritance suddenly took on a life of its own, separated pieces began an independent tectonic drift, and it turned out, that, according to their own logic, they begin to take shape in new configurations, new lyrics, new continents of meanings and meanings. And some of them are downright sinister., I will report to you.
However, the privatizers, burning with righteous ecstasy, could no longer be stopped, chainsaws launched by them - do not turn off. Even direct indications of this, cold ears pouring on the heated heads of the newly-minted members of the next Suprema, rushing to hold another Sermo Generalis, don't help. Coming into this world under the slogans of freedom and humanity, combating discrimination and striving for development and progress, they are on the other side of good and evil, civilization and savagery, humanity and bestiality.
They deny Soviet soldiers the high rank of Liberators, because, do you know, there are studies, that they committed rape. But on the other hand, fascist soldiers are worthy of sympathy and understanding..
They refuse to listen to Soviet war and labor veterans, refuse to hear the old people of Donbass and Kherson, Leningrad and Stalingrad. But the mumbling slander of "sudden memories of the bloody Russian occupiers" is presented as the latest achievements of oral history, this supposedly last word of historical science.
They deny Russian athletes equality with other athletes, because, do you know, there are more important things, than sports justice and fair competition. This is the pain of the children of Serbia, Yemen and Syria… stop, excuse me, of course, Ukraine. Well, we remember, how American athletes were destroyed in 1999, at 2002, at 2011 years, Yes?
They deny Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington the right to participate in history, because they were racist, sex systems, ageists and hundreds more -ists.
They deny Syrian and Russian fighters any humanitarian protection not because (as we now see, Unfortunately, with my own eyes), that there are no Geneva Conventions, how various “de-Stalinizers” and “champions of historical justice” screamed there for a third of a century, but because, what... why, properly?
Civilization is a fetish for them, but they hate her idea
And because, what's in that piece European heritage, which they cut off and aimed for themselves, many fine jewels were not included. Because release, which they intended for themselves, as Olaf Scholz recently explained to us, implies, among other things, liberation from the chimera of conscience ... that is,, of course, illusions of historical guilt before Russia. And at the same time, the release of the ability to empathize, from justice, from humanity at all.
«Only lips whisper Yes! Yes! Just for a moment you lose the feeling, because in his hand a tight whip sings. He is not like that, Zarathustra, to feel sorry for everyone».
At the same time, no rejection of the rhetoric of civilization (Yes, I remember, that I promised to think about this separately!) not happening. 'Cause that's the part European heritage, which the privatizers are not only ready and willing to keep, they will fight for it. So far, at least until the last Ukrainian, and we'll see.
That's why it flies so fast, like the last poppies in a poem. Zabolotsky, gilding from the old harness of modern Europe. And under her gold embroidery is not even an old buffalo leather bandage (that would be half the trouble), and the familiar black shape, aesthetic masterpiece by Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck.
That's not something that you can call for a duel - here, do you know, and hiring a hired killer is not a sin, from the point of view of privatizers inheritance. Especially if the killer himself beats the ground with his hoof, after all, for a third of a century he has been cultivated and learned only this and does not imagine a different fate for himself.
And here you can close your eyes to everything. To the number of the Kramatorsk rocket and to the Mariupol hostages, to the torture of Russian soldiers in captivity and to the severed head of the Ukrainian "scoop" for the five-pointed star on the badge of a man's belt. Because it's part of the price of eliminating a competitor for inheritance.
After all, a competitor can not only snatch off a considerable piece of the inheritance. worse, this competitor can announce and show, that the piece you privatized, with meat, actually not marjoram and not a jewel, and tinsel and rubbish.
We understand everything: and sharp Gaulish sense, and gloomy German genius
But a competitor can. Because it was he who at one time developed the sacrament of poetry to the heights, inaccessible to any European culture; he did it - unprecedented for Europe itself! - reach the top at the same time in music, painting, literature, philosophy, science, political construction, economic struggle, public systems, sport, technical equipment, weapons development, creating dreams - yes in everything, What could Europe itself offer?.
So that the Austrians are strong in music or the Italians in painting - this is understandable and acceptable, for the Germans to be strong in philosophy, and the French in nuclear science is natural. But even the locomotives of Europe in the form of Germany or France have never achieved such diverse results in such widely dispersed areas.. Even by the standards of the whole world, Italian or French volleyball players are formidable, but Italian or French hockey players - sorry. But from a competitor, repeat, they ask everywhere. In hockey, in ballet, in volleyball, in rocket science, in literature, in science…
And Europe, even in the face of far from the best of her children, remembers it very well. That's why she needs, it is very necessary to tie Tchaikovsky and Dostoevsky to the Poles, Gogol and Bulgakov - to the Ukrainians. Inheritance competitor's is pretty good, should be shortened.
And then there’s the competitor and is not ready to abandon the already thrown out “garbage”, as it has already been designated, it was privatizers inheritance. The competitor also picks up this "garbage", gives it new life, keep it carefully. Starting with great European literature (in its entirety) and ending with the great European cinema (from which, it seems, Europe itself, under the muddy shaft of Hollywood manure and dust, is already ready to give up). Starting with gigantic European philosophy (if the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith got to Jurgen Habermas himself, do you know…) and ending with the inhuman music of Europe (after all, I remember, cancellation of Mozart and Bach started much earlier, than 2022 year, is not it?).
And the joke would be with him, with this garbage. The only problem is, what is separation inheritance calls into question the legitimacy of privatizers' claims to, to be the owner of the majorate. The problem is, what would that mean, that the eternal non-Europe represented by Russia will become more of Europe, than Europe itself.
Don't rely on Europe, rely only on your hands
And that's exactly what we've been seeing over the past few years.. Non-European Europe vs. European non-Europe.
On the one hand, we see a complete and total cancellation three thousand years of European tradition of law, her work since Ius Romanum. We see rejections of good faith adversarial litigation. We see the presumption of innocence lifted. We see the abolition of the principle of equality before the courts. We see the appropriation of jus publicum only to ourselves and the complete destruction of jus privatum, we see the desecration of jus gentium and the complete devaluation of jus honorarium. We see, how sanctio comes without not only rogatio, но даже без prescription.
On the other hand, we see persistent attempts to save this building, built by hundreds of generations of Romans, Europeans, Byzantines, Russian, Americans. We see attempts to play "by the rules" of the traditions of law. And this can be considered a sign of weakness, but it is possible with a careful attitude to the general heritage.
On the one hand, a mocking desecration of human rights and freedoms, their defiantly exclusive "insider-only" distribution, trading them openly and giving them away in a system of favoritism. Now the Baltic mongrels are among the favorites of the world Boss - excellent, they will all be included in the top ranking of freedom of speech.
On the other hand, desperate attempts to preserve, Are you poor?, all the political achievements of Europe, i.e. state sovereignty, the open agora of politics, respect for human rights, ownership, free media. Sometimes even contrary to their own geopolitical, geo-economic and geohistorical interests. It doesn’t work out in everything and completely - well, it’s impossible to live in the global world and be free from the global world, do you know.
On the one hand, we see mocking, dehumanized pennywise. In place of the fear of comprachicos and their products comes the senseless exaltation of jesters and clowns., comes the rejection of any seriousness and any sincerity, comes the devaluation of the sublime and moral exhibitionism. Genocide is so funny, true? Fascism in the twenty-first century - what are you talking about, how can it be serious? Children who died in Donbass are just a comedy, crucified boy, business card of Yarosh (about which they even dashed off a whole article in the Ukrainian Wikipedia), hahaha.
On the other hand, perplexed adulthood, which never reaches, that the same infastilism, about which we have already written, is the brown plague of the 21st century. This adulthood is not able to imagine the whole bottom of dehumanization, when the heroes of “Only Old Men Go to Battle” are appointed Ukrainian patriots and nationalists, when the "Young Guard" is required to be considered a cell of the OUN-UPA, when the rezuns of Volyn and Khatyn are not only equated, but are placed above the liberators of Odessa and Kyiv.
On the one hand, we see desecration of shrines and sanctities, over sacredness and even over foolishness. The de-Christianization of Europe reaches its peak (Or is it not him?) precisely on the territory of the unfortunate ex-Ukrainian SSR, where only the lazy one does not write about paganism as one of the driving forces of such an avalanche-like overturning of the once most developed republic of the USSR into the archaic, into the wildness of the cave, in a tribal system with elements of cannibalism, satanism, animism and fetishism.
On the other hand, we see a concentrated struggle for the Christian inheritance Europe. These are the same vilely joked "clamps" and "faithfulness". All the thoughtless and insane jokers don't even think about it., that in addition to two polar opposites - "faithfulness" and empty aggressive atheism - there can be many halftones. They don't think about it, that the key European ideas in philosophy and the greatest European achievements in literature were carried out, among other things, from the platform and platform of Christianity. This is neither good nor bad - this is an objective fact.. Even if the author himself did not belong to the believers, his upbringing and maturation took place in the depths of European Christianity. That is why myths and images appear so often in European culture, appealing to that, then to another Christian myth. And that is why, on the other hand, Christians and Muslims are fighting shoulder to shoulder against neo-pagans, believers and atheists.
And the struggle against European Christianity from the side privatizers therefore accompanied by furious aggression, that this is part of a long and brutal war for a common European inheritance.
We are orphans in the world, and we have no kinship with the haughty, pious and monetary Europe?
And such fronts, plots, command heights, for which there are battles of the grandiose War of European Succession, an incredible number - they simply cannot be listed, not something to describe. European civilization itself, it is a 3,000 year old building, this Tower of Babel of mankind, turned into a united front of the battle, where on each floor there is a fight, hostages on every floor, on each floor - a firing point. That is why, in Europe itself, the battles have been going on so tough and diverse over the past not only two months, but for years.
But of course, the main front is the front of Humanity. Europe has been developing various ideas for a very long time, what is a person, how to treat yourself and others. And it would seem, by the second half of the twentieth century, it had already come to the top of this tedious path. The already mentioned Geneva Convention, The Declaration of Rights and many other beautiful dreamy monuments of human thought are the last, it seemed, approaches to the summit.
But Sisyphus trembled. The stone again twisted out of his hands and rushed to Sisyphus himself..
Arrogance (as, by the way, superlative sin of pride), piety (as a special case of bigotry and hypocrisy) and money (as a result and indicator of the worship of the golden calf, as the fruit of the creation of an idol, like a daughter of acquisitiveness) won. When the Pontiff of a World Religion Disavows the Religious Taboo on Homosexuality, eg, it could still be a coincidence. But when the pontiff of the world religion extols pride as an example of dignity, requiring respect, although pride is a mortal sin, it can no longer be a separate fluctuation.
This is the manifesto. It's a trait, carried out over the body and thicker inheritance. It's a formulated claim for a share of this inheritance. And it is an ambition to get with this share the right of precedence, majorate, single heritage. May be, even on fideikomiss, and with it the monopoly of Europeanness and civilization.
This is the manifesto, that now not all will be people. And pride - or sin as a crime against order - will not be allowed for everyone. The right to self-defense will not be allowed to everyone. Not everyone will have the right to a native language. Not everyone will have the right to freedom of speech.. Finally, not everyone will be allowed to be human. How long has Europe been moving towards, so that the talking tools turn into people, and how easily she is ready to give up this terrible path!
Europe! Your mystery card is changing!
I told you, that this is a completely unusual War of Succession. The question is not only in the scale of this inheritance - the question is also in, that the goals and instruments of the parties are orthogonal to each other.
One of the parties is ready to burn a large part of the inheritance, much of human history, a large part of the work of people (and can, sees this as a big plus.), just to get what you want. The second - leads the battle as carefully as possible, trying to keep the maximum. Reminds nothing?
When Europe began to cancel all the great, I remember, not one person came up with the idea, that "how good, that Kant's grave is not in Europe!»
And today we are in front of that abyss, over which it is necessary to say directly: "Somebody has to protect Kant and Euler!And I have no other possible answers, except for two quotes from films with a difference of one and a half decades. "I am a Russian soldier", - was said in 1996 year. "I! I am the commissioner, Communist, Jew!' echoed in 2010.
Someone must protect Kant and Euler!
- I! I am a Russian soldier! I am the commissioner, Communist, Jew!
Who's ready to stand beside? Someone else needs a European heritage?
Andreas-Alex Kaltenberg,
