The true essence of human nature manifests itself in constant wandering
VICTOR LOUPAN, Head of the Editorial Board
The pandemic hurt the ideology of global resettlement. And this ideology reasonably declared loud that the fact of human rooting is not a natural and normal phenomenon, but is a thing of the past.
There are complex intellectual theories presuming that the true essence of human nature manifests itself in constant wandering, but not in metaphorical chaining to a home. All of us, they say, “came from somewhere”, “somehow ended up here”, and, as a result, we arrived “for a while” at the place where we are.
Migration of peoples which are known to us from history, were studied inadequately and in a strange manner. The Barbarian invasion of ancient Rome was unanimously regarded by historians in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century as a purely negative event that plunged the European civilisation into the “abyss” of the Middle Ages. As a result, Europe had been coming out of it literally over a thousand of years. Until it finally reached the Renaissance, i. e. the Renaissance era. The definition itself implies the idea of liberation from the deadly frenzy of ignorance. The fact that the Renaissance era “coincided” with the outbreak of terrible religious wars, the collapse of Byzantium and other “progressive” events has not been specifically touching anyone up to now.
The colonization of America that began as a result of the Renaissance, with the mass extermination of the indigenous population of the “New World” by Europeans, was not perceived as a barbaric expansion of the European imperialists, but was rather interpreted as a great adventure. As evidenced by many books and films.
A white person is a great traveler who “discovered” America, conquered Africa, developed Asia. Who also established geography, drew a map of the world, wrote the history of “all times and peoples”, due to which the European civilisation being accompanied with its science and, well, early “globalism”, became a canon for the global elite.
Being backgrounded by this expansion, likely naturally, a fundamentally positivist idea of “progress” was created, the essence of which was that the world and people would constantly move forward, gradually freeing themselves from the bonds of ignorance, prejudice and other “afflictions of ignorance” based on science, technology, conciousness, pioneering mindset and other bold features of the European civilisation, The adherents of traditional foundations could not set their principles against “blue-sky thinking” and so they involuntarily became reactionaries. They began calling ordinary people “unenlightened”, then including not only ordinary people, but also those who interpreted the idea of “the light of civilisation” as the ideology of “tabula rasa”.
This entire dialectical scheme full of revolutions and world wars successfully existed until the end of the 20th century. As a result of the collapse of the Communist ideology and the attached Soviet system, humanity, as it were, “liberated” itself.
Friedrich Engels called the Tsarist Russian Empire the “prison of the peoples”. And since the Soviet Union was a “closed society” free of the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, the freedom of movement, and many other freedoms, then the country opposing itself to Tsarist Russia also gained a reputation of the “prison of the peoples” and logically broke up into fifteen separate states.
With the “new globalization” era that erupted after the collapse of Communism, a serious trend towards visa-free resettlement of people and delocalisation of enterprises began, and the world, in fact, became resembling a “global country”.
Now any poor fellow сan afford to fly. Low-cost airlines that sell tickets at ridiculous prices have become more profitable than ordinary airlines, although offering their services ten or even twenty times cheaper. In general, this is “the best of the worlds” and overall euphoria – may even jump for joy.
And many really jumped. Some of them jumped for joy, but others jumped for horrible fear of the realities of a “world without borders”. It turned out that the majority of people did not become “enlightened”. Vladimir Nabokov called such “earnest people of peasant origin” gloomy. Due to their lack of education, they began to dislike their uncomfortable feeling in their own country, and they started voting for some Trumps, Le Pens, Orbans and, in general, against any “progress”. To add insult to injury, millions of foreign “beggars” rushed to conquer the “world without borders” on foot. But the “world without borders” did not accept them, and they have been wandering for years across overcrowded refugee camps. And those who did not wander have drowned in the Mediterranean abyss.
Ancient Rome that was unable to defend itself, paid the barbarians a bribe, dreaming of saving itself for gold. But it failed to save! Now Europe is paying billions of euros to Turkey and other neighbouring countries to restrain the flow of migrants. To forget, in the meantime, its own “light” principle of “free movement of people and goods”, the “world without borders” and other inspiring slogans.
And now, against the backdrop of this absolutely immoral ideological fuss, COVID-19 – a small, nondescript virus – suddenly arrived. But taking into account globalisation and the “world without borders” with its constant movement of millions of people, it suddenly plunged “our enlightened civilisation” into a state of panic prostration, from which it has not been able to get out for the recent six months. Well, it probably never will.
Never mind travels! Never mind movement! Never mind tourism! Europe closed its borders even before Americans. Hundreds of airliners are remaining parked. Airports are empty. Paris that was the most visited city in the world still sees no tourists. There is nobody in the Louvre! Half-empty restaurants fall in depression! The tourism industry faces its historic decline. Never mind discos! Forget about beaches! Because people shy away from each other!
An office utopia can be harmless for the idealistic dreamer. But utopia in power is a terrible thing.
Your obedient servant has traveled extensively during his life. There is no more return to the world of travels. The world of a pandemic is a world of fear of others. In principle, it excludes the freedom of collective movement and direct communication.
The “world without borders” turned out to be another utopia. Coronavirus only screwed up its eyes, but our leaders, instantly forgetting about the excellent principles, sullenly rushed to close everything, to prohibit everything, to lock doors and windows, to lower barriers, to hang barn locks, to put up armed sentries. Masked!
During the Middle Ages, with its terrible epidemics, our “unenlightened” ancestors did exactly what we, the “enlightened”, are doing today.
Welcome to the World of Reality!
