• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Foundation Stone

29 May, 1999 - 00:00

By Klara Gudzyk, The Day
There can be no really erratic qualitative changes in society because of
one element of extraordinary inertia. This element is man, who always ensures
a certain temporal continuity and acts as a kind of brake during transition
from one social setup to another. For each new regime has to deal with
holdovers from the old, people whose mentality, despite all progressive
views, reflects realities, from which we have only just departed.

Great reformers of all times and peoples have accepted this status quo
as a tragedy. Political utopians, from Plato on, have called for harsh
measures in order to make it possible to get rid of social atavisms as
soon as possible. Plato, in particular, suggested that children be forcibly
taken from their parents immediately after birth in order to raise the
younger generation properly. The Bolsheviks had methods of their own, but
no one has yet achieved their goal, to completely and immediately update
the mentality of a society. One of the reasons is that educators and reformers
also come from there, from the same old life. No new state or social order
is ever being built in an empty space. And when good managers demolish
an old building, they carefully pick the good stones from the rubble and
lay them in the foundation, for these stones have been tested by time.

Today, whether or not we like it, the motive force of society is represented
by people who came from the Soviet period. We mean here not only the destructive,
but also its creative, constructive, and motive forces. The same is true
of our neighbors: suffice it to recall the current Polish President Kwasniewski.
Even Russia's so-called young reformers have diplomas from Soviet universities,
not to mention their Communist Youth League past. A few years later, the
social stage will be radically changed, but now one must choose not between
the new stones and old, but between strong, reliable ones and those that
seem solid but crush under the slightest pressure. For, in times of transition,
one can only rely on old builders prepared by the old life for the most
responsible and complex work under the new conditions. These are people
who, irrespective of the regime, cannot help but work, accumulate knowledge,
seek and stand up for the best solutions, simply by their force of character
and lack of moral taint. Once such people were called "old specialists,"
and the proletariat could not do without them in spite of the deep scorn
it felt for them. No regime can do without professionals.

Today, at the cusp of epochs, professionalism should also become the
main trait of those who have anything to do with power. The lack of knowledge
and professional grasp should be considered a far greater shortcoming in
a politician than what he did "before the revolution" or even, I must say,
the lack of morality. For example, Verkhovna Rada is now accusing National
Bank Governor Viktor Yushchenko of all mortal sins without, however, finding
any evidence (this is the kind of professionals our legislature has). It
is good they found nothing, contrary to all the theoretical potential for
malfeasance. What is decisive in our situation is the fact that the banking
sphere has been ruled by a hand of iron for a number of years, despite
the most bitter prophesies and perturbations in Moscow, thanks to a strong
hryvnia and considerable gold reserves. Only this fact should be of utmost
importance in passing judgment.

When people have to cross dangerous mountains or a deadly quicksand,
they do not demand a resume from the guide or ask him if he goes to church.
It is enough that he knows the lay of the land. And if a man capable of
giving a new lease of life to our almost dead economy came to power, many
of us would forgive this man everything, including anything in his past,
for he would be a stone fit for the foundation of the new edifice.

 

Rubric: