Is there today an ideology in our state, acceptable
to the creative intellectuals and intelligentsia which will arise in 10-20
years?
Ivan MARCHUK, artist:
No, there is no such official ideology today. This is apparent from
everything. If you are surrounded by decline, what guidelines, foundation,
or basis can there be for it? People can only work, live, and eat.
"We have one center of culture for the younger generation. It is small
and embraces a tiny number of people, the Children's Academy of Arts. And
here, as they put it, the Holy Ghost is in flight. I am certain that, in
such a surrounding, children will never take to the street, to become parasites
or swindlers. It is not only the parents' duty to raise children. Although
it is simply impossible to transfer such standards onto the whole population,
still, we must strive for it.
"Now everybody belongs to himself in our state. Under these conditions,
Ukraine could lose its future generations of intellectuals. And the real
policies pursued by the current leadership are aimed only at lulling people
to sleep, and they belong to no one but just grow like weeds.
"By all accounts, a renaissance should have already come to Ukraine.
Everybody hoped for it. But what we received instead is a certain degradation,
which continues.
"In Western society, everybody also belongs to himself, but there are
laws over there that work. They prompt everybody to act. They have survival
as an ideology common to all. To survive, each strives to be the best and
to work best and most. Whoever works or sings badly finds himself overboard.
"When each person tries to be the best in his trade, the societal train
runs on schedule. This, it seems, is not so with us."
Volodymyr HRONSKY, composer:
No such ideology exists today. Why? Because Ukraine does not have a
Ukrainian regime with its only criterion being to rely on the majority
and not based on clans. The current regime works to destroy any signs of
ethnic identity in this country. Not a single presidential or governmental
decree really supports art or culture. Not one law adopted by Verkhovna
Rada protects the output of the national cultural product in any sphere.
The state deliberately lobbies for what is simply hostile to the emergence
of this national product. Instead, they are putting Ukrainians on reservations.
But home-grown creativity cannot, as a rule, be implemented and reach the
consumer.
"Yes, there are some creative schools and centers left, where one can
obtain certain professional skills. But children with already pronounced
creative potential will find it hard to realize it in this country later
on. In the future they will become spiritual Ostarbeiters, which
the Ukrainian nation has in fact been for the whole world during the three
last centuries. And now we continue to raise future contributors to world
culture, art, etc. In contemporary Ukraine talented people are absolutely
unneeded."
Myroslav POPOVYCH, philosopher:
"It does not exist, but there should be such an ideology. Only when
children simply begin to be taught how to live in the world will the state
create the best potential for its future. The percentage of talented and
below-average people is always the same in all societies. The problem is
which of them society will allow to excel.
"Now I only see purely economic problems in this respect. Yet, a gifted
person has more chance today to make his way up. In my opinion, the problem
here is the presence in young people's consciousness of the stereotypes
of "capital" and "periphery." First, one must remember today that it is
hard for young people on the periphery, for it does not have such powerful
intellectual sources and environment as Kyiv does. Secondly, only a few
years ago the Ukrainian state itself had no capital, only the center of
a Soviet republic and, still earlier, a regional primate city. For Moscow
was our capital. And the tragedy was that Ukraine's best intellectual forces
would go there. And if we now build Ukraine as a small empire, it will
perish, for it will not be able to stand it. The state should create the
same metropolitan conditions in Kharkiv, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Chernihiv, and
all over Ukraine. It is this that should be the objective of state policies
in the sphere of the preservation and development of the intellectually
rich generations of our country. But we are so afraid of Ukraine turning
into a federation that we ourselves slow down these processes."







