What Are the Rich Afraid Of?

If you are too lazy to read this article, the main point it that the rich worry about the same things everyone else.

The rapid class stratification of our society makes it like a Napoleon torte. Many are baked into flat dry short breads, some are beaten into a creamy froth. But we are destined to live together. The rich are busy building themselves large imposing houses. The poor wistfully remember Soviet times when all were equal. Jealousy sometimes runs so high that life seems gloomy. Everybody conquers this feeling however he can. Some keep their mouths shut, as if showing by their silence: let each think for himself. And if a nice, smart kid like Vovochka from the popular anecdote grew up to be a “new Russian,” who could blame a guy who likes to tell this joke for thinking gloatingly of all the new Russians: “Just you wait, life will boomerang on your children.”

Nothing gladdens the heart more than the failures of your successful neighbor. In every apartment house there is a heavy armor-plated door behind which lives Vovochka from the anecdote. He is one of the “new men” and everything is OK in his life: he has a son Kolia, a wife in an astrakhan coat, and a dog. Nevertheless, the women neighbors sitting on a bench near his house sympathize with him: “He is busy all day, earning money for his family, and his wife runs from a facialist to the body-shaping session to the hairdresser's. Look at her hairdo, a real Tower of Babylon. And their child is at home all alone. No, he will never make a worthwhile man, if his parents will neglect him like that.”

Kolka goes to a prestigious English language school. True, his parents do not want to hear that their son is lazy and stupid. “Hey! Don't we pay accurately for our son: the parents' committee gets a round sum of money regularly, teachers are given presents on all holidays. For such a money they have to care about our Kolka as if he were their own son.” Indeed, the parents love their darling, begrudging him nothing. The boy is well fed, wears stylish clothes and shoes. What else does he need? Live and enjoy life. Why bother about his upbringing. Well, everything can be bought. You only have to have enough money.

“Yes, yes... All that is a lie,” said a young attractive woman who teaches English at one prestigious Kyiv gymnasium.

Q.: What do you mean?

Iryna poured some hot water into my cup from a Tefal electric kettle, while we were talking at her study. The school is closed for summer vacation. The empty building, filled with the sounds of traditional summer repairs, smells of fresh paint.

A.: It is a sheer nonsense that life will pay back the children of the rich parents. The statement is entirely wrong that the children from the well-off families are destined to spend their lives in the shadow of their successful moms and dads. It stems from a belief that “nature is at rest with the children of great people.” The statements like this are the leisurely talk those who envy rich people's possibilities. That is why they tend to judge their rich neighbor from the standpoint of their own failures. Everyone believes that he is a great strategist but prefers to watch the battle from afar. We are all great educators when it comes to other people's children. The failure of a notable person is immediately coated with the most fantastic details and “authoritative” comments. This rubbish about the mother-nature taking revenge on the rich people according to the class principle are very typical of our post-Soviet society. In other words, this statement is a fable invented by jealous people ranting about social injustice. These children have a bright future, they themselves are the future of the country.

Q.: So, what about our Kolia, a son of the proverbial Vovochka?

A.: Well, there have always been and always will be such colorful characters in our society. They are a pedagogical rather than a social problem. Kolia and others like him are a product of their primitive parents, who are too old to be taught what is good and what is bad. The low cultural standard of our big wheels who call themselves “new men” is the theme for an anecdote. The bad thing is that they are shaping their kids in their own image. How could you possibly argue with such parents if their love for their children is blind? It is hard to reason with such prejudiced parents. They have their own idea about how their priceless kids should be brought up. They think that their children are the chosen ones and thus entitled to the best. They try to shelter them from the difficulties they might encounter in their lives, without giving a thought that the more they succeed in this, the more bitter their defeat will be. A child's upbringing is a process that involves the efforts of his family, school, and society. There are two types of parents. Some are overprotective, guarding them from the slightest influence which might (to their mind) be harmful to them. Others neglect their children entirely, making the school take care of them. These parents do not understand that excluding from the upbringing process one of these elements, they themselves become the source of corrupting influence.

Q.: Could you be more explicit?

A.: That was the way how children in aristocratic families in the tsarist Russia were brought up. In the not so distant past the so-called “special circle” tried to create a special environment for its offspring . It is about them the people say that life will boomerang on their children. Galina Brezhneva is the most eloquent proof. Many other names could be cited.

Once riding on a city trolley bus I happened to overhear the conversation of two teenage girls who together with their classmates were going to a museum on an excursion. After stamping their tickets, they began to brag that they had never rode in a trolley bus before. Only in the cars of their parents. There is a boy in my class. He is a third-grader. I have an opportunity to watch his parents: how they pamper their son, indulging his every whim. They treat him as if he were their favorite toy. And he has gotten used to such treatment. Kids like him are too soft to withstand even the minor difficulties their schooling involves. They are so not because their parents are rich. Other families with much more modest incomes make the same mistakes. Overprotected against life’s difficulties, their kids become weak and helpless... like jelly.

Q.: What usually happen to such kids when they become adults?

A.: They come to realize life is not a bed of roses, that one has to fight hard to win his place in life. Youth tends to be self-assertive. Some seek fulfillment in their lives until they are old. Mamma's boys and girls turn their lives into a constant battle against themselves, their alleged offenders, and overprotective parents. In a futile attempt to win this battle, they resort to alcohol, narcotics, etc.

Q.: You've painted a grim picture. How widespread is this social malaise?

A.: I cannot say to what decree it afflicts our society. But I do think that the situation is serious. My friend is a teacher also. Pupils in her class are mostly children from the well-to-do families. She tells me that her impression is that their kids come to school not to learn but to show one another their new sneakers, T-shirts, or jeans. And their parents seem to like it, making their children walking shop windows of their cheap ambitions.

Q.: Are there such students in your school too?

A.: Of course, there are. But it is not important. I can tell you dozens of funny stories about the antics of our nouveaux riches. But first you have to state what your purpose is. If your newspaper wants to entertain an average reader with how stupid some of them are, then I can tell you lots of poignant anecdotes about their tempers. But let's better not waste our time and get right to the point. And the point is that really rich people never brag about their fortunes. Studying in my class are students of very rich parents. And they are nice kids, you know. They have everything from the scraped kneels they get playing with other children in the yard to trips to Italy to listen to Pavarotti in La Scala. And their parents are absolutely normal people, who know that their children are the best possible investment for their money. They are aware that their spiritual development should not be forsaken in the name of getting more material wealth.

These two notions ought to be tackled separately as they imply the people that differ from each other in many ways; the amount of money is not the main thing that makes them distinct. It is how strong their lust for money is. There are enough idiots trying to prove themselves and the others how “big” they can be. The question is how much money an intelligent and reasonable person needs to feel rich?

Q.: Such super-people need to worry about nothing. What about the title of our article? You seem to forget it.

A.: What title? Oh, I forgot. What is it?

Q.: The title is “What Are the Rich Afraid Of?”

A.: Oh, yes. Well, if they are normal they should worry about the same things we all do. First of all about their children. What's so strange? We all depend on God's will.

Q.: Have you ever been envious? I think you do feel some resentment, seeing a rich kid eating a black caviar sandwich at a school lunch break, while you have a few cents in your pocket to keep you going until you get your pay.

A.: To begin with, I do not like black caviar. And then, stories can be told about such a nice feeling as envy. But I'll better tell you about a little incident from my teaching practice. When classes began after summer vacation, a girl came to me and solemnly presented me with a trinket on which the words were inscribed: “To Iryna Volodymyrivna, so that you remember how I rested in the Bahamas”. I began to laugh. Why did I have to envy her? She did it from the bottom of her heart. My belief is that these children will grow up decent people. Their main asset is that they want to learn. Our society will change, and the people will become more tolerant of the things which now cause resentment. Once I asked senior graders: “Your parents pay for your schooling now. What if they would not have enough money to continue supporting you in the future?”

“Never mind,” they answered, “What is in your head it the important thing, and we have something in our heads.”

And I understood that those children were not so infantile as they are often described. They know well what they want.

OK. Let's finish our tea. I have to paint the radiators.

PS: For reasons of ethics, the author decided to withhold Iryna's last name and the number of the school where she teaches.

Photo by the author:
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