---
title: "This River Flows Under the Patronage of the Party of Regions. And Indeed It Does Flow"
slug: eta-reka-techet-pod-patronatom-partii-regionov-a-ved-i-pravda-techet
tags:
  - "About the State"
  - "That's How It Is"
weight: 216
---

When the author of these lines heard the Party of Regions advertisement on the radio, he fell silent for a while and dropped into a kind of stupor. This happened because he couldn't quite categorize what was going on. I know what "cynicism" means, but what comes after it—"special cynicism"? In the end, I never did manage to classify the phenomenon, though I did recover from the stupor.

Let me remind you that the advertisement (and, I understand, the entire campaign) brazenly claims things that clearly don't correspond to reality (like "the ruins have been overcome"). Who could believe such things? However, upon mature reflection, I concluded that this isn't accidental—and that it works.

One of the greatest swindlers in history, I would say, was a kind of professor at Moscow State University, I believe, who took bribes in exchange for help with admission to that prestigious institution. Moreover, he operated as follows. He immediately warned that he wasn't omnipotent and could give no guarantees—if the child was admitted, he kept the bribe; if not, he honestly returned the money to the grieving parents with the words "sorry, I couldn't help." It goes without saying that he made not the slightest effort to help the unfortunate offspring. He was simply a dealer in probability theory.

In our case, of course, everything is much more complicated. On the one hand, politicians hook naive citizens on a simple trick like "well, he could have swung his saber!" I remember how Kravchuk was elected under the slogan "we didn't have a war." Yugoslavia is at war, but we're not. Whose achievement is that? Kravchuk's. That is, the status quo itself is the most convincing argument for voting for those in power, because things could have been much worse. After all, they could have, couldn't they? Who would argue!

On the other hand, unfortunately, unlike our enterprising professor, the state doesn't sit idle. On the contrary, it is in a state of hysterical activity, constantly drawing attention to itself and stirring up minds. All of progressive society busies itself discussing its doings, and what it could have done, if only it hadn't.

However, both faith in the status quo and faith in the benefit of activity and change are based on the same delusion shared by the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians.

Let me explain with a simple example. The numerous demotivators in which kind souls expressed their views on the Party of Regions electoral campaign employ the same technique: "the waters of the Kuban River flow where the Bolsheviks order." That is, some natural process that people cannot fully control is taken and associated with loud statements by certain individuals. The obvious contradiction generates laughter. But note that among natural processes, our people do not see their own activity, cooperation, and pursuit of happiness. For them, it's funny that "grass grows under the patronage of PR," but "stability has been achieved under the patronage of PR"—that's not funny. And the point isn't whether there is "stability" or not; the point is that **any party and any government is capable of creating stability or, say, prosperity, no more than it is capable of managing the growth of grass**.

All stability and all prosperity is created by the labor of some people for other people. Ukrainians hate and fear each other, but this changes nothing in this fact. Yes, that same villain and monster creates stability and wealth. He hates you too, but you both, despite your mutual heated feelings, work for each other. This is how society is organized and the only way it can function; otherwise, it will turn into herds of humanoid apes.

Note also the following. Without exception, all politicians who "ensured stability and prosperity" carried out reforms. And the essence of these reforms always and everywhere consisted in trying to remove the state from managing the growth of grass—and not in adding management of bees and pollination to the management of grass growth. Take Saakashvili, for example, beloved by our progressive society. Everything he did boils down to the fact that Saakashvili no longer interfered in your affairs. And only this provides stability, prosperity, and "overcomes the ruins."