Garbage can candidates
I’ve read in local newspapers that criminal proceedings have been initiated against blood-thirsty Odesa Right Sector activists. About ten days ago, disinterested hooligans attacked Oleh Rudenko, a social insurance fund official, in broad daylight. Earlier, the law-enforcement sector had caught this man accepting a 558,000-hryvnia bribe but then released him on bail. The brazen-faced thugs thrust the bribe-taker, who was taking a well-earned walk, into a garbage can affectionately called “Altvater” in Odesa. Putting down the lid of a can for all kinds of waste matter, the activists kept the hapless fellow for a few minutes amidst tin cans, watermelon rinds, and plastic bottles. This time was enough to expose the imperfection of system of garbage collection and justice. What actually happened? A person misappropriated money, which adversely affected the “broad social strata,” as we tend to say. This money saved him from being taken into custody, and the same court is quite likely to convict some members of the same broad social strata for disorderly conduct. Where is the moral lesson for all the parties to the conflict, including the broad social strata?
No sooner had I asked this question with respect to an isolated incident in Odesa than a new event made it clear that it was a regular pattern. A similar incident has occurred in the very heart of this country’s capital. This time it was the MP Vitalii Zhuravsky who explored – against his will – the content of a trash can. According to Serhii Poiarkov, a master of the paintbrush and a connoisseur of political intrigues, the MP got into the trash can as a result of his election rivals’ schemes. In other words, the three-convocation Verkhovna Rada deputy, a former active Party of Regions functionary, was successfully running for a fourth-convocation parliament seat, while his dishonest rivals waylaid him round the corner with a criminal intent. There is nothing in common with the first incident except for video filming.
Whence is the fad to stuff political and economic figures into garbage cans? Just the other day social networking sites told the story of the ex-Regionnaire Yurii Miroshnychenko who had miraculously escaped from an electoral mob that tried to catch and push him into something noxious. Here, even a blind one will notice a tendency. No wonder Iryna Herashchenko, the president’s special representative for eastern Ukraine conflict settlement, has marked the absurdity of this kind of election-campaign schemes. Yet each of us has often seen voters fly into a towering rage during routine political procedures. I can personally confirm this. I recently stood for a few minutes at the crossroads near the well-known 7th Kilometer market. You can not see the market well due to a host of billboards of Serhii Tihipko, Eduard Matveichuk (Yanukovych-era Odesa oblast governor), Valerii Konovaliuk, and other representatives of the political party which promised to pull this country out of the ruin. Judging by the calls and comments about the advert boards, the candidates are facing a danger. If their bodyguards ever read newspapers, I will say to them: do not allow your chiefs to walk past trash cans.
Naturally, we must not encourage people to express their will by throwing politicians into garbage cans instead of casting their votes into ballot boxes. We will never build a rule-of-law state in this way. Besides, there will be no place to dump garbage if every wrongdoer is to be furnished with a personal “Altvater.” But these stories have also a deeper moral subtext and a motive for reflections.
The poles of public tension are sparking. The war is partly absorbing their energy, but the heat is rising again as the elections are coming up. Almost a year ago, the public called for changing this country for the better and expressed a desire to get rid of total corruption, political prostitution, and blatant stupidity of the upper echelons which do not understand the essence of what is going on. But dreams are not coming true, and, instead of throwing disgraceful phenomena to the garbage heap of history, people are busy dumping the bodies of embezzlers and MPs. This bad occupation, which may seem to be a Robin Hood-style vengeance, in fact discredits the process of democratic transformations. The aim is to make public indignation exceed the limits of law as much as possible. This is being done above all by the enemies of new Ukraine, who are interested in whipping up intolerance and mistrust in society – judges and prosecutors who set criminals free, officials who perennially embezzle, and bankrupt politicians who are trying to bring back the old life. Many derive a benefit from turning up the crowd in order to distract attention, remove the rivals, discredit the people’s power, and just stack the cards. Whenever the right-wingers seize and dip somebody into a trash can, there are far more people who feel pleasure than it seems at first glance. Besides, those who get into an “Altvater” turn from the accused ones into victims, not to mention the joy of those who witness a prearranged or spontaneous act of retribution. Emotions beat reason.
Incidentally, the feeling of contempt, which runs high in the current election process, does not belong to basic sensations, such as wrath, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. It emerged at the late stage of human development and was only formulated in the 13th century as a derivative of grudge, anger, and scorn. The American philosopher Robert S. Solomon, who dealt with the theory of social feelings, interpreted them as follows. Grudges are directed at the people who enjoy higher social status, wrath at the equals, and disdain at the lower estate. From the viewpoint of a cognitive theory of emotions, a “respected person” in the garbage can means serious social changes. Disdain has gone from bottom to top. Therefore, it is not a series of the isolated instances of encroachment and brutalization but a clear signal for a change of elites. The eve of revolutions has always been “adorned” with crowds of the rabble running after the nobles and people’s avengers whipping the backs of their recent masters.
We can and must do without violence now. Suffice it for some not to tease the geese and for others not to let loose with their fists. As one human rights champion said, a mini-skirted girl is not to blame if a rapist turns on her. But if a lady keeps walking in her underwear under the windows of a barrack, it is an altogether different story.
