We were all raised on films that glorify struggle. In the USSR, we grew up on “How the Steel Was Tempered,” during the perestroika era, Rambo took the baton, and now it’s TV with its reality shows, political battles, and international affairs.
We believe that struggle is the best strategy. We are constantly taught that only through struggle can we achieve something. For us, those who fight are heroes worthy of admiration. In that case, even a fly that keeps banging against the glass deserves a monument.
Pavka Korchagin was building a narrow-gauge railway because they had started logging from deep within the forest rather than from the edge. Instead of the narrow-gauge railway, they could have simply begun cutting firewood from the edge of the forest.
In his very first film, Rambo could have simply left the town instead of causing a massacre with bodies and putting his life in danger.
The struggle on television seems endless. From Yanukovych and Tymoshenko to the war in Iraq.
The fly should fly away from the window and try to bump into the side a bit. There’s probably a small opening somewhere over there.
A fighter is not a hero, but a creator of problems. A fighter does not eliminate problems; they seek them out. Fighters are dangerous, and their struggle is unnecessary for anyone, including themselves. The cult of the fighter is the most misguided aspect of what we absorb from mass culture.
The best way to win is to stop fighting the problems and start solving them.