'Vladimir Volkov is a Russian professor of philosophy who has published widely on cultural semantics, sociology, history, political studies, ethics, and pedagogy. [...] He is retired and lives in...
'Vladimir Volkov is a Russian professor of philosophy who has published widely on cultural semantics, sociology, history, political studies, ethics, and pedagogy. [...] He is retired and lives in Vladimir Oblast, where he taught children in two rural schools until he was fired from both for not supporting the “special military operation.”'
He sounds so sad. And so angry. Both perfectly understandable. What a bloody mess this whole thing is.
They talk mostly about what hurts, how it hurts, why it hurts, and so on. They don’t read books and never have. They don’t shut their mouths, but the real subject of their conversations is nothingness – they are just making noise.
It doesn’t feel like my crowd, but this is where I come from. More than half of the kids I went to school with have done time – more than once, too. Natasha K, with whom I danced at the prom, killed her “rival.” Her younger sister killed her newborn twins. And those are just a couple of the stories I could tell – telling all of them would take till kingdom come. These people will never understand anything – they’ve got nothing to understand with… An individual is always an autonomous entity. Here, however, the one always dissolves into the many. They’re all interested in the same things: drinking, smoking, fishing, scraping together cash. They all have scores of relatives and friends. This one kicked the bucket, that one got jailed for eight years, another one became a drunk, yet another one overdosed. They don’t talk to their wives – they swear at them. And you expect these people to have a rich inner life?
'Vladimir Volkov is a Russian professor of philosophy who has published widely on cultural semantics, sociology, history, political studies, ethics, and pedagogy. [...] He is retired and lives in Vladimir Oblast, where he taught children in two rural schools until he was fired from both for not supporting the “special military operation.”'
He sounds so sad. And so angry. Both perfectly understandable. What a bloody mess this whole thing is.
This struck me. I cannot fathom.