Paviel Usau

One can ponder over and debate at length the reasons for stability of the non-democratic regime in Belarus. However, the main source of its strength and negative energy is the Belarusian society itself, or rather, the absence of such phenomenon as the Belarusian society. Any dictatorial regime, even the bloodiest one, is built not on the public support, but on the destruction of those social links which, out of individuals, form the society and its ability to stand against the dictatorship. How often we hear about the mass support for a leader, a chief, or a president, but we almost never hear about the mass support for an individual who we are not aware of and who is persecuted by the State for his political position. And the individual is helpless in front of the State without support from others, and nothing is able to save him or her from the State.
The solidarity is one of the “building blocks” which create the society. Speaking in plain language, it is a degree of solidity of social links between people, their unity, and feeling of a common will and spirit.
The solidarity is probably the only mechanism of protection of the society and its individual representatives from the infringement of the State on their rights and freedoms. It gives to a person an opportunity to rise above his or her egoistic interests and fears and pushes him or her out from the condition of a cog in the State machine.
Moreover, the solidarity is an aptitude of the society to perceive itself as an integral and strong-nit organism which enables to face any threats that originate from those in power. When it is lacking, political elites are able to administer the segmented crowd with ease, to manipulate consciousness and power, to usurp it and to use it at their own discretion. Without solidarity the society turns into the amorphous mass of those who live regardless of other individuals and things that happen around. Moreover, the State is successful in using such people to oppress their likes turning them into the same cogs which create the most dreadful State machines.
Precisely like this the community of Belarusians is frozen in its development, people who want to insulate themselves from the rest of the world by walls of their apartments, their work, TV sets and country residences. Even the minimal well-being gives them an illusion of happiness and peace where there is no place for justice, democracy and freedom. And without ability of people not to measure freedom and justice in its sausage equivalent or in prices in stores one cannot speak about the maturity of the society.
The Belarusian State constantly nourishes this illusion of happiness and well-being, not only by propaganda, but by sausage as well. By doing so, it compels people to think less or to think as they should. And in principle, Belarusians themselves do it willingly, because they do not feel a need to think in some other fashion. Remaining captive of immaturity of their consciousness which the Belarusian ruler Lukashenka calls “wisdom”, Belarusians make no headway, without knowing not only “where to go” but also “why to go”. Very often I recall a piece about a parrot called Kesha who tells a story about the fairytale Tahiti and asks a fatty cat in jeans: “Have you ever been to Tahiti?” The cat replies: “Tahiti, Tahiti. We never went to any Tahiti. We are fed well enough here too”.
But the problem of immaturity and absence of solidarity is not the problem of our nation only – it is the main problem of those who, logically, should be in the forefront of the social development. We speak about the Belarusian opposition. Naturally, it is difficult to expect that it could be otherwise, after all, opposition leaders, members of parties and organizations are flesh of the flesh of our people, its reflection and, basically, they are these people themselves. This is why it is not surprising that in the country we have an opposition which has nothing to offer to its people, because people itself do not demand anything and do not aspire to anything. This is how it happens that in Belarus everyone lives for himself or herself, and the State is getting advantage of it.
I always wanted to believe that those who imposed on themselves the heavy burden of being in opposition are directed upward and not downward; that they understand what the freedom is, are conscious of all-Belarusian interests and show a nationwide solidarity; that they are able to unite not for an hour, a month, a single election campaign, but for a period needed for achieving something greater – a victory. Not only the victory over the regime, but over the mediocrity and platitude of our people. So that by becoming Danko’s heart, to ignite the fire of solidarity and to create a true society out of the mass of detached Belarusians.
But no such luck! The solidarity as well as the freedom are mere words for those who proclaim them: their consciousness is immature and narrow-minded as the consciousness of the Belarusian society. And the monstrous political regime which disfigures very assiduously the consciousness of Belarusians is a fruit of all this immaturity and narrow-mindedness.
It is difficult to say when the maturity of people comes, when the mass turns into a society, when its strength and perception that one cannot live longer in this way awake, when not empty store shelves and starvation wages but a feeling of self-respect motivates actions, when the ugly will be perceived as ugly, and one will not look for justifications for injustice. It is also possible that the solidarity is an illusion, and masses and societies struggle with regimes only to live better, and to have more and cheaper sausage in stores. And that the society which got a fatter piece, stops rebelling and gets used again to the chains put on it by the State which only put on another mask?