But we will frown sternly

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

It's a bit bad in our country with politeness. This is especially felt when you return from behind the cordon.

The fact that the Russians are several ¹, the world is well known. In any case, when I studied English (with an American teacher), we went through a whole topic on this matter.

I'm trying to understand everything, but where does the general Russian coarsening come from?

Affected by the severity of northern life?

Or we are root people, stingy with meaningless words: "". Give us global ideas?

Or have we been embittered by decades of Soviet shortages? And underdeveloped infrastructure? It's easy to be polite on a half-empty subway or on a free highway - and when there are crowds around, you have to push your elbows?

And look: the degree of politeness in all countries, in general, is different. In Germany it says "" - means red. And in Turkey cars (just like in Russia recently) do not see pedestrians at close range. And in Spain people strive to get through to the wrong signal. However … Saying "", "" and "" in any communication with a stranger is the law for everyone. Wherever. In bourgeois Vienna and patriarchal Sozopol. In gothic Nuremberg and lovely Prague. In the shop, at the box office, in public transport. That and behold, the norms prescribing everyday culture will be written into the European constitutions.

And now you, having softened up in Europe, return home and with all your politeness feel like a black sheep in Moscow. And little by little you get used to our realities again. And, from time to time, you use warning constructions less and less in speech. (But still, you try not to become quite like …) Although … You still sometimes feel like an idiot. Here's a scene in a supermarket near my house.

The saleswoman weighs vegetables and fruits.

Me: Hello.

Saleswoman. ().

Me: Weigh it, please.

Saleswoman. ()

Me: Thank you.

Saleswoman. ().

And so it repeats itself from time to time, day after day: my words, her silence. I still decide not to give up and stubbornly continue to be gallant. But - in vain … More days pass, and I finally begin to perceive the worker of the counter as a weighing machine, devoid of a voice function. And I stop noticing her. However, I continue to bend my own.

And suddenly - one fine day - to my "" she replies "" I, not understanding what happened, raise my eyes in surprise and, holding out the bananas, like an automaton, I say: "". She graciously replies: "" And then it dawns on me: this is not the saleswoman.

Returning home, I begin to imagine: it means that that very unfriendly aunt was fired - including for incorrectness. And in her place they took a normal worker who does not hate people. Natural process. Twenty years ago, we were currying favor with sellers, and they, like a bar, threw rotten potatoes into our shopping bags. Progress as well as natural selection is evident.

Or maybe, starting to imagine, to organize some kind of movement? You can call it, for example, the Movement for Politeness and Violent Respect (abbreviated to DVINU). Or KOPETS: Correct Handling - Correct Single Purpose. The movement could, for example, be headed by the same United Russia. Or some other party. To pass through the Duma the necessary amendments to the Administrative Code … After all, in our country, nothing good appears by itself. You have to fight for everything. All is to plant. The way Peter the Great introduced beards, billiards and tomatoes is a guarantee. And take, again, ZPPZ (law for passing pedestrians on a zebra crossing). Earlier, before they introduced a hefty fine and began to punish drivers with a ruble, people were given a way (risking their lives and rear bumpers) only by completely crazy idealist drivers. And now, even where there are no traffic police ambushes, lo and behold - iron horses stop, give way to people. Not everyone, it is true, and not always, but the trend is evident.

For the sake of politeness, citizens themselves, even without the help of parliament, can do a lot.

If we all, let's say, for a start, each seller (minibus driver, cashier …) will start pawning their bosses for the fact that they do not use polite constructions, they, for the most part, will begin to improve. They will use magic words more often. And there other people will catch up with courtesy …

Sergey Litvinov - the author of detective novels. The representative of the most famous literary duo in our country, brother and sister of Anna and Sergei Litvinov, recognized meters in the genre of action novel. For ten years of creativity, they wrote more than 40 novels and 6 collections of stories. A number of popular television series have been shot based on the Litvinovs' books.

But then I think: what kind of cannibalistic movement is this: to inform people about living people, to deprive them of work - just because they didn’t tell you “please” ?! And I left these ideas, otherwise, indeed, some "Our" will pick up …

… And the next day in our store the former weigher sat and continued to be silent, as in the old days …

Maybe just the previous one, polite, was fired - for the fact that she works slowly with her scribbling?

¹ Ignorant