The new generation does not accept the cliché "everyone steals" – the old elites must go
I had an interesting conversation with a group of 30-year-olds. The guys and girls who are building businesses here, those who are not going to leave Ukraine (on the contrary, they returned here after completing their studies abroad) and stubbornly believe that their daily work is a small contribution to a real, self-sufficient European country.
A generation that has never thought of asking the government for anything, and knows that it has to rely on itself. A somewhat romantic but principled generation.
But there was one question that hung in the air and for which I could not find many explanations. This question was born against the backdrop of the Maidan, but it concerns a much wider range of people: "Why do people in power (who say they want to dedicate themselves to serving the public) need this kind of money, especially if it smells bad? Not adequate money, enough for life, family, and decent work, but money that turns a person into an animal who doesn't have enough? Especially in a country where there is a war going on and where every hryvnia is either a drone, rehabilitation, or a chance for someone to return home?".
I tried to explain to them how it works: why a person cannot stop. Why hoarding becomes a drug. Why the logic of "one more bag" wins over the country, values and basic humanity.
And why, in the past, society even tolerated "petty theft" where you could bring a bag of grain from a collective farm or a kilogram of sausage from a meat processing plant. That's why it was easy to accept the fact that "upstairs" they were already stealing by the railroad cars.
But the world is changing. And now society has a completely different social contract with the government. And it is no longer about the economy, but about morality. For many people, Ukraine is still not a country, but a platform for making money. A temporary location where you have to manage to pull off a successful deal, and then go to the warm sea, where no one will ask where the money came from.
Against this background, the reaction of young people impressed me the most. They have no respect for the authorities. They are not afraid of it. They do not expect any miracles from it .
Moreover, they are building their lives in such a way as to never depend on the government. In their business, technology, and creative ecosystems, they have long since created an alternative universe – one that is more honest, more transparent, and definitely more rational .
At the same time, they are very pragmatic in their questions:
- Who will represent them in the next parliament?
- Who will formulate the rules of the game, in which there will be no place for bags of cash?
- Who will become the generation without a "golden spatula"?
And you suddenly realize that we as a society are evolving. Very slowly, sometimes painfully, but still – we are moving.
The old elites must go along with the old worldview. With the philosophy that Ukraine is an opportunity to take money out in bags, not a place to stay and work.
Because the new generation does not want to leave. It wants to live here. And most importantly, they want to live honestly. This seems to be the biggest challenge now for all those who have not yet learned to stop.
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