Not a change of faces, but a change of paradigm. Otherwise, the "dragon" will win anyway

The political crisis is gaining momentum amid prolonged power outages and a difficult situation at the front. Ali Baba has acquired the features of a Schwarzian dragon and personifies the whole set of qualities of the main villain.

"Slaying the dragon" is perceived as the most obvious and easiest way to solve problems. MPs and diplomats alike are uniting around this idea. And yes, this step seems to be a fairly logical way to dump the ballast that is dragging down the country.

But... but Schwartz has some very good points in the play. First: "The dragon cannot be simply killed. It can only be replaced by another." And in the case of the head of the President's Office, this is very relevant .

Because the buildings on Bankova Street have been definitely altered. No matter what you call it, it looks like either the NKVD, the Reich Commissariat, or the CPSU. Ever since the administration or the presidential office was placed there, the authorities have been corrupting all the actors who work there. As long as they are in contact with the high offices on the second floor of this building, everyone has had and still has a sense of exclusivity and divine election. So much so that they are trying to put on our heads exclusively their idea of an acceptable model of the exercise of power.

The mechanism was described by George Orwell: "To rule, and to rule for a long time, one must be able to distort the sense of reality.".

The corruption scandal that has exposed the backstage of Ukrainian politics gives the country a chance to change not only the actors but also the way in which power is exercised. And the method chosen is this: either you do as you are told, or your future is among the janitors.

By the time the tapes came out, the country felt like it was slowly slipping into autocracy, like a frog cooking on a fire. The marathoners in power were ready to tighten the screws on control over the media, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies and began the final stage: a violent crackdown on the troublemakers.

However, it was not possible to tighten the screws completely and establish full control due to the unexpected reaction of young people who categorically reject conformism and are the real carriers of the virus of freedom and European values. It was thanks to them that plans to preserve the governance model were thwarted. The plans that were so fervently defended in the Verkhovna Rada by well-known politicians of the old formation and those involved in the investigation.

The reaction of pro-government telegram channels to the scandal today is mostly reduced to conspiracy theories. Either it's the "Washington regional committee" or "Kremlin agents" or both... by Kolomoisky's hands.

If we don't get out of the paradigm of governing the state "everything is mine, rules are mine, and exceptions are for my own", then everyone will win, except you and me. This means that the dragon will win. Because Schwartz's second good point is precisely about the need to kill the dragon inside each of us.

And we should not hide behind the war, trying to tighten the screws of free thinking and distort reality with hand-held telegram channels. Because the millions of dollars in cash that we saw were not used to defend the country. On the contrary, they were used to weaken it. Just as other schemes that have not yet been exposed continue to weaken the country.

And we should not expect that simply changing the names of ministers, officials, or office characters to mythical "worthies" can change the system. While media, experts and international partners are infected with this magical thinking, the "cogs" of the system at the lower levels are waiting to see where to put the broken chain of flows.

This week will show which way the president will choose: whether he is ready to get rid of his dragon. Because a lot depends on it.

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