The text came into my hands. In my opinion, relevant. Read it.
The cry of the soul of the modern office prisoner is heard. Recognition of their powerlessness and meaninglessness of existence. Is the author right? Is it really?
***
Every day the city in the working-class area, in the smoky air saturated with exhaust gases, trembled and roared in the morning stream of cars, and, obedient to the call, from small gray houses ran out into the street like frightened cockroaches, gloomy people who had not had time to refresh their heads with sleep.
In the cold gloom they walked along the unpaved street to the high stone cages of offices and shopping centers, the same ones waiting for them with indifferent confidence, illuminating the gray slushy road with dozens of fat square eyes.
The dirt smacked under my feet. Hoarse exclamations of sleepy voices were heard, coarse abuse tore the air, and other sounds floated to meet people - dry fuss of office equipment, grumble of telephones. Tall black houses loomed gloomily and sternly, rising above the city like thick sticks.
In the evening, when the sun was setting and its red rays shone wearily on the windows of the houses, the offices threw people out of their stone depths, like waste slag, and they again walked through the streets, gloomy, with black faces, spreading a sticky smell of fatigue in the air, glittering hungry teeth.
Now there was animation and even joy in their voices - today the hard labor of meaningless labor was over, dinner and rest awaited at home.
Promotional video:
The day has been swallowed by the office, the machines have sucked as much strength out of people as they needed. The day was erased without a trace from life, the man took another step to his grave, but he saw close in front of him the pleasure of rest, the joy of a smoky bar, and - he was pleased.
On weekends, they slept until ten, then respectable and married people dressed in their best clothes and walked around the malls, along the way scolding young people for their excessive sitting at the computers. From the malls we returned home, dined and went to bed again - until the evening.
Fatigue, accumulated over the years, deprived people of their appetite, and in order to eat they drank a lot, irritating the stomach with sharp alcohol burns.
They rarely met each other, talked about work, scolded the management, - talked and thought only about what was connected with work. Lonely sparks of clumsy, impotent thoughts barely flickered in the dull monotony of days.
Returning home, they quarreled with their wives.
Young people were more likely to sit in the nightlights or throw house parties, listen to music, dance, swear and drink.
Exhausted by work, people got drunk quickly, and an incomprehensible, painful irritation arose in all their breasts. It demanded an exit. And, tenaciously grabbing for every opportunity to defuse this disturbing feeling, people, over trifles, rushed at each other with the anger of animals.
Fights broke out. At times they ended in grievous injuries.
In the relationships of people, there was most of all a feeling of awaiting anger, it was as old as the incurable fatigue of life. People were born with this sickness of the soul, inheriting it from their fathers, and she accompanied them with a black shadow to the grave, prompting them throughout their lives to a number of actions disgusting with their aimless cruelty.
On holidays, young people came home late at night in rumpled clothes, often in dirt and dust, sometimes with broken faces, drunk and pitiful, unhappy and disgusting.
Life has always been like this - it smoothly and slowly flowed somewhere in a turbid stream for years and years, and everything was tied by strong old habits of thinking and doing the same thing, day after day. And no one had the desire to try to change her.
***
The author of this text is Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, better known as Maksim Gorky. One of the most significant and famous Russian / Soviet writers and thinkers in the world.
The text is taken from his novel Mother (1906).
I recommend reading. It is very clearly shown how a person changes, how he grows. The action takes place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, in a workers' suburb whose life is tied to work at a factory. In the original text, Gorky describes the atmosphere of slave life and labor of local workers in a factory. Their life, everyday life and the hopelessness of existence.
In my text, I just replaced the original words of the great writer with their modern counterparts:
"Factory" to "office";
"Factory machines" for "office equipment";
"Church" at the "shopping mall";
"Kabaki" to "night clubs".
All other description and semantic load are preserved.
More than 100 years have passed since the novel was written. Let's take a look at our days. But not so long ago it was different. Gorky wrote about the oppressed people, their slave labor, absolute lack of will for their existence.
The text cited by me is 100% consistent with modern actual reality.
How did it happen?
Indeed, after the events described in the novel, a huge number of lives were given and great conquests in various spheres were transferred to the people with great difficulty. This resulted in subsequent great victories, the fruits of which we still continue to enjoy.
So why is what Gorky wrote about, that slave life, is so relevant today ???
Again slavery … The growth of man, his ascent, it seems, is finally canceled?
Did Gorky then think that in a hundred years everything would return to its former point?
The heroes of the novel "Mother" gave their lives and calm but senseless "well-being" on the altar of change for the better.
They became part of a larger, common idea. The idea has borne fruit, creating a great and just state, of which we are rightfully proud. Then there were those few, but which were enough.
It was much more difficult for them than for us. Illiterate, uneducated. But, they could. What they died for, we gave without a fight for beautiful candy wrappers, betrayed without batting an eye.
Will History return to square one?
Will its development, human development continue?
Will the present young generation have enough courage to move it forward, to stand in the way of a new project of the current "masters" of life?
Be sure to watch the video - it's a masterpiece!