Responsibility and subjectivity
How harmful is the idea of attributing blame to all the inhabitants of Russia ("we are all to blame", "we all failed as a nation", etc.) how strange is the idea of refusing collective responsibility. Rhetorical question: "Will the power of the beautiful Russia of the future have to pay compensation to the Ukrainians?" - stumbles upon a howl that only one inhabitant of the bunker bottom is to blame for everything, and all of us here are a people-victim in snow-white martyr's clothes.
However, it doesn't work that way. It is important to understand that the responsibility of a political subject is not the totality of the personal responsibilities of its constituent individuals. As many naively believe. Alas, this difference is rarely understood. Even Arendt, from whom this division originates, writes a few words about collective responsibility in order to quickly jump to questions of guilt, conscience and ethics. But, in general, the bottom line is that a collective political subject is a kind of legal entity that we use to operate in the international arena.Even if we do not explicitly declare belonging to this legal entity (“I am Russian”, ha), we still use its bonuses - the presence of citizenship and belonging to a certain people. Therefore, any talk about "our science, culture, sports" can be considered a declaration of belonging to the subject.
Today, Putin is doing very bad things on behalf of this subject. Let's face it: it's not 150,000 Putin clones that are fighting today. We ourselves can whine endlessly about the fact that we are divided into orcs and light-faced, into riot police and those whom they will kill. But from the point of view of an external political observer, these are all our internal sexual difficulties. From the outside, we are one political entity. And there is only one question: subject, are you responsible for the bazaar? If not - for example, the subject does not want to pay for the consequences of his actions - then such a subject is incapacitated. It is not worth dealing with him, just as one does not deal with unreasonable children and old senile people. In general, it is better to lock them up in a room with soft walls - politically, this means "never lift sanctions at all."
That is, a waiver of responsibility is a waiver of subjectivity. Firstly, this is really shameful and humiliating (unlike reparations) - it is like saying that we Russians are not a people, but a maiden-in-distress who can only wait for a savior on a white horse. Let our uncle in The Hague judge our criminals and let him appoint the authorities to us. Secondly, formally this can be interpreted as a rejection of any continuity. Debts not yours? Well, foreign bank accounts and foreign property too. As well as places in international organizations and trade agreements. It turns out something like a complete re-establishment of the state by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
In general, collective responsibility is a way to maintain political subjectivity and representation in the global world. And those who propose to renounce responsibility also (intentionally or due to misunderstanding) offer to renounce subjectivity. But, again, the responsibility of a political subject does not at all mean the fault of its citizens.
Mihail Pojarsky 2022-04-15
