27. A law for deputies elected by the people

I realised that Anastasia’s grandfather possessed not only extraordinary psychoanalytic abilities but also information about the societal structure of various nations. But I wondered how specific his knowledge was about state institutions. After all, here he was living out in the taiga, without access to radio, telephone or television. So how would he get information, let’s say, about our national government agencies? There was no way. Which meant he did not have any specific information. Still, I decided to ask him:

“You know that in our Russian state there is a body known as the State Duma?”

“I know,” came the reply

‘And d’you know who works there, and how it functions?” “I know that too.”

‘And do you have information on each deputy?”

“Yes, on every single one.”

‘And the laws they pass — is that something you know about too?”

“Not only about the laws they pass, but about the laws they will pass in the future. I know about them in advance. But, again, why are you so surprised, Vladimir? For a priest that is the simplest of tasks — it’s not all that interesting.”

“Yes, I am surprised, because I don’t understand how you can possibly know about every single deputy, let alone what laws the Duma is going to pass in the near future. It’s some sort of inexplicable mysticism.”

“There’s no mysticism here, only the most primitive of tasks.”

“Well, could you explain this phenomenon to me? The depth of information you have, I mean.”

“I can, of course. It’s really all very simple. You see, back five thousand years ago the pharaohs had their Council. In the Roman Empire there was the Senate. The tsars had their Boyars’ Duma. Now what can I say more? The names may be different, but the essence is always the same. After all, the law doesn’t depend on how a legislative body is named, but on what influences parliamentary delegates are subjected to — on the living conditions surrounding them and the perspectives for the future to which they are bound. But all the conditions were pre-programmed for them a long time ago. If one knows the programme, one knows what’s ahead as well — including what decisions the legislators are capable of reaching.”

“What do the law and the deputies’ living conditions have to do with it? How are they connected with a broader programme? Anyway, what can you yourself possibly know about how a modern Duma deputy lives?”

“It’s very simple. Of course, I’m not talking about how any particular deputy sleeps, what they eat or how they dress. That’s not something I care to know, nor do I find it of interest. I’m talking about what’s significant.

“I’m sure it’s the same now as in earlier times: people are elected as deputies only after going through a whole lot of wheeling and dealing. That’s fact number one. In their

striving for power, many of them fall into the hands of those who are in control of the material world. But after going through all their trials and tribulations, they find themselves in a tight spot. The programme is always attempting to cut them off from significant information, and generally succeeds in doing this.

“What perks does the deputy receive? I think — I’m sure — that today, just as before, he gets an individual office, a new place to live, along with (nowadays, at least) a car. Not to mention two or three assistants, some get more than that.”

“Yes, that’s more or less it,” I confirmed. ‘Are you trying to say that all this fits in with a programme worked out millennia ago?”

“Of course it does. But wait, let me finish. Tell me if I’m mistaken about what happens today Apart from that, I believe that just like a whole lot of people, deputies have to go to work each day They have to be present at Duma sittings, and make laws.”

“Yes, you’re right.”

‘And each one serves for a set term — four or five years...”

“It’s four at the moment.”

“Okay, four. When their term is up, they have to be reelected. But even before the next election they’re all thinking about it.”

“Quite right.”

“Hold on, there — how do you know that? Think how sur-prised you were when I told you I know what laws are going to be passed. And now you claim you know how deputies think about their future. What, have you suddenly become a clairvoyant? Or a celebrated prophet?”

“Nothing of the sort. Any fool would know this. If election time is coming up, than anyone wanting to be re-elected will be thinking about it and talcing appropriate action.”

“Slow down, there. Note what you just said: ‘thinking about re-election’.”

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“But surely deputies should be thinking about new laws.”

“Of course. They’re thinking about them at the same time.”

“When? At what time of the day? In short, believe me, the programme doesn’t leave them any time for thinking. For ages now, as you too well know, the people have been choosing parliamentary delegates on the expectation that they will then pass wise laws. What the people don’t understand is that their basic programme does not allow them to think.

“Think about this yourself some time.”

I did subsequently think about this situation — over and over again, in fact. And truly, our traditional laws on the election and duties of Duma deputies began to seem more and more absurd.

Let’s take a more detailed look at the practice as it has evolved up until now. Let’s say a relatively smart fellow — above-average, that is — has decided to stand for office. He wants to participate in passing wise legislation that will help people lead a good life.

In running the gauntlet of an election campaign, he is very likely to find himself dependent on funding (some become more dependent than others). This in no way means that someone from the world of the wealthy offers financial assistance to every single candidate in return for future considerations.

It is enough to point out the various levers that can be moved with the help of money; We are shown this in the press and on TV through stories about so-called ‘dirty technology’. But we watch it all through the eyes of an outside observer.

On the other hand, the actual participants in election cam-paigns are far from being outside observers. They know what it’s like to be the target of smear tactics. Even if you haven’t experienced it yourself, you can, of course, well imagine what kind of weapons can be used against you when big money’s involved. A defensive reaction is only natural — you have to cover your behind at all costs. And behind you, in this case, is some pretty big money. So you have to tie yourself, for safety’s sake, to some kind of solid financial shore. Or, as people say today, to the oligarchs.

An alternative is to throw your fortunes in with some political party. It doesn’t really matter which one — you’re still going to have to pay off your debt to them later.

And what about wise laws? Ah, yes. It is simply a question of no appropriate conditions having ever been created to facilitate them.

Of course, deputies do enjoy a host of perks — including parliamentary immunity with law-enforcement agencies. But the question still remains: if you put the deputies’ perks on one side of the scale and the intensity, scheming and stress associated with their work on the other, it’s anybody’s guess as to which will win out.

There is another paradoxical circumstance. The history of mankind has never known a single individual, a single super- wiseman, capable of making only and exclusively wise decisions hour after hour, day in and day out. It is no secret that even prominent rulers and regimental commanders occasionally make mistakes.

The deputies’ work schedules are arranged in such a way that they have sittings every single day Not only that, but

daily sittings for several hours a day At each sitting they are supposed to pass a number of legislative bills relating to different spheres of human life.

History has shown that the adoption of wise legislation is impossible under such an overloaded work schedule — on either a theoretical or a practical plane. It is impossible because of the lack of time for contemplation. Nevertheless, this absurd order of things is what prevails in most countries on the various continents of the globe.

Who instituted it? Well, it must have instituted itself, many might think. But there’s no way that could have happened. It’s too carefully thought through and goal-specific. Besides, for some reason, it is not being discussed in any meaningful way

You can argue as cogently as you like for its destructive nature. You can prove its destructive nature scientifically, with the help of psychoanalysts. That, of course, is important, but it’s not the main thing. The main thing is: what’s the alternative? But there is nothing in the way of an alternative on the horizon. Indeed, who would even have one come to mind when such a phenomenon has practically become the norm in almost all countries?

But since Anastasia’s grandfather was the first to raise this question, and since he was familiar with the work of bodies similar to our current legislative assembly over the course of thousands of years, it was possible he might be able to suggest an alternative. And so I enquired:

“Well, could you suggest your own ideal version of how elections should be run and how legislators should subsequently proceed in organising their work?”

And this is what I heard in reply:

“There’s no point in talking about the elections themselves until the deputies’ working and living conditions are changed.”

‘And what kind of working and living conditions, in your opinion, should there be?”

“First of all, the deputies need to be taken away, at least for part of the time, from their artificial information field.2 They need to be supplied with nourishment capable of sustaining the complete functioning of the brain. An image needs to be created which attracts the respect of society and which any deputy cannot fail to follow.”

“What does it mean to ‘create an image?”

“Judging by what you told me about today’s deputies, their outward trappings suggest that the public has formed a negative image of government officials in general and elected deputies in particular.”

“Yes, generally speaking, the public does have a pretty negative image of them.”

“That’s very bad. People build up negative thought-forms regarding their deputies, and so what happens is that they themselves make them negative. An image is the most powerful, concentrated energy of a large number of people.”3 ‘And how are people to think of them positively if their own life doesn’t improve?”

“You see, we’ve got what amounts to a closed circle here. Each time, you elect those who seem to be the best people for the job, but then, no sooner are they elected than you start calling them the worst people.”

“But just how do we get out of this vicious circle?”

“For the past five thousand years there has been no better way than the one proposed by Anastasia, and there won’t be in the foreseeable future.”

“What d’you have in mind here?”

“She said we need to give each willing family at least a hectare of land — for lifetime use, whereon to establish one’s own kin’s domain. But she didn’t say anything about parliamentary deputies.”

“In actual fact, she specified ‘every willing family’. Don’t deputies have families?”

“Indeed they do.”

“So, why not start with them?”

“The public would say that’s going too far — they’ve got enough perks as it is.”

“You need to explain to the public on whose behalf this step is being taken. They need to know what the most favourable conditions are for passing the legislation the public expects.” “But on what basis should the deputies be granted land — on special terms or the same as for everyone else?”

“The same as for everyone else, though not exactly Every deputy should be allotted at least a hundred and fifty hectares of land on -which a new type of community will be established, according to the principles Anastasia talks about. Of the hundred and fifty hectares granted for lifetime use, the deputy may keep one for himself, as long as his family is small and no additions are in the offing. In cases where the deputy has children who are already forming their own families and they want to set up domains of their own, a hectare should be set aside for each of his children’s families. Thus the deputy himself will end up with one, or three, or five hectares of land, depending on the size of his family.”

‘And what about the remaining hectares? You mentioned a hundred and fifty, all told.”

“Thirty percent of the remainder he can give away to whomever he likes. But after that the plots should be offered to people from different social strata — soldiers, academics, artists, entrepreneurs and so forth. In each community one

or two hectares should be definitely set aside for refugees and children from orphanages. But two deputies should not be given land in the same community”

“So, what then? If each deputy has his own family domain, does that mean that the laws will get better right away?”

“Of course they will. Our country will have the wisest laws in the world!”

“How so?”

‘At the moment, deputies spend long periods of time in their offices and at parliamentary meetings, cut off from the public. At the moment, they do not receive any gratitude for good laws or censure for bad ones. At the moment, following their natural inclinations, they try to provide for the material well-being of their families. After their term of office is up, they may change their place of residence and even move to another city or another country, where nobody will reproach them or hound them for any violation of expected norms. A change of residence or country will not affect their financial status. As long as they have money, they can go wherever they like and find shelter, food and clothing. But money won’t be able to buy them a kin’s domain of their own, a piece of their Motherland.

“Today the concept of Motherland is terribly distorted. ‘Motherland’ is nothing but a territory someone has defined by borders. But, when you stop to think of it, one’s Motherland always begins with one’s family land and extends to encompass all the people who are of a kindred spirit to you. Those who begin to establish their own domains will obtain their Motherland in perpetuity. The loss of one’s family domain is the loss of one’s Motherland in perpetuity This is the greatest tragedy for one’s family

“It is not their laws or their morality that will prevent deputies from making wrong decisions, but their kin’s domains. And for people who have their Motherland, money will lose

its primary importance. Only in his kin’s domain can Man obtain the complete range of nutrition he needs, including nourishment for the proper functioning of the brain. But this is extremely important for people who have a lot of thinking to do.

“The sittings of the State Duma should run no more than three days a week. The rest of the time the deputies should spend in their kin’s domains — a place they can really think things through, and lay the real groundwork for the making of laws.

“The deputies’ wives should not be employed in any position that is not connected with their husband’s work. The family domains will shield deputies, at least for a time, from the influence of artificial information coming from the artificial world. It will facilitate the thinking process. In the case of the great philosophers, great thoughts were always born in conditions of solitude, and not during public speeches.”

‘And what if some of the deputies are unwilling to accept land and refuse to set up their own family domains?”

“This is where we come to the election of public repre-sentatives. If any deputy refuses to set up a family domain, the public should not re-elect him for a subsequent term. Even though he holds citizenship in the country where he was elected, in reality he is a foreigner. He doesn’t need this Motherland. And no matter what good things are said about him, his actions, in fact, will bring no good to the people.” “But once they know that voters will give preference to candidates who have a family domain, some deputies may just take the land and erect their own palace-like mansions on it, along with tennis courts and brick walls, and won’t plant any trees or garden or living fence as Anastasia recommended. What then?”

“Then they’ll show what they’re really made of. But here too people will be able to make the right choice. Why do you

think every Man in Rus’ was endowed with a patronymic? Back in the early days of Rus’ a Man would introduce himself by saying: I am. Ivan from Nikita’s domain, citing the name of his father or grandfather who had established his kin’s domain. In other words, the domain was something to be proud of. In referring to it, a Man would describe himself, as well as his character and abilities, in the fullest possible manner. Anyone who could not point with pride to his domain was considered an outcast.”

The more Anastasia’s grandfather went on about the kin’s do-mains, the more distinctly the joyful picture of our country’s future became etched in my consciousness. Can you just im-agine?! Imagine! Three hundred and sixty deputies of our State Duma each taking a hundred and fifty hectares of land and organising three hundred and sixty marvellous new-style communities! Each deputy will then be showing not just in his words, but in his actions, what he is capable of achieving.

And Russia will bear witness to the first three hundred and sixty oases in which Russian Federation citizens will begin to live in actual human conditions. Then these deputies will pass legislation. And, naturally, there will be not a single law harmful to the environment.

They will pass laws guaranteeing the right of each citizen to obtain his own small piece of the Motherland. They will stand up for this right, because each of them will have their Motherland.

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