Main values: free time, free education and intellectual communication

People are inclined to get caught up in minor things. To attach significance to insignificant. To believe in nonexistent. To wish what they actually don't need.

Tell me, why does anyone need a president? Why do I need a president? What do I have to gain by having a president?

People work to buy some knickknack like a ring with a diamond, or another car, or a hundred pairs of shoes, etc. It's possible to do without so many things which are allegedly necessary, so that you can spend time and strength on something really meaningful and valuable. Isn't it sad that things rule a person?

Why are there so many languages? Languages divide people! The myth about the Babel tower tells us that its construction was stopped by God who created modern languages for different people and that's why they stopped understanding each other.

Nationalism is based on distinctions. For example, the Russian world wouldn't exist if there was no Russian language.

Take a note of the fact that those countries where English is the state language, are more free and safer than the others. Or where English is unofficially the second state language, i.e. where everyone speaks it, as for example, in Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark.

Also look at the level of living and happiness in the nationalist countries where emphasis is placed on knowledge of the local language and even purity of the language - the Baltics, Russia, the countries of Central Asia, etc.

Language inequality, language domination is always a sign of the existing attitude of inequality in general, of injustice. Russia is a nationalist, unfair and aggressive country, and it happened that citizens of Russia know only one language. Just like the USA, by the way, where most of its citizens are badly educated and speak only English.

My familiar European intellectuals learn Arabic to be able to understand and communicate with those people who came to their country from the East. For them it's a big benefit and pleasure, and also a demonstration of equality, openness, friendliness.

Language is only a means of communication. The problem is that people, knowing language, lost skills of intellectual communication and that's why they feel lonely.

I know very few people who are real masters of intellectual communication. Full communication is a method of overcoming loneliness and a way to happiness. Certainly, it is necessary to begin with learning languages, and then psychology, philosophy and also how to be empathetic. It's also important for a person to have enough free time for communication. So, here is the main thing - free time and free education.

Maxim Efimov,
director of the Institute of Personal Development, social philosopher, writer


Translated by Irina Efimova