If we want Estonia to be a just, civilized and cultured society, there has to be a set of Blueprints for Estonia, A Plan for the Future, otherwise, as Yogi Berra, the famous catcher of the New York Yankees baseball team used to say, “If you don’t know where you are going, you are going to end up someplace else.” You begin with what you’ve got. The reality is that Estonia, like most countries, has a fair share of people who are selfish, dishonest and greedy and who believe, like ENRON executives, that they are entitled to more than a fair share of things. How can this be changed? Arthur Miller in his autobiography, TIMEBENDS, says that when Bernard Gimbel, head of the department store chain, saw DEATH OF A SALESMAN, he gave an order that no one in his stores was to be fired for overage. It does not follow that if ENRON executives and rich, unjust Estonians saw DEATH OF A SALESMAN, they would, then and there, develop a social conscience. Appeals to the heart work better when addressed to the young. The truth is that, as a rule, nothing, including jail, will really “cure” people who are determined to defeat all systems designed to protect the interests of others. “Conversions” among the unjust are rare, although — since most of them are accomplished hypocrites, who lie not only to others but to themselves — most of them are pretty good at pretending to feel remorse, if they decide that it is in their interest. Things in Estonia will get better, of course, when journalists become more aware of their duties and responsiblities as citizens. In countries where newspapers not only entertain but inform the public, bad politicians are kicked out of office and replaced by better politicians — people who are honest and who stay honest, knowing that they are being closely monitored. For the time being, however, it is unlikely that the Unjust Estonians in power, well-schooled by Unjust Communists, are going to start putting the interests of the public ahead of their own, as long as they can hang on to their political positions and privileges by other means. What the Estonian Power Elite has discovered is that the best way for them to continue to stay in power, is to continue behaving as they did before Estonia became a democracy. By being arrogant, rude and, most importantly, menacing, they continue to remind to the voters that Moscow is still behind them, eager to help out — in case a “crisis” in Estonia either takes place or is manufactured. Luckily, the Estonian National Character — the icewater in the veins of Estonians, the Nordic Calm Under Pressure — has helped to prevent such crises from taking place in Estonia — the kinds of crises and flareups that take place in the Middle East and between various religious sects all over the world. At the same time, not all aspects of the Estonian Character — originally built one hundred years ago by Estonians who then went on to build the Estonian Nation — have survived the onslaught of the past fifty years. People today are not as unselfish, hard working, persistent, generous, considerate, tolerant and just, as they once were, because not enough attention has been paid — not just in Estonia but in the rest of the world — to the various processes that build character by determining what is right and what is wrong and by establishing powerful connections between the way we feel and the way we think about these things. Ain Söödor
Towards a Blueprint for Estonia
Archived Articles | 05 Mar 2002 | EWR
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