The National Idea in Belarus
Gaius Julius Caesar said: “I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.” However, in the context of quality of life in a country, it is still preferable to be last amongst the best, then first among the worst. Therefore, while being an economically developed state, the strategy of surrounding yourself with developing or completely underdeveloped countries is dubious. This often happened due to the “bipolarity” of the world. The USSR and modern Russia could be an example — the first had no ally among the developed countries and Russia follows that path.
It is more important to be situated in a developed region, have wealthy and influential neighbors. Sometimes it is even more favorable than being wealthy and influential by yourself. An example of this situation may be a small Western European country — Switzerland which has such influential neighbors as: Germany, France, Italy and Austria. On the one hand such neighborhood has provided a lot of beneficial trade routes and interactions and on the other a relative cultural independence. According to the “The UN Development Program” reports, Switzerland ranks third in the Human Development Index based on an average from 1980 to 2013 years.
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My sight looks for Europe every time I give a glance at the world map. Maybe it is because this is where my home is. Another reason could be that it is the most developed and rich in many senses region. A region, with a vibrant and a necessary for the whole mankind history — the first philosophical works and scientific researches were born in Europe. Thus, mostly thanks to Europeans, the modern world became what it is now.
Starting from 1492 to 1914 the Europeans conquered 84% of the planet. Not only the physical strength and training was shown during this period, but also their intellectual abilities, as it was necessary to battle in unfamiliar conditions and move to distant, even by modern standards, places. Therefore, it is obvious that the modern world was built exactly by the Europeans who had an enormous impact on different cultures and nations of the world. One can talk about the cultural identity of each nation, but it is not possible not to recognize a strong influence of European culture in the early stages of the development of the human civilization.
The colonial expansion to the east and south made it possible not only to capture some specific resources or land, but, what is more important, allowed to spread European languages for many kilometers far from their home (North and South America, Africa, etc.). It provided the necessary benefits — culture follows the language, lifestyle, understanding of the world, and ideology of the nation. So now, in a sense, the majority of mankind is the bearer of the European values.
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Plato said “Ideas rule the world”. That is why the question of morality, culture and a set of values of one or another civilization is so important. After all, every nation in the course of its history makes certain conclusions, comes to some common expression of its individuality. And if a nation is quantitatively high (or had the opportunity to influence a large amount of other nations, like Europeans had and did), then its influence on other nations increases.
In today’s world there is a great amount of ideas and this diversity cannot be negative, even though it has a certain number of disadvantages. But in any case, plurality of opinions and ideas gives a person choice. It gives the right to direct your life in some specific way, act and defend the tenets of the chosen ideology.
Where is the place of Belarus on this “life feast”? Carriers of what values should be we, Belarusians, and why? What is the history of Belarus and what should it come to? These questions must be answered in order to better understand and realize our Belarusian way.
