/lit/ - Literature

>>19277877
Did you ever have that experience where what something is and what you want it to be differ so wildly that it hurts?

Russia is something which is like that for me. In my imagination, Russia is this amazing country where everything is hi-tech to the point of being science fiction. In my imagination, the Russian people are all very well-read, all renaissance people, skilled at the arts, at mathematics, at science. The Russia of my imagination is a cultural hub, where artists and writers and filmmakers congregate in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and produce works which leave the rest of the world in awe. The Russia of my imagination is a spiritual place, with glorious churches and mosques and where the shamanist practices are still alive. And the Russia of my imagination is a beauty, a place where nature is at its most pristine and the ecosystems are protected and healthy.

Russia in reality is a different sort of country. The Russian people suffer many problems from alcohol abuse to HIV to that strange hopeless feeling which seems to pervade the modern world. The standard of living is below that of many Western nations. The political situation is not as stable as it should be. They may be intelligent, but their primacy in the fields of science and the humanities has slipped away. The Russian land is plundered by corporations, foreign and domestic, for its resources, and the Earth's warming threatens the Russian ecosystems, which have grown accustomed to a cool climate. It is a sad thing. I wish Russia was what I imagined it to be.