During my teenage years, there were so-called “tsekhoviks”, who were semiligal businessmen of that time. There were people among them who loved extreme, acute senses, and lit fire for barbecue with a 25 ruble, which was the one quarter of my “Lenin pension”. Of course, these people were acting within their own understanding of appropriateness and properness. But I was surprised when their behavior was discussed with excessive expression of intense emotions. If a person has earned his 25 rubles by not harming anyone, he can tear that paper off and throw to the trash. If he has stolen or has taken a bribe and then has distributed the money to the poor, he remains a criminal anyway.
In general, talking about people’s possessions is meaningful only when it comes to government officials and their relatives. This category of citizens uses public resources, lives at taxpayers’ expense, and it is very natural that every meter or penny of their possessions should be in the center of attention of our society and our journalists.
In other cases, such talks and discussions of other’s possessions, especially how much someone spends, I believe, are at least philistinism, and in many cases, inappropriate inflammation of social passions. Because any discussion of the properties of the rich is almost inevitably turned into complains about the “injustice of life”, which is a straightforward way towards a passive and “materialistic” attitude towards life.
Not all journalists understand football, and that is natural: it is not mandatory to be a specialist in all fields. But when you meet Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the temptation to address him a question is huge. And as it is difficult to think of an interesting topic for an article, one asks about his money and business investments. (This is definitely not the case when there is a doubt about the origin of money: Britain definitely pays “white” salary to the players). Even though the player’s response was in a gentle voice and with a smile, it was quite abrupt: “is that your business?”.
The only and best place to count money is one’s own pocket.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
