Thread by @atroyn

in certainly circles there are sneering discussions of rootlessness as if it’s a deficiency brought on by consumption choices

this time of year i feel my rootlessness pretty acutely

many arrive at rootlessness by choice, but that’s not how things came to be for me

i was born into a culture and nation which simply no longer exists, which was annihilated as thoroughly as any ancient empire

the institutions, ideology and cultural production of the soviet union are as dead as rome

these are not value judgments on soviet life, these are statements of objective fact. i come from a place that doesn’t exist.

there exists of course a country on the territory of what was soviet ukraine and many others born on that territory have subsequently found roots there

the degree to which any state on the former territory of the soviet union can really be said to be a nation in any real sense is also not really the topic of discussion but it is important to note that none of the institutions of those places existed before 1991

my generation and social class within the soviet system - two generations removed from cataclysmic war and rebuilding, from educated parents of working class background, was intended to bring about the apotheosis of soviet man

my path through those institutions was quite clear and my function in that society well determined

not just by the state but by the culture at every level of society, from the family to the school and beyond

instead, total annihilation, at a point where i was old enough to realize something had gone seriously wrong but not to understand what it was

when economic and social factors became intolerable and dangerous my family left, which led me to become twice removed from roots - its why i have none of the common cultural artifacts of those who stayed.

instead i became essentially a martian

i did not have a real place in the society to which we emigrated and the society i had come from ceased to exist

many immigrant kids fall back on their originating culture when life in the new society becomes difficult, but the originating culture for me was gone entirely

of course there were other russians in the new society but none would claim to be soviet - that first anihilation had already reached that far, and many had left the soviet system itself in the first place

eventually these and other pressures resulted in a third annihilation where family ties fell apart as well

they are better in certain ways now but there is time you can’t ever get back

in many ways im lucky

being a martian often lets me see things in ways other people can’t

it lets me adapt to new social dynamics though this often takes a while

it means i can commit to a mission and do what it takes to achieve it at costs that would not be bearable

im not visibly a martian - i pass in the street. so much of daily life especially where i live now is mass media that i can often synthesize cultural context for people to get a handle on me with

but ultimately i am rootless. to some degree i will always be - my hope is that i will achieve enough that my children will not need to be, and instead will have their father’s life as a lesson taught to them rather than one experienced

one day one or more of these anihilatjons will overtake you -

many have seen the annihilation of family , in our society it’s often the default mode

fewer have seen the annihilation of context, but there are enough immigrant children in the world and this number will go up

the annihilation of the root itself though, the total destruction of the culture itself, is fortunately still rare

poor nations are paradoxically more resilient, some european nations are old enough that the inertia of history prevents it

it is the people of the rich, new nations that are most at risk, and we will see more significant cultural collapses as this century moves on

indeed the nation can even continue to exist but break so fundamentally with its past within one generation that its the same

my belief is it’s possible to build structures and institutions for when this comes

think now about what aspects of cultural life are important to you and make plans to preserve them in the face of collapse

or else prepare to build the new ones you never had the freedom to build before

im a martian but ive found community nevertheless and ill continue trying to grow them and participate in them, even if it takes a while

for the rootless by choice, regard their alienation as a result of own kind of collapse. the acme of power is your ability to help the weak.