Recently, leading international media outlets such as the BBC, CNN, ABC and Reuters published a striking and meaningful photo, video and “news” item.
It was not created by them, but the image and footage carried a clear message. Russian travel blogger Vadim Makhorov, while flying a drone over Kolyuchin Island in Russia, discovered several polar bears roaming inside an abandoned building — and apparently living there.
This building was once a Soviet research station. It’s not hard to imagine that, in order to protect and maintain it, the Soviet Union would have gone as far as using nuclear weapons if necessary.
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the building was abandoned and today it has become home to bears.
There is a lesson in this. Yet humans never seem to absorb simple lessons. They rush to universities and laboratories to learn difficult, complex knowledge. But don’t we already have plenty of simple, real-life examples?
Across the country, we still see vast, old mansions that once belonged to mighty landlords or maharajas.
Today these houses stand desolate, like the worn-down teeth of an elderly person. Some have gone to the Department of Archaeology, where goats and cattle now rest.
In others, once magnificent palaces spilling over with wealth and grandeur, now live the impoverished third or fourth generations. Windows are shattered, plaster is peeling, the skeleton of the buildings exposed — yet no one has the means to restore them.
What does this teach us? It is as if the buildings stand and proclaim clearly: everything comes to an end; nothing is indestructible. Sadly, this lesson is nowhere reflected in our lives.
In other words, we do not take it to heart. If we did, the fate of our country and our nation would be written differently. From individuals to thrones, everything would be recalculated. People would not live with so much discomfort, fear, anxiety and insecurity.
If only we realized that today’s grandeur is no guarantee for the future, we would think and decide more realistically. As Arthur Schopenhauer said, “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” Yet no one seems to remember this. Major religions also teach us the same lesson.
Whether in human life or power structures, even brick-and-mortar palaces fade, grow dim and vanish in the stream of time. Yet for a fleeting moment of status, we see people behaving as though blind.
This phenomenon is especially visible in Third World countries. People forget to uphold dignity, neglect what is right, and become intoxicated with power and injustice.
Yet with eyes shut in contemplation, an inner vision could open. In developing countries, those who come to power somehow believe that their chair is permanent. To this day no psychiatrist has been able to explain the source of this particular mental disorder.
Therefore, everyone should remember the phrase “everything comes to an end” and walk forward with that in mind. Otherwise, at any moment one’s foot may slip.
