From the author: The nature of culture and the structure of social mores All life is a circus, and people are clowns. Or magicians. Sometimes, tamers of wild animals. At worst, gymnasts... If you live a long time, you notice that life is a theater. But if you live carefully, you understand that it is not so much a theater as a circus. Masks that are always stuck to faces, the magic of balancing act and sleight of hand. Although in life the percentage of clowns is higher... MASKS Culture is the ability to pretend well... Man is a pretending animal. The main difference, the fundamental feature that separates us from the wild, is the ability to pretend. An animal acts, a butterfly imitates, a beetle pretends to be dead. We have brought their art to the highest perfection. Without essentially inventing anything new in this, we made it the main thing. The tribe of people rightly considers itself the pinnacle of evolution. We have surpassed everyone. Before you is an enemy, or someone extremely unpleasant. All you need now, all you want is to rush, attack without hesitation, beat, bite, tear his soft flesh with your teeth, break his crunchy bones... You look into his eyes, smile, shake his hand politely and with a sense of tact. Or you hug and kiss if he is your spouse, permanent partner, or the social codes of club culture require it. There is someone in front of you, a dearly beloved table, that makes your spirit freeze. All you need to do is throw yourself at him, rush right there, tear off his clothes, love, caress, knead and stroke his much-desired body, moan and scratch with your claws... You cast a fleeting glance at him, pretending that he is indifferent. You have infinitely more important things to do, not a single awkward movement will betray you, your voice will not tremble, your neck will not turn, you proudly move on. Congratulations, you are a wonderful actor. You are perfect and precise, and you just missed your last chance. This is our whole life... EQUILIBRISTICS Sanity is the ability to balance between extremes... There are creatures in the world infinitely more dexterous. A cat, thrown from a roof, easily and naturally lands on all four paws, and without showing any excitement, gracefully continues on its way. The cheetah rushes swiftly, the running horses are beautiful, the giraffe, seemingly doomed to stumble, is agile and agile. Snakes curl whimsically, and magical perfection shines through in the flapping of bird wings. We are far from them, we are accustomed to prostheses. A soft sofa, instead of sharp stones, thin branches and old grass, serves as a bed for us. We won’t climb a tree, we won’t run like the wind, we won’t jump over a fence. We turned all this into mental agility. Mobility and flexibility of thinking have replaced the dexterity of the body and the responsive swiftness of the muscles. Our thoughts run faster than our feet, even though we sometimes get confused in them. A person caught in a lie immediately turns into a cat. When falling, he is able to twist on the fly, and landing on all four paws, stand on a solid foundation. And as if nothing had happened, continue to lie gracefully. The brain replaced our fangs, teaching us to create infinitely more deadly things. Guns and homing bombs are the best replacement for decorative claws. We fly to other worlds without wings... Having practically destroyed our own. We are powerful like a whale, fast like a lynx, and ruthless like a herd of pigs. The world belongs to us.... CLOWNS Speech is the highest manifestation of the desire for power... Every animal strives for power , man is no exception. Minus perhaps the most helpless, or those who have achieved holiness, a mysterious and controversial achievement that turns us into the living dead. The tiger triumphs over the fallow deer, the leader dominates the pack, the lion dominates the zebra as soon as he catches up... but first you have to hide for a long time, wait in ambush, pretending to be a mouse, and quickly run away, catching up. We, lacking fast legs and losing patience, created a long tongue. Speech is an arm extended like a branch. The word is like a sword or stick, clenched in an infinitely long hand, it overtakes and hits instantly. People learned to weave strange and strong snares from words, set traps, sharpened them like sharp claws, and made them flexible like a tail. We hold onto high branches with it, thinking what it does…