I told you that Tbilisi has never been so national. Unfortunately, at the expense of the village being emptied. But this is not the only harmful result, there is also a second result – a new category of Georgian, an aggressive provincial, has emerged, this is terrible, especially since provincialism in politics is a catastrophe. Provincial does not mean someone who came from the village, historically we all came from the village, some yesterday and some the day before yesterday. Our venerable ancestors, our nobility, the beacons of our culture lived in the villages. Provincialism is a city phenomenon.
Provincialism does not exist in the province, it is in its organic world there. Here, when it is cut off from its organic part and comes here, where there is no usual environment for it, it becomes aggressive due to incompatibility.
Again from hunting practice. You have seen swans swimming in the zoo. As a hunter, I have seen it fly away while hunting. God created the swan so that it does not have to fly and is a queen in the sky when it flies, or it should be in the water and is a queen when it swims, but it is enough for it to set foot on the ground for it to become absolutely clumsy, some kind of disgusting goose. Because God created the swan either to swim or to fly. It is completely unreasonable that someone’s place is in the countryside, and someone else’s – in the city, town, etc. When this is violated, that strange type of Georgian man appears – “aggressive provincial”. He comes and, due to incompatibility, seeks you out, because he can’t be better than you in any other way (is there something else, genetic, like three hundred-year-old mowed English lawns, which makes an American heart ache, and even today he can’t stop searching for secrets…) He then seeks refuge by being active in the Komsomol, joining the party, bypassing us and turning out to be your big boss.
Today, patriotism has become a very easy refuge. Patriotism has become a refuge for many – absolutely useless people, and he speaks to you in such a tone that if you ask him who you are – he tells you – a patriot. Patriotism is not a profession – patriotism is professionalism. The professionalism that you serve your homeland.”
/Rezo Tabukashvili/