There Are NEETs in Russia Too

If you ever find yourself unlucky enough to be dragged into a conversation with an eastern wench, go ahead and ask her to share her opinion on Slavic men. The older ones will characterize them as boorish brutes who tyrannize them. The younger ones nowadays complain about the boys being shut-off and on the verge of dropping out of society all-together.

It’s the second, younger group that interests me more.

A quick qualifier: when I write about the NEETs and Hikis of Eastern Europe, it’s not coming from a place of derision. It’s more of a “there but for the grace of God go I” attitude. Furthermore, the Hiki/NEET phenomenon is global in scope.

It begs the question: why is this phenomenon occurring, though?

Well, I think that there are multiple factors exacerbating an already bad trend, but the core of the problem almost certainly lies in Feminism and the empowerment of women in general.

If you just want to eyeball it, walk into any bank or corporate office in Eastern Europe and do a quick head-count. You will find about 9 females for every one male employee. The boss, of course, is some middle-aged man who feels quite good about himself and his corporate harem.

Then, go to a school and take a look around. Again, all women.

Try the polyclinic next. When I was getting my green card, I had to go multiple times a week to literally a dozen clinics to pass all my medical tests. Naturally, the only man I saw working there was the one who administered an STD test by shoving a stick into my willie (twice).

Go to the bookstore next and ask the nice girls there whether they have a book you’re looking for (they won’t know lol).

Go get some paperwork done at your local bureaucracy hive and report back.

Then, try the coffee shop, where, actually, you might find more male baristas than you’d expect, all with college degrees, mind you. Although, that’s probably just selection bias on my part, seeing as I generally don’t trust women to make my coffee, and try to work in places where a man’s running the coffee machine.

But wait, that’s not all!

Try the museums - you’ll find women selling you the ticket, women leading the excursion, women sitting around making sure that you don’t touch the art, and women putting away your coat in the cloakroom.

Go buy a metro ticket and enjoy being barked at by the metro cashiers from being the glass. Try applying for a job at RT and take a tour of the offices; yep, literally all women.

My point is that anything anywhere that doesn’t involve poorly-paid manual work is dominated by women, basically.

But why is this the case?

Well, it’s partly because women make better employees than men … when results and innovation are not a priority for the organization, that is. Women will put up with just about any bullshit thrown at them without complaining, because they enjoy being told to do by people with higher status than them, as a rule. Another reason is that the men who run a lot of these offices prefer having younger women around to hit on during the day. A young man might start nipping at his heels and we just can’t have that now can we?

But, while the trend towards female-dominated workplaces gained a lot of steam in the USSR, it wasn’t all that bad back then.

Russia actually used to have a Romanesque system of patronage and mentorship that brought fresh male talent into various work sectors. It consisted of older men putting younger men under the wing in exchange for loyalty. More than any labor codes or work quotas, the dominating feature of Slavic work culture was the various patronage networks. Men strove to expand their network of influence and get absorbed in larger, more powerful networks. I suppose a less charitable interpretation of this system might liken it to Mafia-ism. But, the patronage system was actually democratic and not kin-based. Men without money and family connections could rise up in the ranks if they demonstrated talent and loyalty to their patron.

People from the older generation still remember and occasionally call up their bosses to see how they are doing around various holidays. These networks, once formed, used to last one for life.

That’s basically how Putin got into power, by the way. He got pulled up by Anatoly Sobchak, the then-mayor of St. Petersburg.

Yes, he is wearing a blazer with Adidas sweatpants.

From there, Putin was recommended to Boris Yeltsin. The rest, I’m sure you know. But Putin also had his own network of people that looked up to him for help and favors. He brought them with him to Moscow when he assumed power. They became known as the St. Petersburg mafia and they were always seen as interlopers by Moskvichi insiders. They would often sneer that to be a part of Putin’s inside circle meant having been a part of Putin’s Judo club, basically.

But don’t take my word on it. Even Foreign Policy wrote about Putin’s Judo club friends:

The most recent example of this played out on May 12, when Putin appointed Col. Gen. Viktor Zolotov to be the first deputy interior minister and commander of the Internal Troops. A close associate of the president’s, Zolotov was the head of his personal security detail for 13 years — and, of course, he was one of Putin’s sparring partners. (So too was Igor Sidorkevich, once president of the St. Petersburg Judo Federation and now head of the military police.) With Zolotov’s promotion, Putin brings in the security forces even closer to him, and he is making sure that they are led by a man with the focus and determination he believes judo inspires.

I don’t want to put too much of an emphasis on the Judo thing and I only brought it up to raise a point. Frankly, I think it would be a vast improvement if every single member of Putin’s government had to be a black belt in Judo to qualify for his position. Reminds me of my latest essay on metaphysics, actually.

Anyways, for all its faults, the patronage system worked, is my point.

People still remember a time when patronage existed in Slavland, but it doesn’t seem to be a reality in most sectors anymore, other than the security services, probably. Case in point, when it came time to find a job for their son, the older generation would activate their network and shop around for a job for one of “theirs”. That’s how I got a job offer from Gazprom once. Old Soviet military ties in the family. I wasn’t qualified for the job, really. But then, most work consists of learning on the job anyway. That’s just how things were done for literally centuries in Russia, but nowadays, not so much.

Another element of our wonderful, traditional, nepotistic and rule-bending culture gone … like … tears in the rain.

To bring it all together, I believe that with the collapse of the “old boys” networks in Russia, the chances of many men to find meaningful employment also plummeted. This coincided with the institution of the “old hag” network run out of HR, based on the Western model.

In the West, I’m aware, don’t worry, there used to be an alternative system of patronage, which was mostly based on memberships in secret societies and college clubs. Most of them weren’t evil, probably. But, nowadays, the only secret societies left are the sadistic NWO ones. Or the god-awful Freemason police.

Lots of men are dropping out of society both in the East and the West because of the domination of the workplace by women. These career-less men then have nothing to offer newly-empowered women. “No money, no honey,” ought to be etched into the tombstone of our collective European civilization.

Long story short, without older men looking out for younger men and helping them get a leg-up in life, society begins to fall apart. Rome and Russia were once made great by their male patronage systems. We can be great again, but for that to happen, the lads have to close ranks and sack the HR office.