Work Interview Russian Drug Addict
Work Interview Sergey (pronounced Sare-gay) Lxxxx, a Russian Jew born in Moscow in 1974, is a man whose attitudes about work were shaped and warped by the chaotic economic and political climate of a his fatherland, a state with no stable identity and now, no moral fabric or even fiber. It is not surprising that Sergey has spent much of his life in prison, a convicted crook and drug addict, confused about how he will contribute to his new culture. ... Sergey’s attitudes about work have been greatly influenced by his unusual upbringing. ... We lived at Hollywood Boulevard and Gardner, a nice Russian neighborhood, but also close to the Hollywood action. ... But, every now and then I would meet another Russian or Armenian. ... My drug habit seemed manageable. ... They believed they had to do “a little something extra” to maximize profits, and they began dealing stolen European goods bought from the Russian Mafia. ... ” “Work is not something you do to achieve ‘self-realization’ or whatever you call it. You do not work to express your creativity. ... He and one of his Russian “crimeys” he met in prison bought a store in Canoga Park. ... Our degrees and transcripts from Russian optometry schools were forged. ... AFTERWORD I knew this interview would be interesting because I knew Sergey as an articulate person whose story would be both entertaining and moving. He would like to see life as a great voyage, actually a pleasure cruise, where all activities, especially work, are to be enjoyed and savored. But Russian and American reality has changed him, and he is deadly serious about what he intends to do with the rest of his life. ... By the same token there have been many times when I, in Eriksonian terms, was torn between Industry and Inferiority, unclear about my moral responsibility, just like Sergey, and this interview reminded me of that many times. The meeting was conducted in the library of the recovery center where Sergey now lives (and I work), after his having been released from jail a week before. ... The most difficult parts of the interview were the transitions from work to criminality. By this I mean that, in the beginning, Sergey set out to paint a picture of a man who was a hard worker, his life disrupted by the heroin he had discovered upon his arrival in the US, in Hollywood, California, which is at once a enclave teeming with hopeful Russian immigrants, and a den of iniquity, a symbol of American decadence.