Russian political psyche: history and modernity

[mirhond]

disclaimer #1. any links and sources which is going to be posted here are quite possibly biased
disclaimer #2. Unsupported claims and irrelevant ravings will be ignored.

Ok, lets get started.
Before posting anything here, you, Westerners must remember that we, Russians, lived for three generations under stern but (mostly) just supervision of omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent state. If you think it explains everything - you are probably far from truth.
How the whole system has been set up - that is a huge historical question, still unanswered, how it works today, after a dissolution of Soviet state - I'll try to explain.

Now we have a mostly free market economy, paternalistic politics, consumerism ethics and apathetic population.
I won't tell about structure of the economy, it's well known, but I'll tell what people think about it: free market is unjust, capitalism is unhuman, so any ideology which denies it as an economic basis would have public approval.

Most important tool of the paternalistic policy is the controlled media, full of dumb entertainment and, quite recently, spiritual guidance from the Orthodox chirch, pseudo-patriotic sentiments and sheer propaganda Dr Goebbels would be proud of.
Why it works? I think of the part of the answer is simple: people are stupid, so they are unable to tell the truth from the lie, they are politically powerless, because they are trained to be divided, they are in general want to be left alone, but won't mind to listen about great achievements, kicking some asses, stupid Americans who can't find Ukrain on the map or spoiled and souless Europeans - the majority of the Russians exposed to the media are prone to any lies which brings a little bit of comfort.

End of part one. Part two on the way (may be)

[kaur]

May 16, 2014

Window on Eurasia: Infantilism on the Rise among Russians, ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says

In a lead article today entitled “On the Growth of Social-Political Infantilism in Russia,” the editors of the Moscow paper review recent poll results which show among other things a decrease in support for democracy, human rights and markets and a rise in the share of those who are indifferent as to what kind of state they live in as long as they and their families are well off (ng.ru/editorial/2014-05-16/2_red.html).

That there should be a decline in support for Western models of state and society is no surprise, the editors say. It reflects the Ukrainian events or “more precisely their treatment in the government and pro-regime mass media” and the tendency of Russians to evaluate other countries primarily on the basis of their policies toward Moscow rather than anything else.

This “lack of understanding of the role of procedures” has had the effect of opening the way for the acceptance among Russians of “declarations of ‘a special path’” for Russia without a clear understanding of what that might mean. Unless such things are specified, they add, coming up with and imposing an “alternative” model to the West will be “extremely difficult.”

http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.be/...m-on-rise.html

Mirhond, hope to read your answers

Mirhond: "golden age lost due to the sins of fathers"

What was the period of that age?

Who were those fathers?

What sins they did?

To whom they lost it?

[JMA]

When the a Soviet Union collapsed the greatest mistake made by the US (and their western allies) was not to dismantle the Russian Empire to a status where there would no threat to neighboring minor nations of non Russians ever again. We are seeing the results of one of histories great strategic mistakes as Russia once again develops expansionist dreams and converts them into reality paid for by an oil industry that never should have been allowed to be developed.

Russia will probably get away with it because of the US fear of nuclear weapons (as was the real reason for the soft settlement at the collapse of the Soviet Union). So keep testing rockets and issuing threats about using weapons and the US will stay out of it.

The reason for this fear of Russian nuclear weapons is that it is generally believed that the Russians are actually stupid enough to use nuclear weapons despite the assurance of the complete destruction of Russia if they ever do. So don't do anything to lead the US to start to think Russians are really capable of intelligent and logical thought.

[carl]

When the a Soviet Union collapsed the greatest mistake made by the US (and their western allies) was not to dismantle the Russian Empire to a status where there would no threat to neighboring minor nations of non Russians ever again. We are seeing the results of one of histories great strategic mistakes as Russia once again develops expansionist dreams and converts them into reality paid for by an oil industry that never should have been allowed to be developed.

Russia will probably get away with it because of the US fear of nuclear weapons (as was the real reason for the soft settlement at the collapse of the Soviet Union). So keep testing rockets and issuing threats about using weapons and the US will stay out of it.

The reason for this fear of Russian nuclear weapons is that it is generally believed that the Russians are actually stupid enough to use nuclear weapons despite the assurance of the complete destruction of Russia if they ever do. So don't do anything to lead the US to start to think Russians are really capable of intelligent and logical thought.

This leads me to comment about something I've been thinking of for a bit. I wonder if historians, however many there may be left, in 200 years will judge the Americans with great harshness for what we didn't do. What we didn't do was make certain that after WWII nobody else developed nuclear weapons. We didn't maintain a nuclear monopoly.

We could have done it. The Western nations would have simply been told not to develop any or no aid and by the way pay your war debts tomorrow. The USSR and Red China would have required something harsher, no development or no (pick a city or province). We didn't because it would have required a willingness to actually torch some cities and we weren't willing. Besides the egalitarian streak in us always is susceptible to the argument that if we have something why can't they?

But what did that get us? The Pak Army/ISI with nukes, North Korea with nukes, the Russians with nukes. What it got us, the world, is a lot of people with nukes and more getting them every decade. And many of those realize that if they convince others they are willing to use them regardless of the consequences they most often get their way. They will continue to get their way until they meet somebody who will call a their bluff that may not be a bluff and then-tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions dead. I believe we are a lot closer to that in the Indian sub-continent than people realize. In any event it will happen somewhere in the next 50-80 years.

So that is where we stand today. Nukes everywhere in the hands of some very bad people and an almost certain nuke war somewhere. Now let's say we were the only ones with nukes, nobody else, just us. Things would be rather more stable I think, regardless of what you think of the noble Americans or the imperialist war-mongering Yankees. The threat of incineration wouldn't be hanging over the heads on millions and millions of Indians and Pakistanis. That is why I think the historians many tomorrows from now will judge us very harshly.

[mirhond]

May 16, 2014

Window on Eurasia: Infantilism on the Rise among Russians, ‘Nezavisimaya Gazeta’ Says
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.be/...m-on-rise.html

I fail to see why it's called "infantilism", not just "indifference" or "apathy", but everything else in this article is true.

Mirhond, hope to read your answers

OK, lo and behold:

1. it were several last decades of Soviet epoch
2. anyone who is now at his 50-60s
3. they sold primogeniture for lentil soup, in geopolitical sence
4. to the coterie of thieves and foreign agents

[kaur]

mirhond, that golden era was called stagnation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Era_of_Stagnation

[mirhond]

mirhond, that golden era was called stagnation.

So what? Does it even matter?

[kaur]

mirhond, I think it does. How country happened to be in this situation? Overstretched ambitions, bad economics etc ? Structural problems?

[carl]

disclaimer #1. any links and sources which is going to be posted here are quite possibly biased
disclaimer #2. Unsupported claims and irrelevant ravings will be ignored.

Ok, lets get started.
Before posting anything here, you, Westerners must remember that we, Russians, lived for three generations under stern but (mostly) just supervision of omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent state. If you think it explains everything - you are probably far from truth.
How the whole system has been set up - that is a huge historical question, still unanswered, how it works today, after a dissolution of Soviet state - I'll try to explain.

Now we have a mostly free market economy, paternalistic politics, consumerism ethics and apathetic population.
I won't tell about structure of the economy, it's well known, but I'll tell what people think about it: free market is unjust, capitalism is unhuman, so any ideology which denies it as an economic basis would have public approval.

Most important tool of the paternalistic policy is the controlled media, full of dumb entertainment and, quite recently, spiritual guidance from the Orthodox chirch, pseudo-patriotic sentiments and sheer propaganda Dr Goebbels would be proud of.
Why it works? I think of the part of the answer is simple: people are stupid, so they are unable to tell the truth from the lie, they are politically powerless, because they are trained to be divided, they are in general want to be left alone, but won't mind to listen about great achievements, kicking some asses, stupid Americans who can't find Ukrain on the map or spoiled and souless Europeans - the majority of the Russians exposed to the media are prone to any lies which brings a little bit of comfort.

End of part one. Part two on the way (may be)

Mirhond: That is an extremely useful statement. It is just about the best and most cogent outline of the Russian popular worldview that I've read. You obviously can judge firsthand and I only know what I read but it is almost perfectly consistent with all I've read and what Russia has done.

[SWJ Blog]

Old Aspirations - New Tensions: “In Search of a New Russian Identity”

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[slapout9]

Wasn't sure where to put this so if this is the wrong thread feel free to move or have it moved. It is a speech given by Putin recently where he states that Russia must develop their own spiritual,cultural and national identity. Neither Soviet nor liberal extremism as he calls it.
http://rt.com/politics/official-word...onal-idea-142/

[AmericanPride]

Wasn't sure where to put this so if this is the wrong thread feel free to move or have it moved. It is a speech given by Putin recently where he states that Russia must develop their own spiritual,cultural and national identity. Neither Soviet nor liberal extremism as he calls it.
http://rt.com/politics/official-word...onal-idea-142/

Slap, that speech is a year old. But for a number of years now, the nationalists in the Russian elite have been pushing for a unique and separate development of Russia; a kind of neither 'east nor west' type of thing. For many centuries, one of the fundamental debates in Russian identity has been wrestling with is whether Russia is 'European' or 'Asian', or 'Slavic' or 'Western'. Same theme. I don't think it's fully understood in the West that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a traumatic experience; it simultaneously injured and inspired Russian nationalism.

[kaur]

Russia to Use Social Media in Fight Against Pseudoscience, Report Says
By Alexey Eremenko Oct. 07 2014 21:00

The Russian government allotted 30 million rubles ($750,000) for a social media campaign to combat rampant pseudoscience, Izvestia reported Tuesday.
The money, which will go toward a campaign on popular social media sites LiveJournal, Twitter, Facebook and VKontakte, is also meant to fund publications in the mass media and leaflets against pseudoscience, as well as lessons and journalistic workshops for students, the newspaper said, citing the Education and Science Ministry.

No direct statistics are available for pseudoscience in Russia, but 45 percent of the population believe in the existence of a global conspiracy to run the planet, state-run pollster VTsIOM said last month.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile...le/508589.html

[kaur]

Interview with Russian Security Council head Patrushev. Putin's close friend from Leningrad times and former FSB director. In the original article in Russian words USA and American were used over 50 times.

http://rt.com/politics/196456-russia...rushev-global/

[mirhond]

http://news.mail.ru/video/229498/

A man got prison term for an anecdote. looks like "old good" Soviet tradition returns. An anecdote is defined as hate speech, while it's just an ancient deja moo (but somewhat funny)
The whole situation is still the stuff of a joke, but...

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2614961
Putin defined "antinational thinking" - call for owerthowing an existent regime falls into scale.

[SWJ Blog]

A Look at Russian Civilization: Power, Truth, Trust, and War

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[mirhond]

A Look at Russian Civilization: Power, Truth, Trust, and War
.

This article contents some factual bull$hit, usually called lie, for example:

A heart-breaking present day example of this is the appearance of anti-theft devices in Russian supermarkets on mundane wares like cheese and sausage.

and its general tone sounds like mundane dehumanisation of Other, with lengthy qutations of some crackpots like Dugin, and know-nothings like Akunin while thorouthly ignoring good science like http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp, for example.
but some points are a true, as it should be with good propaganda.