Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 30 – The psychology
of primitive groups, elaborated by Viktor Droganov and others, explains the
behavior of Russians today, Andrey Movchan says, and without an understanding
of that reality, he continues, “it is impossible to understand the serious
processes which are taking place in the Russian Federation” of Vladimir Putin.
“The most important quality of a
primitive group,” the Moscow commentator says in a Slon.ru essays, “is a
refusal to recognize the realities of its own behavior and [the manifestation
of] a need to justify” whatever it has done by seeking to place the blame on
someone else (slon.ru/russia/moral_v_rossii_opravdanie_zla_v_primitivnoy_gruppe_-1119610.xhtml).
From the president to the media to
the ordinary man in the street, Russians “are occupied with thinking up an
infinite number of justifications for what they cannot name aloud” and so that
they “do not have to acknowledge to themselves that we live according to the
ideology of a primitive group and are not capable of cooperating – and as an
explanation why we do not need to cooperate and a justification for ignoring ‘a
positive example.’”
It is this underlying psychology, Movshan continues, that
explain “why in response to an article about the ineffectiveness of our
economy, hundreds of readers write in: ‘But the US is occupying Iraq!” This
doesn’t mean that we “live badly because the US has occupied Iraq.” It is
simply a way of justifying Russian mistakes by pointing to the mistakes of
others, a characteristic of primitive groups.
Tragically,
he says, “everyone is occupied with ‘justification. The liberal media suddenly have begun to
justify the actions of the authorities in Russia by the faith of the
authorities that Russia is a fortress surrounded by enemies.” And consequently,
they have made “their ideology, the ideology of defense against the outside
world.”
Such
“an explanation is beautiful, comfortable, and a simulacrum of truth.” But its
great virtue in the current institute is that “it removes from society a sense
of responsibility: a suspicious view on the outside world and searches for
enemies is so understandable and forgivable, although, of course, [such things
are] not always adequate...”
“No less important for an
understanding of today’s situation,”Movchan says, is creating a situation in
which everyone has been involved in something shameful or that would be
punished in ordinary circumstances and thus feels the need, in the words of
Droganov, to unite under the leader “on account of a common feeling of fear and
guilt.”
“The annexation of Crimea in this
sense is the apotheosis: after 80 percent of the citizens of the country have
supported theft at an international level, the authorities in Russia do not
have to worry about the unity of the group and a high level of its support.”
Having become implicated in one crime, few are willing to stop, and many are
calling for more such actions.
In primitive societies, Movchan
continues, any move to restrict the groups ambitions is viewed as an insult and
denigration that must be opposed and that members of the group must show that
they and their leaders are “’better’” on whatever is being measured, be in
military power or an athletic competition.
What Ukrainians have achieved
politically is viewed by Russians as a limitation on them and thus a
denigration that cannot be tolerated. Instead, Russians feel that they must
respond by destroying it militarily or short of them by denigrating it in all
possible ways. That typically requires open falsification of what is going on,
but that is no limit for primitive societies.
Indeed, Movchan says, “for a primitive
group, means have no significance” except in one sense: “the level of cynicism of
actions only increases the status of those who use it in the eyes of the group.”
And if members of the group can be made to feel that they are the victims via
such propaganda, then they will not only behave worse but feel greater
solidarity with the group.
There is yet another way in which
the psychology of Russians today is the psychology of a primitive group: the
failure of members to identify with or care about the victimization of others.
Instead, the Russian commentator suggests, there is among Russians as in other
primitive groups “a rule of indifference” about the fates of others.
“Unfortunately, he continues, “no
recipes exist for the transformation of a primitive group into an ‘egalitarian’
one without essential influence from outside. On the contrary, primitive groups
are very conservative toward any changes,” are upset by criticism, and don’t go
looking for possibilities in this regard.
Moreover, “the current authorities
will actively defend the country from the penetration of positive examples” by
shutting down foreign NGOs, gradually restricting foreign travel, censorship,
and promotion of “’tradition.’” But in
today’s world, all the oil resources Russia has will not allow Moscow to shut down
all information flows.
To escape from the current
primitiveness, Movchan concludes, “it is necessary to speak and write more
about positive models ... to try to introduce them locally ... and to offer
alternatives rather than accusations” in any argument. At some point, the oil will run out, and “only
the existence of people capable of building relations not on the principles of
a primitive group will be able to save the country from being transformed into
a red-brown zone.”
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