I readily admit that “Stability Generation” isn’t a moniker that will ever stick in the public consciousness. But, I chose the term to highlight the stark difference in society that the younger generations grew up in. Those who spent their conscious, formative years in the Putin period of relative stability are quite different from the generations that preceded them. Basically, people who were children in the 90s or 00s and who have entered young adulthood now, grew up in a Russia that was on the upswing. Once the Chechen problem was solved, stability returned to the country and the real economy began to recover in ways that improved the quality of life for the average Russian.
I generally agree, however we cannot say that russian youth is just like western youth, only with a lag in post-modernism. There are some local specificities :
- In the field of men-women relations, a lot of women tend to recuse feminism, but only for expecting more from men : they say "feminism is bad, men and women are different", to add immediatly after "a true man will fulfill all the wishes of his partner, she is right to expect everything from him". This is not less immature than western feminism, the same tendancy can be noted here, one of depraving men of all their aspirations,
- Russian youth are much more likely to overuse Instagram, in comparison to their western peers. A lot of the youth culture circles around showing off, whether it's with Instagram, clothes, fancy bars, restaurants, and so on,
- The Russian youth is pretty much totally unaware of the political processes occuring in the West : they still view it as an economically stable, civilized, polite, pittoresque, democratic society. However, they don't have the slighest curiosity of what really constitutes Western societies, what's their culture, except from Hollywood blockbusters. I found that there in general a lack of curiosity in Russia, they only envy Western culture because they represented it like some sort of heaven, but it goes nowhere beyond this point,
- They inherited from the Soviet mentality in that they blame the government for everything. It never comes to their mind that maybe the citizen has some kind of duty too, and that if he wants to improve the situation, he might as well be proactive. Everytime something doesn't go perfectly (for example, the touristic potential of a place is not fully exploited), they blame it on the Russian government. The State was indeed controlling everything 40 years ago, but it's not the case anymore,
- Young men are often playing videogames all day long and women managing an OnlyFans account or a dirty Instagram. By the way, Russian young women often think that they are superior to their western counterparts just by being Russian, they blame them with feminism and other political trends but aren't anyhow more respectful towards men,
- They are not curious towards other cultures, but also not eager to go out of their comfort zone. They rarely try to meet new people, to do new things. I think it has to do with overwhelming role that have mothers in russian families. They pretty much command everything, and the father, if he stays, is completely silenced. As a consequence, stability, comfort, and suspiciousness are the core values. In families where the father leads, core values tend to be adventurousness, independance, and openness. That is not the case in Russia (I think that's a point you could develop, if you wish to),
- They much more often seem to experiment existential void, however I think that it's a general trait in Russia and not only among the youth.
I cannot think of anymore points for now. I need to add that I come from France, so I compare with the french youth.
This article helps me understand what I've been experiencing here (I'm in the US) with my Slav friends, and in particular with my online Russian teacher, who lives in one of the big Russian cities. She jumped in with the whole "Nyet Voine" business in February, and made a big deal of how terrible Putin was, etc. which confused me, because she is in her early 30's, and champions the beauty of Russian culture and Russian life. I assumed that she would understand Russia's historic mission and greatness.....oh well. After several anti-war/anti-Putin posts she announced that HER HUSBAND was telling her to knock it off, and that from now on her videos and posts would be about other stuff. I had to chuckle; good man to take the young wife in hand before she gets them in actual trouble. But now it makes sense, that she is a young one, went to University, speaks English, works with Westerners, etc. Here in the US the Ukraine thing has really messed up the vibe. Many of the Russian language community are Ukrainians ('cause so many got the hell out of there) and are fully empowered here to support Ukraine and hate on Russia. The refusal to acknowledge the terrible suffering of the Donbas from 2014 to now (the Ukies are still shelling Donetsk and killing random civilians) is absolutely weird and appalling. Glad to hear that not all hope is lost in Russian though.
It will be interesting to see if the East can hang on while the West circles the drain. Not sure if it is Protestantism or something unique in the Northwest European genotype, but Americans and Western Europeans seem to have a societal death wish, what with their importing millions and millions of foreigners for decades. Oh well, what will be will be, I guess. Not sure anything can save the West at this point.
Sounds like what Russia needs is a national cultural revival program. Something forward-looking and optimistic, with cultural and economic components. Goals: economic opportunity for young men; birth rate above 2.1/woman; multipronged cultural offensive (music, video games, movies, etc.) that draws the cultural center of gravity away from the west.
The latter component can't just be top-down, state propaganda however. It needs to be genuinely open and creative. Otherwise it won't take. Success in that sphere doesn't mean Russian kids watching Russian cartoons, it means American and Chinese kids watching Russian cartoons. Best defense is a good offense and all that.
Sorry to hear that things in your bailiwick are worse than I thought. One hope is that people might be able to look westward and see how badly things are going, but I'm not sure that's enough.
Re the MECHANICS of propaganda: In the west, it seems to have be: indoctrinate in the schools, starting with the academies which carry the most knee-jerk respect. When graduates enter society, indoctrination is embedded in the upper class workforce. This politicizes the media, and pushes indoctrination further and earlier in grade school teachers. Rinse and repeat, until the vortex becomes unstoppable.
Re the PSYCHOLOGY of propaganda: you already used the term "trendy" several times. The trick is to make outrage at breaches of social justice entertaining and popular, withoiut being too obvious. Then, all resistance, no matter how ridiculous, no matter how sensible, will be perceived as unsophisticated , crude, selfish, and most unnforgivably of all, in bad taste. Trendiness becomes all pervasive, and once that happens even a little, it snowballs. In the West, people are no longer free to speak their mind, or think freely, because of concerns about how they will be perceived by their trendy peers. God forbid that you say or think the wrong thing, lest people think you're a TRUMP SUPPORTER! There's no argument for that, so better be safe, especially if your job or family relations might suffer from the fallout. The whole USA upper middle class has been made to self-censor their own thoughts by this technique.
Expression of irreverent humor can defuse this seriousness effectively (like, draw Greta like Pepe the Frog), but in the West, the controllers have such a grip that they're able to censor mockery by protraying it as hate speech. What's needed is a fine balance between relentless mockery of people who take themselves too seriously, and respectful examination of, society's values. FWIW.
I saw a video about a figure in Russia who I believe was an ex-cop. He had attracted a following of young people and was enacting the role of a sort of “Jesus-Figure” with robes and long hair. He advocated for a “ spiritual culture” with young men taking up “manly” work and young women practicing traditional “feminine” arts. They had a large place in a fairly idyllic setting where they had some room to establish themselves. I haven’t heard any more about how they are faring as a group, whether there have been any sex scandals etc. which is so common as a dynamic when human beings try to manage their hormone tides. I had experience in a “ cult” in which there was a very sophisticated understanding of “polarity” as part of the instruction and I find that there is almost a total lack of awareness about it in SJW youth so as to be able to observe it and understand it and bring intelligence to it. Many cultures try to enhance and protect polarity because they understand that in so doing they help create conditions that promote the “sparking” that makes babies that furthers the process of that culture moving forward in time and overcoming all the obstacles within “Nature” to that culture. Modern youth culture of “the West” has inherited, until recently, a situation of unprecedented material comfort through successful fossil fuel harnessing. (We zip over asphalt that carpets and crisscrosses our landscape with no comprehension of the energy expenditure involved in making that road and how it could ever be done again if diesel costs $10-$100 or more a gallon.) This has made it possible to “coast” pretty obliviously and not notice consequences for a pretty long while. Similarly the emotional-sexual “playing field” is reflecting obliviousness to why it has been the way is and is being changed. Similarly, traditional “common sense caution” about testing carefully any medical intervention tactics for managing bodily health have been blithely ignored by people programmed to not even be curious and to even energetically support their own destruction. Look out below!
I generally agree, however we cannot say that russian youth is just like western youth, only with a lag in post-modernism. There are some local specificities :
- In the field of men-women relations, a lot of women tend to recuse feminism, but only for expecting more from men : they say "feminism is bad, men and women are different", to add immediatly after "a true man will fulfill all the wishes of his partner, she is right to expect everything from him". This is not less immature than western feminism, the same tendancy can be noted here, one of depraving men of all their aspirations,
- Russian youth are much more likely to overuse Instagram, in comparison to their western peers. A lot of the youth culture circles around showing off, whether it's with Instagram, clothes, fancy bars, restaurants, and so on,
- The Russian youth is pretty much totally unaware of the political processes occuring in the West : they still view it as an economically stable, civilized, polite, pittoresque, democratic society. However, they don't have the slighest curiosity of what really constitutes Western societies, what's their culture, except from Hollywood blockbusters. I found that there in general a lack of curiosity in Russia, they only envy Western culture because they represented it like some sort of heaven, but it goes nowhere beyond this point,
- They inherited from the Soviet mentality in that they blame the government for everything. It never comes to their mind that maybe the citizen has some kind of duty too, and that if he wants to improve the situation, he might as well be proactive. Everytime something doesn't go perfectly (for example, the touristic potential of a place is not fully exploited), they blame it on the Russian government. The State was indeed controlling everything 40 years ago, but it's not the case anymore,
- Young men are often playing videogames all day long and women managing an OnlyFans account or a dirty Instagram. By the way, Russian young women often think that they are superior to their western counterparts just by being Russian, they blame them with feminism and other political trends but aren't anyhow more respectful towards men,
- They are not curious towards other cultures, but also not eager to go out of their comfort zone. They rarely try to meet new people, to do new things. I think it has to do with overwhelming role that have mothers in russian families. They pretty much command everything, and the father, if he stays, is completely silenced. As a consequence, stability, comfort, and suspiciousness are the core values. In families where the father leads, core values tend to be adventurousness, independance, and openness. That is not the case in Russia (I think that's a point you could develop, if you wish to),
- They much more often seem to experiment existential void, however I think that it's a general trait in Russia and not only among the youth.
I cannot think of anymore points for now. I need to add that I come from France, so I compare with the french youth.
This article helps me understand what I've been experiencing here (I'm in the US) with my Slav friends, and in particular with my online Russian teacher, who lives in one of the big Russian cities. She jumped in with the whole "Nyet Voine" business in February, and made a big deal of how terrible Putin was, etc. which confused me, because she is in her early 30's, and champions the beauty of Russian culture and Russian life. I assumed that she would understand Russia's historic mission and greatness.....oh well. After several anti-war/anti-Putin posts she announced that HER HUSBAND was telling her to knock it off, and that from now on her videos and posts would be about other stuff. I had to chuckle; good man to take the young wife in hand before she gets them in actual trouble. But now it makes sense, that she is a young one, went to University, speaks English, works with Westerners, etc. Here in the US the Ukraine thing has really messed up the vibe. Many of the Russian language community are Ukrainians ('cause so many got the hell out of there) and are fully empowered here to support Ukraine and hate on Russia. The refusal to acknowledge the terrible suffering of the Donbas from 2014 to now (the Ukies are still shelling Donetsk and killing random civilians) is absolutely weird and appalling. Glad to hear that not all hope is lost in Russian though.
It will be interesting to see if the East can hang on while the West circles the drain. Not sure if it is Protestantism or something unique in the Northwest European genotype, but Americans and Western Europeans seem to have a societal death wish, what with their importing millions and millions of foreigners for decades. Oh well, what will be will be, I guess. Not sure anything can save the West at this point.
Sounds like what Russia needs is a national cultural revival program. Something forward-looking and optimistic, with cultural and economic components. Goals: economic opportunity for young men; birth rate above 2.1/woman; multipronged cultural offensive (music, video games, movies, etc.) that draws the cultural center of gravity away from the west.
The latter component can't just be top-down, state propaganda however. It needs to be genuinely open and creative. Otherwise it won't take. Success in that sphere doesn't mean Russian kids watching Russian cartoons, it means American and Chinese kids watching Russian cartoons. Best defense is a good offense and all that.
Sorry to hear that things in your bailiwick are worse than I thought. One hope is that people might be able to look westward and see how badly things are going, but I'm not sure that's enough.
Re the MECHANICS of propaganda: In the west, it seems to have be: indoctrinate in the schools, starting with the academies which carry the most knee-jerk respect. When graduates enter society, indoctrination is embedded in the upper class workforce. This politicizes the media, and pushes indoctrination further and earlier in grade school teachers. Rinse and repeat, until the vortex becomes unstoppable.
Re the PSYCHOLOGY of propaganda: you already used the term "trendy" several times. The trick is to make outrage at breaches of social justice entertaining and popular, withoiut being too obvious. Then, all resistance, no matter how ridiculous, no matter how sensible, will be perceived as unsophisticated , crude, selfish, and most unnforgivably of all, in bad taste. Trendiness becomes all pervasive, and once that happens even a little, it snowballs. In the West, people are no longer free to speak their mind, or think freely, because of concerns about how they will be perceived by their trendy peers. God forbid that you say or think the wrong thing, lest people think you're a TRUMP SUPPORTER! There's no argument for that, so better be safe, especially if your job or family relations might suffer from the fallout. The whole USA upper middle class has been made to self-censor their own thoughts by this technique.
Expression of irreverent humor can defuse this seriousness effectively (like, draw Greta like Pepe the Frog), but in the West, the controllers have such a grip that they're able to censor mockery by protraying it as hate speech. What's needed is a fine balance between relentless mockery of people who take themselves too seriously, and respectful examination of, society's values. FWIW.
I saw a video about a figure in Russia who I believe was an ex-cop. He had attracted a following of young people and was enacting the role of a sort of “Jesus-Figure” with robes and long hair. He advocated for a “ spiritual culture” with young men taking up “manly” work and young women practicing traditional “feminine” arts. They had a large place in a fairly idyllic setting where they had some room to establish themselves. I haven’t heard any more about how they are faring as a group, whether there have been any sex scandals etc. which is so common as a dynamic when human beings try to manage their hormone tides. I had experience in a “ cult” in which there was a very sophisticated understanding of “polarity” as part of the instruction and I find that there is almost a total lack of awareness about it in SJW youth so as to be able to observe it and understand it and bring intelligence to it. Many cultures try to enhance and protect polarity because they understand that in so doing they help create conditions that promote the “sparking” that makes babies that furthers the process of that culture moving forward in time and overcoming all the obstacles within “Nature” to that culture. Modern youth culture of “the West” has inherited, until recently, a situation of unprecedented material comfort through successful fossil fuel harnessing. (We zip over asphalt that carpets and crisscrosses our landscape with no comprehension of the energy expenditure involved in making that road and how it could ever be done again if diesel costs $10-$100 or more a gallon.) This has made it possible to “coast” pretty obliviously and not notice consequences for a pretty long while. Similarly the emotional-sexual “playing field” is reflecting obliviousness to why it has been the way is and is being changed. Similarly, traditional “common sense caution” about testing carefully any medical intervention tactics for managing bodily health have been blithely ignored by people programmed to not even be curious and to even energetically support their own destruction. Look out below!