Mentality is the prevailing patterns, stereotypes, and thought patterns. A certain Nikolai Ivanovich Kozlov (Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Rector of the University of Practical Psychology, founder of the website "Psychologos"), names the features of the mentality of Russians and invites them to recognize themselves.
Learned?
1. Conciliarity, the primacy of the general over the personal: “we are all our own”, we have everything in common and “what will people say”. Conciliarism turns into a lack of privacy and the ability for any neighbor's grandmother to intervene and tell you what she thinks about your clothes, manners and raising your children.
From the same opera, the concepts of "community", "collective", which are absent in the West. "The opinion of the team", "not to separate from the team", "and what will people say?" - pure collegiality. On the other hand, they will tell you if you have a tag sticking out, a lace is untied, your pants are splashed, or a grocery bag is torn. And also - they blink their headlights on the road to warn about the traffic police and save them from a fine.
2. Striving to live by the truth. The term "truth", often found in ancient Russian sources, means the legal norms on the basis of which the court was judged (hence the expressions "judge the right" or "judge in truth", that is, objectively, fairly). The sources of codification are the norms of customary law, princely jurisprudence, as well as borrowed norms from authoritative sources - primarily the Holy Scriptures.
Outside of Russian culture, it is more often said about law-abidingness, the rules of decency or following religious precepts. In the eastern mentality, the Truth is not spoken about, in China it is important to live according to the precepts left by Confucius.
3. In the choice between reason and feeling, Russians choose feeling: sincerity and sincerity. In the Russian mentality, “expediency” is practically synonymous with selfish, selfish behavior and is not in honor, as something “American”. It is difficult for the average Russian man in the street to imagine that it is possible to act rationally and consciously not only for oneself, but also for the sake of someone; therefore, selfless actions are identified with actions “from the heart,” based on feelings, without a head.
Russian - a dislike for discipline and methodicalness, life to one's liking and mood, a change of mood from peacefulness, forgiveness and humility to a merciless rebellion for complete destruction - and vice versa. The Russian mentality lives rather according to the female model: feeling, gentleness, forgiveness, reacting with crying and rage to the consequences of such a life strategy.
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4. Certain negativism: the majority of Russians more often see themselves as shortcomings rather than virtues. Abroad, if a person on the street accidentally touches another person, almost everyone's stereotyped reaction: “Sorry”, an apology and a smile. They are brought up like that. It is sad that in Russia such patterns are more negative, here you can hear “Well, where are you looking?” And something sharper. Russians understand well what melancholy is, despite the fact that this word cannot be translated into other European languages. On the streets, it is not customary for us to smile, look into the faces of others, it is indecent to make acquaintances and just speak.
5. A smile in Russian communication is not an obligatory attribute of politeness. In the West, the more a person smiles, the more politeness he shows. In traditional Russian communication, the priority is the requirement of sincerity. The smile of Russians demonstrates a personal disposition towards another person, which, of course, does not apply to everyone. Therefore, if a person smiles not from the heart, it causes rejection.
You can ask for help - most likely they will help. It's normal to beg - both a cigarette and money. A person with a constantly good mood arouses suspicion - either sick, or insincere. Anyone who usually smiles affably at others is, if not a foreigner, then, of course, a sycophant. Of course, insincere. Says "Yes", agrees - a hypocrite. Because a sincere Russian person will certainly disagree and object. And in general, the most real sincerity is when using foul language! Then you believe a person!
6. Love of controversy. Disputes traditionally occupy a large place in Russian communication. A Russian person loves to argue on a variety of issues, both private and general. A love of disputes on global, philosophical issues is a striking feature of Russian communicative behavior.
The Russian person is often interested in a dispute not as a means of finding the truth, but as a mental exercise, as a form of emotional, sincere communication with each other. That is why in Russian communicative culture, disputants so often lose the thread of the dispute, easily deviate from the original topic.
At the same time, the desire for a compromise or to give the interlocutor to save face is completely uncharacteristic. Uncompromising, conflict is manifested very clearly: our person is uncomfortable if he did not argue, could not prove his innocence. “As the English teacher formulated this quality:“The Russian always argues to win.” And vice versa, the characterization “conflict-free” is more likely to have a disapproving connotation, like “spineless”, “unprincipled”.
7. A Russian person lives by faith in good, which will one day descend from heaven (or simply from above) to the long-suffering Russian land: "Good will surely triumph over evil, but then, someday." At the same time, his personal position is irresponsible: “Someone will bring the truth to us, but not me personally. I myself cannot do anything and will not do anything. " The main enemy of the Russian people for several centuries has been the state in the form of a punitive class.
8. The principle of "stick out". In the Russian mentality, a disdainful attitude towards politics and democracy as a form of political structure, in which the people are the source and controller of the activities of power. Characteristic is the conviction that people do not really decide anything anywhere, and democracy is a lie and hypocrisy. At the same time, tolerance and the habit of lying and hypocrisy of their power because of the conviction that it cannot be otherwise.
9. The habit of theft, bribery and deception. The conviction that they steal everywhere and everything, and it is impossible to earn big money in an honest way. Principle - "if you do not steal, you will not live." Alexander I: “There is such theft in Russia that I’m afraid to go to the dentist - I’ll sit in a chair and they will steal my jaw…” Dal: “A Russian man is not afraid of the cross, but is afraid of the pestle”.
At the same time, Russians are characterized by a protest attitude towards punishments: to punish for minor violations is not good, somehow petty, you need to "forgive!" will sigh for a long time until he gets angry and starts a pogrom.
10. Following from the previous point, a characteristic feature of the Russian mentality is the love of freebies. Films need to be downloaded via torrent, pay for licensed programs - zapadlo, a dream is the joy of Leni Golubkov in the MMM pyramid. Our fairy tales draw heroes who lie on the stove and end up with a kingdom and a sexy queen. Ivan the Fool is strong not by diligence, but by his ingenuity, when Pikes, Sivki-Burki, Humpbacked Skates and other wolves, fish and firebirds will do everything for him.
11. Caring for health is not a value, sport is strange, getting sick is normal, but it is categorically not allowed to abandon the poor, including it is considered morally unacceptable to leave those who did not care about their health and as a result became in fact a helpless disabled person. Women look for the rich and successful, but love the poor and the sick. "How is he without me?" - hence codependency as a norm of life.
12. Pity takes the place of humanism. If humanism welcomes caring for a person, placing on a pedestal a free, developed, strong person, then pity directs care to the unfortunate and sick. According to statistics from Mail.ru and VTsIOM, assistance to adults ranks fifth in popularity after helping children, the elderly, animals, and helping environmental problems. People feel more sorry for dogs than for people, and of people, out of a feeling of pity, it is more important to support children who are not viable than adults who could still live and work.
In the comments to the article, someone agrees with such a portrait, someone accuses the author of Russophobia.
What points do you disagree with?