Social Paranoia. What Threatens Our Children? - Society

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

Radicalism and youth, in fact, often go hand in hand. Let us recall that the Narodnaya Volya members were not recruited from those over forty. Another thing is worse. How did it happen that the new generation chooses the Nazis in a country that defeated the "brown plague"?

One sunny, Saturday and not foreshadowing anything bad morning my friend started cleaning and came across a girl's diary. Naturally, she could not resist curiosity: the diligent handwriting of her treasure, thirteen-year-old Nastyusha, did not display vignettes and sensitive rhymes, but some slogans and calls for a merciless struggle. There was something about ideology and self-denial. Having reached the word "Fuhrer", the unfortunate mother could hardly resist trying to poison herself with polish. The girl, brought up on Turgenev and Tolstoy, studies at the gymnasium, plays the clavichord. And suddenly this!

Say, "it happens"? Then a story about a boy. Also, by the way, a clever girl, a law student, became interested in martial arts. Parents, both candidates of science, could not get enough of it until the details were revealed. The young man joined an organization where they strive for harmony of the body not at all in order to impress the weaker sex, but in order not only with words, but also with their fists to stand up for the revival of Russian identity, devoured by the "wild civilization" of either the Caucasus or Central Asia … These examples are, as they say, from the inner circle. If you look deeper, very disappointing statistics will emerge (FOM, February 2011), and according to which there are more than a dozen movements in the country that openly preach xenophobia and racism, in whose ranks thousands of people from 18 to 25 years old. Why, you ask, do they go there?

To try to understand this, you can go to the site, or even better, attend an event of one of these organizations. Rigid hierarchy, rituals and swastikas, hysterical-hysterical emotionality with Orwellian five-minute hate and empty, if not naive, content - that's what will catch your eye. “We are in favor of a new state,” says the mission of a brotherhood of sword and plowshare. - First it will be a confederation between Germany, Denmark and Russia. More precisely - Russia. We will rename it to Rus. In the future, it will grow into a single something … " Foreigners occupied all the beautiful cities of Russia, - reads in another "document". “They are occupying apartments reserved for us. They drink our water. Trample our land. And they don't pay anything for it. " Or here's another: “First you need to become a hero, to prove to yourself through struggle, prison, blood that you are a hero,seize the country with your comrades, and then turn it wherever you like. We are white warriors …”Grabbing a belt or running after a validol, if it concerns your child, is a matter of temperament. Empty, I must say, the case.

LAW OF THE JUNGLE

“If you look around, a protest is ripening” - this is how, unobtrusively, gracefully, it seems on Facebook, they expressed the essence of what sociologists call social frustration. The following were quotes from the American science fiction writer William Tan about a society in which an average person rules with all his conformism, feigned hedonism and consumer enthusiasm. In general, while we furnish our hut from the edge in the loft style, young people are looking for emotional support in radical parties. Or - running from something?

“Those who are now 14 or 15 years old feel emotionally rejected,” says Aleksandr Tarasov, director of the Phoenix Center for New Sociology and the Study of Practical Politics. - And not the least role here is played by the specifics of presenting information on television and in the media. When they say from TV screens every day that another official sat down for a bribe, that the economy is built on “kickbacks” and “cuts”, and parents do not hide the fact that every day in every possible way they “demonstrate loyalty” to the company they hate among teenagers there is a feeling that there is no future: cynicism, dull service, pseudo-culture and insecurity. In addition, social stratification has reached such proportions that there is no need to talk about the “problems of youth” as such: the interests of children from wealthy families and from “simple” ones are antagonistic.

Everything, of course, is so, you say, but why does the choice fall on pro-fascist organizations, and do they not go, say, to antiglobalists or to the greens? To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the essence of xenophobia, which lies at the foundation of most of the movements that we are talking about.

WHO IS NOT WITH US, THAT IS AGAINST US

Xenophobic thinking obeys the logic of threat and the laws of fear. Feeling insecure distorts the perception of reality. Those who are constantly afraid of something no longer rely on facts, but on suspicions, on their own projections of anxiety and on attributing to others the motives of malicious intent. This "disease" can manifest itself not only in a single person, but also in a whole group. To define the state of a society in which such moods are widespread, psychologist J. Sorver-Foner introduced the term "social paranoia", when, at a certain intensity of psychopathological processes at the unconscious level, "outsiders" are selected on which everything that the social paranoid thinks for yourself unwanted. And these delusions are directed primarily at those who are easy to identify as “not ours”.

“Projections are the main psychological defense of a xenophobe,” says Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University. MV Lomonosova Galina Soldatova. - A xenophobe explains and structures the surrounding world within the framework of the logic of “friends” and “aliens”, which inevitably leads to the search for an external enemy. Also, this type of thinking is characterized by a bipolar perception of the world: "black - white", "good - evil", "light - darkness". For example, in accordance with this logic, everything that a xenophobe thinks seems closer to the pole of truth, and everything that his opponent thinks seems to be closer to the pole of lies. Subjectively, this state is experienced as a struggle between truth and lies, in the emotional sphere, feelings of self-importance, anxiety and fear prevail."

Another feature of the xenophobe's psychology is that he sees a clear border between norm and pathology and strives for “norm”, for an average idea of a person, when everything that goes beyond the usual causes a feeling of rejection, protest and disgust. German sociologist, philosopher and psychoanalyst Erich Fromm called this the pathology of normality, when an individual tries hard to be like the majority, that is, to comply with generally accepted norms. According to Fromm, such a position is pathological, because it severely limits a person's socio-cultural space and interferes with his self-realization.

It is generally accepted that the search for truth in fascist organizations is characteristic of young people from disadvantaged families, poorly educated and living below the poverty line. However, sympathy for such movements is expressed by outwardly prosperous high school students, students of lyceums and gymnasiums. Research carried out by the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has shown that the ground for radicalism is formed not so much in the lower social classes as in families, which are focused more on the values and stereotypes of the group, clan, and not on the interests of the individual.

Doctor of Psychology Galina Soldatova notes that cultural characteristics play an important role here in experiencing feelings of guilt, which depend on the tradition and style of upbringing in the family. “Where children are taught early to be independent and self-reliant, the ability to experience guilt develops more intensively and the ability to cope with it is formed. Those who are brought up in a culture focused on the interests of the group are subject to more inhibitions and prejudices. Even if such children managed to avoid “sanctions” from adults, the feeling of guilt as a psychological inner punishment will remain with them on a subconscious level.

GIVE A BELT?

It is unlikely that there are many among adults who raised young Nazis or sympathizers who encourage this line of thought. Someone looks at the child's hobbies through their fingers ("he won't go anywhere, he will go crazy"), someone is simply not up to it - their own affairs in bulk, but the majority of normal, interested parents experience what is called a culture shock. Emotions range from “He’s not himself” to “He’s completely out of hand. We must punish them properly! " If you are "lucky" and you are "in the know", then you probably know - neither one nor the other helps. The first thing that experts do not advise to do in this situation is just to scold, scold and condemn dissent. Your teenager perceives your righteous anger as rejection, which will build another wall on the path to understanding and emotional closeness. On the contrary, you need to establish contact. Of course, if, God forbid,eerie ideology goes beyond idle conversations and diary entries, you cannot do without professional help. But in any case, the "fascist" child must again learn to accept and understand. Therefore, we will cite several myths that are usually dominated by those who are faced with this problem.

YES, HE IS JUST ABNORMAL

At a young age, a sense of brotherhood is very important, clear life attitudes (yes - yes, so that black is black, and white is white), and those same “friends and foes” are needed. If you are not enough for endless and, frankly, boring adults and busy people talk about good and evil ("boys" and not "boys"), it is possible that the child will start looking for landmarks outside the family. “Young people often find something like this among radicals,” notes Alexander Tarasov. - The way out, to put it mildly, is dubious, but then fifteen-year-olds are not Spinoza or Hegels. Even if they have natural inclinations, many of them are deprived of knowledge, genuine education."

HE DOESN'T HAVE HIS HEAD ON SHOULDERS, WHERE THEY REMEMBER, THERE AND GOES

This, by the way, is not only for him or her. This is typical of all teenagers. Experiments have shown that the "we" category for people aged 5 to 15 is the main starting point. At preschool age, everything known, familiar, and tested gets into it, and the objects "we" are colored not only positively, but also negatively. For older schoolchildren, this category narrows and takes on an "elitist" character. The teenager is actively looking for "friends". Sorting takes place, and now “we” includes mainly people and social groups that will be referential for the teenager. On the contrary, “they” begins to increase in size. But if for preschoolers the category "they" is all-encompassing, then for adolescents this is a meaningfully and emotionally very specific category. "They" are no longer a secret with seven seals. It is a complex, interesting and unsafe world. The emotional imbalance between the categories reaches its peak at this age. In accordance with the maximalism characteristic of adolescents, “we” turns into an unambiguously positive category for them, “they” into a negative one.

A DEEP PERSON CANNOT BE A XENOPHOB

The fear of the stranger ("xenos") is in one way or another characteristic of all people. Data from tests conducted by American psychologists have shown that even those who consider themselves to be examples of tolerance involuntarily increase the frequency of blinking when they see a face of a different race in a picture. So xenophobia has a clear biological nature. Another thing is that when we behave irreconcilably, we roll back to primitive stages of development, back into the caves.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH A TEEN REBELS

Avoid labeling. Bewilderment, fear and the desire to suppress such behavior with punishment, a categorical refusal to understand such interests, have the opposite effect.

Analyze family relationships. Do not quarrel or share your fears in front of your child. “What can we do?”, “We are poor, sick” - these speeches must be excluded.

Give freedom. Strict control can cause rebellion against parental oppression: the teenager will fundamentally break the rules and contradict you.

Help. Feel free to show love, spend more time together, and praise more often for what he really excels at.

Defend your views. Argue, but don't get personal. There is a colossal difference between “This is not close to me” and “You are disgusting to me”.

EXPERT OPINION

Yuri Aleksandrov,

Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Psychophysiology of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

IT IS USELESS TO FIGHT?

I will say a seditious thing: nationalistic sentiments as an attempt to preserve cultural and mental boundaries are an evolutionarily determined thing. From the point of view of morality, Nazism and xenophobia are disgusting, but on the level of psychophysiology they are inevitable. Numerous studies have proven that representatives of different cultures think differently and even in the same phenomenon isolate different meanings. This "difference" concerns all aspects of the mentality, it turns into a whole system, which, when they try to blur and unify it, by all means tries to preserve itself. That is why, during periods when a huge number of foreigners come to the country, such sentiments in society intensify. It is useless to fight this - you just need to know and take into account.

EXPERT OPINION

Galina Soldatova,

Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosova, Director of the Center for Tolerance and Humanitarian Technologies "Gratis"

THE WORLD IS NOT Hate

There is a very serious socio-psychological basis for the emergence of radical movements in our society. For several years in a row, we have been conducting an all-Russian monitoring of social trust, xenophobia and tolerance, a kind of barometer of social well-being. One of the conclusions is that our society is generally very prone to radicalism - this, unfortunately, is one of the main trends in the development of social consciousness. According to the highest indices of xenophobia, schoolchildren are in the lead - these are senior grades and young people of different groups - up to 23-24 years old. Pensioners are catching up a bit. But compared to the mature population, schoolchildren stand out extremely strongly, and this situation cannot but be alarming.

However, not everything is as hopeless as it seems. As the experience of other countries shows, education plays a very important role here: it allows the development of a world outlook, which is based on the awareness of the commonality of humanity and the formation of an attitude towards the “other” not as “alien”, but as “neighbor”.