Kurginyan: War euphoria can lead to disastrous decisions

13.08.2022, Moscow.

The belief in the unprecedented strength of the current Russian army, which surpasses the Soviet army, may provoke wrong, dangerous decisions for the country. Political scientist and philosopher Sergey Kurginyan writes in his article Kurginyan: ‘Drum-Thumping IdiotismWill Kill Russia published in the Essence of Time newspaper.

The political scientist describes the state of Drum-Thumping Idiotism as a situation in which people firmly believe in the unprecedented might of today’s Russia, and are unable to correctly understand and evaluate the country and its society. Unlike Drum-Thumping patriotism, which often leads to mistakes, Drum-Thumping Idiotism produces “war euphoria” and can lead to severe defeat, the author writes.

Drum-Thumping Idiotism emerged in the mid-2000s as a reaction to the Yeltsin era. Under Yeltsin, the country was literally on its knees to the West and an inferiority complex was imposed on it in every way possible in relation to the West, Kurginyan explains.

In such circumstances, how could people not rejoice that in the Putin era at least they were told that Russia is not subservient to the West, that we are getting up from our knees and so on? It was impossible not to rejoice about it,” says the expert.

However, the revival of patriotism is not the end. According to Kurginyan, patriotism has quickly turned into Drum-Thumping patriotism and then into Drum-Thumping Idiotism – “an extreme form of patriotic insanity.”

Neurotics suffering from Drum-Thumping Idiotism believe that “Putin’s Russia is a state with an army even more powerful than the Soviet one,” he explained. They claimed that a modern Russian army would conduct a special operation in a week or less.

“The worst thing is the ‘Drum-Thumping Idiotism’, which is based on a complete misunderstanding of the actual state of your society and your country,” Kurginyan explained.

One of the very experienced analysts told me on this matter: “The most dangerous thing is to first make up a picture, then broadcast it on television, and then, absorbing the television images, lose the boundary between this picture and reality,” he added.

The political scientist recalls how he was told about the unconditional swift victory over Ukraine by the participants of TV discussions. Kurginyan writes that he is concerned about two questions in this regard: “First, to what extent do those people who are close to the military elite and speak such nonsense believe in their own words. The second one is to what extent the decision makers believe their words.”

In reality, says the political scientist, we are witnessing striking heroism by the Russian army. It is not in the splendid condition about which “chatterboxes” are talking, but it is accomplishing its tasks in the face of enemy numerical superiority and military and technical assistance of NATO. The governing system has managed to secure some social and economic stability, and society supports Russia’s anti-Western course and the fight against the Banderites.

“All this is apparent. And it is impossible not to be happy about it. But does only this take place in the reality that so many would like to ignore?” asks the political scientist.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

Leave a Reply