Kurginyan: “Drum-thumping idiotism” stems from shame for involvement in destruction of USSR

31.07.2022, Aleksandrovskoye.

“Drum-thumping idiotism,” the neurotic belief in a myth of Russia’s post-Soviet greatness, comes from the shame that the public and the elite experience for their involvement in the collapse of the Soviet Union, philosopher and political scientist Sergey Kurginyan writes in his article ‘Drum-Thumping Idiotism’ Will Kill Russia published in the Essence of Time newspaper.

The author indicates a new condition of the public conscience that is deadly for the country. He contemplates about the difference between drum-thumping patriotism overestimating the advantages and capabilities of the country and a phenomenon that he calls drum-thumping idiotism. People affected by drum-thumping idiotism are far from any idea of the actual condition of their country and their society.

According to Kurginyan, drum-thumping idiotism is “a neurotic syndrome of a new greatness” of Russia, which comes from the shame that the public and the elite feel for their involvement in the final destruction of the USSR.

The political scientist indicates that the Soviet Union definitely approached its collapse in quite an imperfect and battered condition, with a very problematic existence and condition of the public conscience.

“However, the final destruction of the USSR, the dismantlement of the Soviet way of life with all its many good and useful components, the building of a wild capitalism, and the transformation of the country into a raw-material appendage – all these were something very many people felt ashamed for. As a remedy for this shame for their involvement, a new myth of a post-Soviet greatness is quite suitable. A myth about a reasonable, bourgeois, and market-based greatness,” Kurginyan believes.

The belief in Russia’s new greatness and its “rising from its knees” rejects any search for the country’s own way and its historical destiny. Drum-thumping idiotism, according to Kurginyan, declares that post-Soviet Russia, as a major nation state, is allegedly capable of defending its sovereignty in a confrontation with even the entire collective West. This myth was supported by the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the reintegration of Crimea, and the support provided to Donbass.

Kurginyan estimates that the number of the neurotics affected by drum-thumping idiotism among our citizens is about 50 million. To maintain their self-esteem, they have to use the mantra about the rising from our knees as a guise for their shame for their involvement in the destruction of their country, for their frantic idolization of the West as well as for the fact that “dear American” “used, abused and refused” them.

This is why a neurotic does not need the reality, the author believes. “When he is urged to look at the obvious features of this reality, he cries about mudslinging, he claims special knowledge about the greatness of our current Armed Forces, and he discusses the great condition of our wonderful military factories,” the political scientist noted.

Kurginyan also writes about neurotics inside the elite, who can “first make up a picture, then broadcast it on the TV, and then lose any distinction between this picture and reality through absorbing the TV messages.” According to the philosopher, what is dangerous to the country is this elite’s desperate belief in the picture it made up itself and its taking this picture for reality.

Kurginyan also warned that “a deadly depression” can appear if the mantra about raising from our knees is dissolved and this myth is destroyed. However, only engagement with reality and search for a response to the challenge can save the country in the current difficult situation.

Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency

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