National identity.

The article provides answers to the questions: what is the importance of language for building a civilization of creation; why the Russian language is the basis for building a civilization of creation in Russia; Why do the conscience and morality of a people depend on language? The division of speech into the language of truth (the language of creation) and the language of lies (the language of destruction) is described, and the meaning of such a division is explained. Attached to the article is a table of the distinction between the language of truth (the language of creation) and the language of lies (the language of destruction).

The importance of language in civilization building

It is impossible to build a creative society
using destructive concepts.

Every creator needs to improve in discernment,
expose manifestations of the language of destruction
and spread the language of truth - the language of creation.

Language is a system that enables communication and the transfer of information between people and even between generations separated by significant periods of time, for example, through writing and, nowadays, through film and other forms of technical recording. In addition, language is also the medium through which information is processed.

Languages differ by place of origin: Russian, English, French and others. Also in the world, languages are created for various fields of activity: the language of chemistry, physics, there is the language of programmers, medical workers, economists, bankers, there is the language of the criminal world and others. These languages do not live in isolation and some concepts from narrow languages gradually flow into the common speech of the majority of the population of a particular society.

Due to the system of concepts of a language, native speakers of this language have the opportunity to understand each other and unite in joint activities. There are also languages that perform the function of hiding information; they are deliberately made incomprehensible to most people - they will be discussed below. In addition, the words of a particular language often, due to their emotional connotation, convey moral assessments for the phenomena denoted by these words.

For example, according to the language of affirmation and preservation of Sobriety, actively used by the sober movement in Russia, drinking alcohol is called “alcoholic self-poisoning” - words with a negative emotional connotation. The same process, in the language of the structures involved in taking away Sobriety, is called “drinking strong drinks,” “drinking beer, wine,” and other positively colored words. As you can see, you can describe the same phenomenon in a creative, truthful language, using the words “alcohol self-poisoning,” but when using the language of lies (the language of destruction), you can hide the harmful effects of alcohol by hiding it with the words “drinking.”

In turn, representatives of the civilization of creation are taking retaliatory measures to protect morality and increase the vitality of society by developing a creative terminological apparatus. An example of this is the language of affirmation and preservation of Sobriety, which became the basis for writing this work.

Thus, humanity has two comprehensive languages: the language of lies (the language of destruction) and the language of truth (the language of creation). By spreading the language of lies (language of destruction) among citizens

the ability to understand surrounding events and predict their consequences is impaired,
the morality of society is declining,
Sobriety is taken away,
natural family values are being destroyed,

which facilitates appropriation and acquisitiveness for narrow circles of a destructive-appropriating civilization. The language of lies (the language of destruction) reduces the viability of broad layers of humanity.

The second language, the language of truth (the language of creation), is distinguished by its intelligibility; the words in this language truthfully reflect the usefulness or harmfulness of certain phenomena for humanity, due to which the use of the language of truth allows people to build a just world order.

Words define morality

Each concept represents the relationship between a word and an image corresponding to the word. Moreover, what the image of the phenomenon will be in people’s minds, what people’s emotional and moral assessment of the phenomenon will be, largely depends on the word used. For example, the words “love”, “tenderness” have a soft, melodic consonance and these words form a favorable attitude towards the phenomena denoted by these words, but the words “nasty”, “anger”, “abomination” subconsciously evoke a negative assessment of the phenomena denoted by these words, this occurs largely unconsciously, due to the fact that these words have a harsh, rude sound. The words themselves help to understand our world based on the wisdom of the people accumulated in the language. Emotional coloring of words - important side building a language of creation.

The leading layers of a destructive-appropriating civilization understand this, and the violation of society’s understanding of reality plays into their hands. The substitution of concepts can be seen most clearly in the example of the promotion of sexual perversions. For example, according to reports from the “Forward, Citizens” community in Moscow at VDNKh in 2018, the early introduction of “sex education lessons in schools” was proposed, which is essentially the corruption of children. In these lessons, it is planned to introduce the concept of “gender” into the school curriculum instead of the usual concept of “sex”. Gender ideologists deny the concept of “sex” and introduce the concept of “gender” - something like “social sex”, that is, a semblance of sex chosen by a person independently, but this word does not have a clear definition. Thus, with the help of substitution of concepts, children of European countries are now being forced to doubt their gender, and they are trying to push the same thing in Russia. Also in these lessons on sexual depravity, the concepts of “homophobia” and “transphobia” are introduced, which equate people with natural family values with sick people. Instead of the concepts of “sodomy”, “pederast”, “sexual pervert”, neutral or positively colored words such as “gay”, “homosexual” and others are now imposed on us. In this way, representatives of a destructive-appropriating civilization change the morality of people. The destruction of natural family values, first of all, begins with a change in language.

When a word that truly represents a phenomenon is replaced by another neutral or attractive word, according to the rules of Western science, this is called “euphemization.” This word comes from the Greek. ἐυφήμη – “prudence”, but in reality the word “euphemization” is also a manifestation of the language of lies, because this phenomenon does not bring anything “good” to society. For example, to refer to the murder of children in the womb, the inexpressive, abstract word “abortion” is used. At the same time, an unborn person is called a “fetus,” thereby equating it with inanimate objects (vegetables, fruits) and is deprived of any legislative protection - this substitution of concepts helps justify the permissibility of intrauterine murder of children. Destroyers in Western Europe and in the United States of America they go even further and propose to introduce into the legal field the concepts of “postpartum abortion” and “postnatal abortion”, covering with these words their proposals to allow, at the request of parents, to kill already born, including healthy children.

Often now the word “cohabitation” is replaced with the words “civil marriage”. Initially, the expression “civil marriage” meant a marriage formalized in the relevant government authorities without the participation of the church. Cohabitation is not actually marriage, it is already a forgery. In addition, in order to preserve the morality and family values of society, it is advisable for society to condemn extramarital affairs, therefore a word with a negative, condemning connotation should be used to designate them; therefore, it is unacceptable to call cohabitation “civil marriage.” Language is the basis of human morality.

Emotionally neutral, politically correct language, which often replaces creative concepts different cultures and peoples, often serves to conceal the destructive effects of many phenomena and helps the spread of these phenomena. Modern world-eaters have united and idealize their false language, calling it political correctness, while claiming the most benign names for themselves and their minions. For example, it is politically incorrect to call economic invaders invaders - now they are “investors.” It is not politically correct to say “sexual deviants”; supposedly one should say “persons with non-traditional sexual orientation”, “gays”. It is not politically correct to say “prostitute” or “whore” - now journalists call them “sex workers”, etc. By the way, the word “correctness” itself means tact, politeness, courtesy, but at the same time it means “accuracy, correctness, clarity." It turns out that if the use of a certain word is considered impolite in a certain circle of people, therefore, it is incorrect and “wrong”. It turns out that to determine what is politically correct, the truth is not needed - a word reflecting the truth can be declared incorrect if it does not correspond to the order accepted in a particular society. Therefore, it is better to use the concept of “correctness” instead of the concept of “correctness”. The word “correctness” is close in sound to the word “truth”, therefore what is called correct must correspond to the truth (objective reality).

By imposing a false language on society, representatives of a destructive-appropriating civilization change people’s thinking, systematically deprive people of the opportunity to understand what is good and what is evil; also, due to the imposition of “political correctness,” the intelligibility of information in general decreases. For example, we are now replacing the concept of “pressure” or “coercion” with the concept of “sanctions”. The word “sanctions” sounds soft, so the means of forming it are quite calm public consciousness(SFOS) are talking about pressure measures (sanctions) from the United States of America, calling them our “partners” - but this is a deception. Thus, with the help of the language of lies, they hide from us the weak, dependent position of Russia, and also retouch the true aggressive behavior of the United States of America. Politicians are specially trained to “smooth out” popular indignation by substituting concepts, as well as by introducing new concepts into speech.

If it is necessary to make a massive layoff of employees, then in destructive false language this is called the soft word “optimization,” as a result of which the vigilance of the creators is muffled.

Another example: bankers in Russia and the world are puzzled by how to force people to borrow at a significant interest rate as much and as often as possible. For this, it is very convenient to use the concept of “credit” instead of the true concepts of “usurious debt”, “interest-bearing debt” or “growing debt”. In addition, the expression “credit product” is now spreading, with the help of which citizens are given the feeling that lending money by a bank is not a service, but a type of product or product. When using the expression “credit product”, pawnbrokers and moneylenders take on the appearance of creative people engaged in the production of their “products”.

Understanding the properties of the emotional coloring of words allows everyone to understand and justify that a particular word belongs to the language of truth (the language of creation), or the language of lies (the language of destruction). How to apply this knowledge for creative purposes is described in detail in last section this work.

The Russian language is the basis for constructing the language of truth (the language of creation) in Russia

The Russian language is the state-forming language of Russia, it is the basis for the preservation and development of scientific, cultural, historical heritage Russia and the Soviet Union. The use of Russian words is important for citizens to understand the value of Russian culture and awaken love for the Motherland. The Russian language has many other advantages; in order to more accurately describe the meaning of the Russian language, let us compare it with English and with the so-called “international concepts”.

The meaning of some words in the Russian language is often more creative than the meaning of English words. For example, instead of the concept “Motherland”, like fatherland, native country, in English the word “land” is used, that is, simply “land”.

Nowadays, the word “manager” is widely used. IN Russian Empire there was a profession called “manager”, it would seem, why invent and replace a Russian word with a foreign one? The word “management” itself contains the root “rule”, which is close to the expressions “to do right, to rule, to correct.” A similar root of “rights” is present in the words “righteous,” “truth,” “justice,” “justice.” A person called a “manager” or “manager” may subconsciously feel that he must change reality to the correct state, and his subordinates will expect the same from him. When the creative Russian word is replaced by the English-language “manager,” the concept of the high mission of a manager is blurred in the minds of people, which subsequently has a strong impact on the state of the entire society.

In addition to a more creative meaning, Russian words are advantageous for constructing the language of truth (the language of creation) due to the fact that in the Russian language word formation is easily traced by words with the same root, for example: the words “research” or “consequence” come from the word “trace” - the same Thus, any complex Russian word has a simpler, and most importantly, understandable basis. In the English language, which is actively propagated today, there is no systematic word formation, since many words in it are collected from Latin, Greek, French, Scandinavian and other languages. The continuity of word formation in the Russian language often allows us to figure out what this or that old or newly created word means, helps us to understand the relationships between the phenomena of life - this quality must be preserved.

The excessive polysemy of words that is characteristic of the English language is undesirable. There is ambiguity in the Russian language, but in English there is an order of magnitude more of it; it is characteristic of many English words, for example, the word “break”, according to the Google translator, has 85 meanings, including “to break”, “to lay”, “disperse”, “teach”, “train”, “weaken”, etc. Examples of English polysemy can be given for a very long time.

In addition, in English many words have the same sound but different spellings. The rules of reading in English are extremely vague and there are many exceptions; therefore, in addition to writing, the student has to remember the pronunciation of each word, for which it is customary to indicate the transcription in dictionaries. For example, one creator of a textbook for learning English counted five exceptions to seven rules for reading the letter “u” in various letter combinations. There is an English joke that it is only spelled "Manchester" but pronounced "Liverpool". The famous English linguist Max Muller rightly noted that English spelling is a national disaster. Partly due to this lack of various parts Dialects and dialects are multiplying around the world English language, which often makes mutual understanding difficult. Attempts are regularly made to change this situation, the most famous of them was undertaken by Bernard Shaw: he created a fund, with the funds of which a competition was announced to create a new English alphabet with a clear correspondence between writing and pronunciation. This alphabet was created, it contains 40 letters, each of which corresponds to only one sound. Despite the advantages of B. Shaw's alphabet, they did not change the familiar, disordered English writing.

Due to the lack of clear reading rules, the quality of transmission, reception of information and thinking based on the English language decreases. Having clear rules for reading and pronunciation in the Russian language is of great value.

Russian is a figurative language - most Russian words have a clear relationship in our minds with the phenomena denoted by these words. For example, when teaching sciences presented in Russian, students rarely need dictionaries - Russian speech makes it easier to understand the meaning of what is written, the boundaries of the use of Russian words are often intuitively clear. The same cannot be said for teaching based on international concepts, which requires careful memorization of word definitions. Foreign words are often too abstract, which makes it difficult to connect a foreign word with its corresponding image. In this regard, many people who write texts use words whose meaning they do not always understand, or understand the meaning of words differently than readers understand these words, as a result of which the writer’s thought can be detached from the text he is creating. Reading such texts sometimes brings nothing but a headache. In addition, due to speech incomprehensible to the majority, a significant part of the information becomes accessible only to a narrow circle of people who have studied a set of concepts specific to a particular area for a long time. In this way, information is hidden from the uninitiated (from “non-specialists”), which helps build a society in which narrow layers of a destructive-appropriating civilization will dominate. In addition to hiding information, representatives of a destructive-appropriating civilization often deceive people with words that do not have precise definitions, for example, “gender”, “tolerance”, “democracy” and others. These words are introduced into laws and sciences, but they do not have a clear definition, which opens up great opportunities for the creation of false ideals and other types of deception.

Communication in Russia at all levels, especially in the political environment, must be conducted in the Russian literary language; replacing Russian words with foreign ones is unacceptable, because:

Russian words are most often figurative, precise and understandable;
the meaning of Russian words is fixed in dictionaries, therefore, communication at any level can be built on the basis of the Russian literary language;
the approval of the rules of communication in Russian words in the political environment, in the economy and other areas significantly facilitates popular control over the activities of government officials, and also facilitates the entry into power of the indigenous peoples of Russia;
communicating in Russian words makes it difficult for foreign interference in Russian politics;
many foreign words from managers, scientists and others through journalists, the education system, the Internet, television, etc., pass into the common speech of the entire society. This changes the system of people’s life values and fosters disrespect for the Russian language and Russian culture. As the “tops” say, many other people tend to speak the same way, therefore, at the highest state level, communication should be conducted in Russian;
language determines the value system and thinking. Thinking based on the Russian language is more creative, in contrast to thinking based on the international concepts implanted in us.

Beware of office stuff!

Some officials, in order to avoid answering questions that are inconvenient for them, often begin to tell the people a lot of unknown, as well as overly abstract, confusing words and expressions. In this case, there may be no meaning at all in the speaker’s speeches, but due to the incomprehensibility, it will seem to many listeners that this is a “highly qualified specialist” whom they cannot understand due to their lack of education and “misunderstanding of terminology.” A clear manifestation of the language of lies (the language of destruction) is clericalism. The apt word “office worker” was created by K. Chukovsky - it sounds like the name of a disease that affects our speech.

“So what is he, a clerk? He has very exact signs, common to both translated and domestic literature.

This is the displacement of a verb, that is, movement, action, by a participle, a gerund, a noun (especially verbal!), which means stagnation, immobility. And of all verb forms, there is a predilection for the infinitive.

This is a pile-up of nouns in oblique cases, most often long chains of nouns in the same case - the genitive, so that it is no longer possible to understand what refers to what and what is being discussed.

This is an abundance of foreign words where they can easily be replaced with Russian words.

This is the displacement of active revolutions by passive ones, which are almost always heavier and more cumbersome.

This is a heavy, confused structure of phrases, incomprehensibility. Countless subordinate clauses, doubly ponderous and unnatural in colloquial speech.

This is dullness, monotony, weariness, cliche. Poor, meager vocabulary: both the author and the characters speak the same dry, official language. Always, without any reason or need, they prefer a long word to a short one, an official or bookish one to a colloquial one, a complex one to a simple one, a stamp to a living image.”

Such speech was ridiculed by Ilf and Petrov:

“The task, for example, is as follows:

- Sweep the streets.

Instead of immediately carrying out this order, the strong guy makes a mad fuss about him. He throws out the slogan:

“It’s time to start the fight to sweep the streets.”

The fight is on, but the streets are not swept. The next slogan takes things even further:

– Let’s join the campaign to organize the struggle to sweep the streets.

Time passes, the strong guy does not sleep, and new commandments are posted on the unswept streets:

“Everything to carry out the plan to organize a campaign to fight for sweeping.”

And finally, at the last stage, the initial task completely disappears, and only passionate, shrill babbling remains.

– Shame on the disrupters of the campaign for the struggle to implement the plan for organizing the campaign of struggle.

Everything is clear. It's not done. However, the appearance of desperate activity is preserved. And a strong guy leaves for Yalta to repair his broken body.”

This example is an exaggeration, but you and I are constantly being given the appearance of vigorous and well-intentioned activity with the help of “international”, “business” and “weighty” words.

Dry, confused speech often helps dishonest officials, economists, and bankers to deceive the people and trade in the Motherland, while maintaining the appearance of constructive actions. For example, the most destructive laws in Russia, as a rule, have quite plausible names, in particular, the law according to which in 2018, for the majority of Russian residents, retirement was postponed by 5 years, has an ordinary, camouflage name: “ Federal law“On amendments to certain legislative acts Russian Federation on issues of assignment and payment of pensions” - millions of people will go hungry and beggar because of this, but the title is just “about changes in individual legislative acts.” Another example: the 2014 law on the transfer of some Russian lands to foreign states for next to nothing for a long period of time is called “On territories of rapid socio-economic development in the Russian Federation.” Konstantin Paustovsky, in one of his articles, examines the influence of such a language and concludes: “...only our cruelest enemy could call this language Russian.” The office was and is being built through a special structure of sentences, and also largely on the basis of foreign words. Even Peter I, who zealously implanted the European in Russia, was forced to restrain the introduction of foreign words and other manifestations of clericalism, demanding that his subjects write “as intelligibly as possible.” He said to one of his ambassadors: “In your communications you use a lot of Polish and other foreign words and terms, from which it is impossible to understand the matter itself: for this reason, from now on you should write all your communications to us in Russian, without using foreign words and terms.” .

Scientists also speak in office. Applying in scientific work various “terms” and a confusing structure of sentences can gain the approval of professors, create the appearance of scientificity in its absence, but even if there is a useful innovation in scientific work, the majority of compatriots do not recognize it. Instead of scientific luminaries, thus, we often end up with “scientific obscurities.” With the help of dry, official speech with streamlined formulations it is easy to engage in fraud, but you will not be able to reach people and kindle hearts for good deeds using such language.

It is possible and necessary to speak in simple and precise Russian words, to create documents written in simple Russian, especially since the meaning of Russian words is enshrined in many dictionaries. In some cases, generalizing expressions of clericalism may be needed for bureaucratic and scientific speech, but even in business papers they should be used minimally, since clericalisms in large quantities lead to various speech errors and distortions, make the text difficult to understand, and facilitate deception. Subsequently, through journalists, films, school textbooks, etc., such stultifying, dead speech becomes common. Unfortunately, now clericalism is everywhere: it is served to us through television screens, newspapers, radio; works of art and school textbooks are created using dry, dead speech. Nowadays you can often hear how people, communicating in everyday life with their loved ones and acquaintances, instead of using the word “say” - “inform”, instead of simply “doing” - “take measures”, instead of “opportunity” they say “functional”, instead of responding to something they react, instead of condemning they express criticism, instead of observing they monitor, instead of advice they give recommendations and advise, etc. Many foreign words introduced into the Russian language are a manifestation of clericalism , since they give speech a distant, formal sound, and often make speech less understandable.

Previously, foreign words were used mainly among scientists, officials, and among representatives of individual specialties when solving their work problems, but the languages of small groups do not live in isolation, so now these foreign words are being replaced by Russian in all types of communication. As a result of foreign innovations, the Russian language, with rare exceptions, is not enriched, but, on the contrary, becomes poorer. Bright, figurative, living words are now rarely heard or read, for example, the words “sarcastically, caustically, caustically”, even the word “mockery” is now rarely found - they are replaced by the same word “irony”. The abundance of foreign substitutions in the language prevents people from understanding what is happening to them and around them, for example, when a person is asked: “What’s wrong with you?” - he answers: “I’m depressed.” The word “depression” is abstract, it sounds like the name of a disease and makes a person think that he needs to be treated for this “disease”; medications for this case are also produced - antidepressants, as a result, sometimes not even the person himself can understand what is happening to him, neither his interlocutor can help him. But if a person said instead of “depression” the expressions “I’m depressed...”, or “I’m depressed that...”, or the word “longing”, then this would be a reason to think about who or what he yearns for, why he depressed, come to the cause of the serious condition and eliminate it.

Many generations of our ancestors, Russian writers, did not create the rich literary Russian language so that we could use dry, inexpressive, streamlined words. Vladimir Dahl’s explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language contains about 200 thousand words; instead of this wealth, we are offered to switch to a set of several thousand words and expressions, many of which are dry and abstract. To clear your thoughts and speech from clericalism, we advise you to read Nora Gal’s book “The Living and Dead Word,” as well as the chapter “Clerical Law” from Korney Chukovsky’s book “Alive as Life” and, of course, the classic works of Russian writers.

In order to build society in a creative direction, it is necessary to make information as accessible and understandable to the people as possible, this is especially important for the political and economic areas. If the speech of politicians, economists, bankers is filled with a lot of abstract, incomprehensible words, if a confused system of proposals from the office is used, then this creates opportunities for fraud, deception of the people, this deprives the majority of citizens of the opportunity to control the work of government bodies and influence it.

What to do?

We need it in all areas public life to affirm and preserve a simple, expressive, living creative language instead of a lying and dead destructive language. To do this, you need to use predominantly Russian words in your speech and remove manifestations of clericalism from your speech. The concepts of the language of lies (the language of destruction) can also be created on the basis of the Russian language, but most often destructive concepts are introduced into our speech from foreign languages, so often, in order to express ourselves in a truthful, creative language, we only need to translate destructive concepts into Russian. If there is no suitable Russian word, then you need to create it, but if this fails, then a foreign word can be used to build a creative concept, and it is important that it carries the correct emotional, correct moral assessment of the phenomenon it denotes.

“A word can kill, a word can save,
With a word you can lead the shelves!”
V.S. Shefner

Language is the basis of people's thinking. People think in words, use words to designate and generalize the phenomena of reality in their minds, and evaluate them. Thus, language is a computational system: if you use the language of truth, which accurately reflects the essence of phenomena, then humanity, based on this language, will come to correct, creative conclusions and actions; If the language of lies is used, in which the evil is presented as useful and the good is humiliated, then people will be led to erroneous conclusions and destructive actions.

For example, now political correctness is being enforced in the world. At the heart of political correctness is the ideal of using words and expressions that supposedly will not offend any small or large associations based on race, income level, sexual perversion and other characteristics. With this approach, the truth is made unnecessary, truthful words are prohibited from being spoken by the demands of observing political correctness. In response to this, we, creators, need to use the division of speech into the language of truth (the language of creation) and the language of lies (the language of destruction) - this is a good way to defend the truth and creative ideas. The division of speech into the language of truth (the language of creation) and the language of lies (the language of destruction) is based on the ideal of truth, no matter how difficult and offensive it may be for someone. Honest people agree with the truth. Truth is a value for most. Therefore, if your interlocutor, for example, during a public discussion of something says the word of the language of lies (the language of destruction), you need to point out to him that he used the word of the language of lies, explain why this word is false and destructive, then call on the interlocutor and those around them to use the corresponding word of the language of truth (the language of creation). By acting this way, creators will no longer have to make excuses for their political incorrectness - other people will have to make excuses for using the language of lies and destruction.

Each of us needs to monitor our speech and the speech of those around us, we need to think about what images this or that word will form in people’s minds. It is impossible to build a creative society using the words of the language of lies (the language of destruction). It will not be possible to convey the truth to people with such words - it will be initially distorted, and therefore they will not understand it. For example, one cannot effectively assert Sobriety by calling alcohol a drink; It will not be possible to defend Russia by calling yourself a quilted jacket; won't be able to defend family values, calling himself a homophobe, and homosexuals - gays, etc. It is almost impossible to add your own meaning to imposed destructive words: people will understand them in the same way as they were used to before.

Often, people do not use destructive concepts on purpose, but due to the fact that destructive language is persistently implanted in the surrounding information space, many people simply do not know how to speak correctly. Therefore, we should express our wishes for the use of the language of truth in a polite form wherever possible: in a guest book in any institution, under an article or video material on the Internet, in personal communication, at public events, etc. Translation of destructive information influences into simple, truthful, creative language almost always deprives them of their destructive power, so every creator needs to improve in discernment, expose the manifestations of the language of destruction and spread the language of truth - the language of creation.

Table with examples of distinguishing between the language of truth (the language of creation) and the language of lies (the language of destruction)

National consciousness is understood as a part of public consciousness that reflects national existence, a set of economic, social, political, moral, aesthetic, philosophical, religious and other views and ideas that characterize the level and characteristics of the spiritual development of the nation. National consciousness includes the nation’s attitude to various values of society and reflects the process of its historical as well as modern development. The national consciousness reflects the entire spectrum of value orientations, attitudes in the development of culture, and the dynamics of national feelings.

In the structure of national consciousness, there are three dominant components that characterize the existence of a nation in spatial and temporal dimensions. Since the existence of a nation includes the past, present and future, their dominant features are national memory, national idea and national ideology. But in the national consciousness, national motives, goals, ideals, symbols prevail, which determine the norms of individual and collective human activity in national life. National consciousness includes a conscious attitude of the nation to its material and spiritual values, an understanding of the need for its unity for the sake of realizing national interests and transforming the life of the nation.

The core, the main part of national consciousness is national self-awareness. Having risen to the level of self-esteem, national consciousness grows into a new quality - self-awareness. National consciousness and self-awareness are one-order, although not identical, phenomena. National identity is formed in the process of interaction of nations with each other, arises from their understanding of common and distinctive features, interests and needs, differences in culture, language, areas of settlement, features of economic and spiritual life, specific character and psychology, rituals and traditions. To know and appreciate yourself, you need to see yourself in the mirror of a different nationality. It is clear from this that there are differences in the content of the concepts “national consciousness” and “national self-awareness”. Therefore, it is incorrect to replace one concept with another, identifying national consciousness with self-awareness.

Like any form of social consciousness, national consciousness is a complex, dialectically interconnected and interdependent unity of two components: everyday consciousness (national-ethnic psychology or national-psychological level of national consciousness) as the result of a spontaneous, empirical reflection of reality in the everyday consciousness of the broad national masses and higher level - theoretical consciousness (rational-ideological level of national consciousness), which is the result of systematization and generalization of everyday ideas, moods, needs and volitional aspirations of the masses.

The most mobile, dynamic elements of everyday national consciousness are needs. The less mobile components that ensure the stability and inertia of everyday national consciousness are the primary, deepest, emotionally charged attitudes and national-ethnic stereotypes. The most stable and conservative components of everyday national consciousness, guaranteeing its stability, are customs and traditions - normative requirements for behavior, passed down from generation to generation and based on the most profound attitudes towards the value system of past generations, on the social memory of the national-ethnic group. Distinguished by their particular stability and vitality, national customs and traditions serve as regulators and stabilizers of the behavior of new generations.

An important element of everyday national consciousness are also stereotypical ideas, norms and patterns of behavior, customs and traditions built on the basis of a certain value system, which have both historical and social roots. Finally, the essential components of everyday national consciousness are emotional elements, a complex range of feelings, moods, temperamental characteristics, emotional-volitional aspirations and forms of expression determined by them in images, sounds, colors, the totality of which constitutes what is nationally special in everyday life, which is usually associated with national character.

National consciousness is the consciousness of the unity of historical destiny

Nikolay Berdyaev

National consciousness is a complex set of social, political, economic, moral, aesthetic, philosophical, religious and other views and beliefs that characterize a certain level of spiritual development of the nation.

National consciousness is the product of a long cultural historical development ethnic community. It includes the group’s attitude to various values of society, reflects the process of its historical development, past achievements and sets goals for the future. The core of national consciousness is national identity. In addition to it, the main components of national consciousness include the nation’s conscious attitude to its material and spiritual values; creativity for the sake of their multiplication; awareness of the need to unite for the sake of national interests and successful relationships with other national-ethnic groups.

Like any other form of social consciousness, national consciousness is a complex unity of two closely interrelated components: theoretical consciousness and everyday consciousness.

Ordinary national consciousness is the empirical level of national consciousness as a result of a spontaneous, empirical reflection of reality in the everyday consciousness of the broad national masses; in a more familiar sense, it is everyday everyday national-ethnic psychology. This is a rather complex, dynamic, constantly changing formation. Everyday national consciousness is a special kind of synthesis of the natural, biological and social experience of many generations. And at the same time, it reflects the urgent concrete socio-political existence of the majority of the nation’s representatives.

Structurally, everyday national consciousness includes three main components.

Firstly, these are everyday needs, interests, values and value orientations, attitudes that reflect certain stage development of a given national-ethnic community, and based on their origins are not so much historical as specific modern sources.

Secondly, these are stereotypical ideas built on a certain system of values and value orientations, the simplest norms and elementary patterns of behavior, as well as traditions and customs that have both historical and social roots.

Thirdly, these are emotions and feelings and the forms of expression determined by them in images, sounds, colors, the totality of which constitutes that nationally special thing in everyday life that is usually associated with the national character, and comes from it, although it is already manifested in the national consciousness.

The most important characteristic national identity is that, being the most elementary, “primary”, it manifests itself in the form of people’s awareness of their belonging to a certain national-ethnic community. National-ethnic emotions and feelings, views and moods, habits and norms of behavior reflect commitment to national values at the everyday level. They are generated primarily by the commonality of territory, language, culture, customs, traditions of the people - in general, the commonality of the conditions of everyday life.

As already noted, national consciousness is very dynamic and changeable. This factor represents a rather difficult problem both for political and psychological analysis and for assessing and predicting the behavior and life of a particular national-ethnic community. The most dynamic components of national consciousness are needs and motives. Almost any changes in the system of socio-political relations lead to changes in the need-motivational system, generate new needs that correspond to changed conditions, and also modify the ways of realizing old needs.

New or changed needs may come into conflict with other, less mobile components of everyday national consciousness - with outdated traditions and customs, with old stereotypical ideas. As a result, there may be internal contradictions, psychological conflicts, manifested in changes in the emotional sphere. These changes are most noticeably expressed in the dynamics of mass sentiment. Moods as a demonstration of satisfaction of needs are the most dynamic component of everyday national consciousness. This dynamism is enhanced by a lack of awareness of moods, which weakens (or makes impossible) conscious control over them.

Less dynamic elements that ensure the stability of everyday national consciousness are the primary, most deeply emotional attitudes and stereotypes. For example, a hostile attitude towards one or another “alien” ethnic group and a corresponding idea of its representatives, entrenched in generations and perceived by a person since childhood, can remain in latent form for quite a long time. Moreover, this often happens even despite the obvious facts of life and deliberately accepted by man ideological construction. And then a paradoxical situation arises - attitudes and stereotypes of national-ethnic hostility do not always manifest themselves in the real behavior of a person or even an entire national-ethnic group.

In famous experiments by J. Lapierre to study the social attitudes of hotel owners, they asked how they would react to the appearance of representatives of a number of nationalities (for example, the Chinese). The majority responded sharply negatively. Over time, the researchers themselves came to these hotels, among whom were the Chinese. It turned out that they did not experience the slightest discrimination when staying and receiving services in these hotels. Thus, the conclusion was made that “known”, as if “learned” attitudes and stereotypes do not always coincide with real behavior motivated, say, by profit from additional guests [according to: 154].

The most stable elements of everyday national consciousness are national-ethnic customs and traditions. They are passed on from generation to generation and are based on the most profound attitudes and value systems of the past, on the socio-political memory of national and ethnic groups. Distinguished by their particular stability, national-ethnic traditions and customs perform regulatory and stabilizing functions in the behavior of new generations. It is in this sense that one should understand the well-known phrase that the traditions of dead generations weigh like a nightmare over the minds of the living, turning out to be the strongest, often insurmountable barrier to current socio-political innovations and reforms.

However, one should also take into account the fact that, on the one hand, the influence of customs and traditions is due to the fact that they are, in the eyes of most people, the generation and reflection of certain “natural historical” living conditions of a given community (tested for centuries, and therefore unshakable) , on the other hand, they express value systems associated with fairly specific historical periods and the socio-political forces that dominated them, which makes them, as it were, “sacred” in the eyes of people who gravitate towards this particular value system.

According to D.V. Olshansky, traditions and customs play the most significant role in the life of so-called national minorities and other relatively small national-ethnic entities. Preserving and cultivating their own traditions and customs is for them a necessary and important defensive reaction of self-preservation, a guarantee of national-cultural identity and survival as a national community through additional mobilization of internal, primarily psychological, resources, when external resources are insufficient. Hypercompensatory attention to national customs and traditions often turns out to be a natural reaction of protest against the policy of assimilation, which usually really threatens a small nation from larger neighboring nations, and, at the same time, a form of national self-affirmation. In this case, traditions and customs act as a means of transmitting the socio-political experience of the nation and are a tool for awakening national self-awareness and integrating the national community.

Everyday national consciousness is highly contagious, which facilitates its intensive spread. It is distinguished by the “everyday persuasiveness” of its arguments. Their dissemination is based on the action of a number of psychological mechanisms, such as mass suggestion, group pressure and conformism, the psychological transfer of one’s own individual problems to community problems, etc. The mechanisms for the dissemination of ordinary national consciousness perform two interrelated and, at the same time, opposite tasks. Firstly, the task of unification, consolidation of representatives of one national-ethnic community, and, secondly, the task of separating and opposing members of different national-ethnic groups to each other.

In contrast to the everyday, theoretical national consciousness is a scientifically formulated and clearly socially and politically oriented generalization of selected elements of ordinary national consciousness. This is the ideology of a national-ethnic group, usually including a generally positive self-assessment of history, modernity and the totality of the development goals of the nation, as well as values and patterns of behavior that are mandatory for each representative of the national-ethnic community. At the center of such an ideology can often be the idea of the exclusivity of one’s own national-ethnic group, and then such an ideology will acquire a nationalistic character, even to the point of racism.

During the period of aggravation of the situation in the Middle East, which threatened US aggression against Syria, President Barack Obama declared the exclusivity of the American nation. There are cases in world history when statements of this kind led to large-scale wars and political cataclysms. The negative consequences of such “exceptionalism” were once demonstrated to the world by Hitler’s Nazi Germany. President of Russia V.V. Putin, in an address to the American people published in the New York Times on September 14, 2013, reacted to the American president's statement this way: “It is very dangerous to inspire people to consider themselves exceptional, no matter what the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, with deep democratic traditions and still looking for their path to democracy. And their policies differ too. We are all different, but when we ask God for blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

Theoretical national consciousness, based on maximum attention to the idea of one’s own nation, can also come from a realistic understanding of the interdependence of nations and peoples in today’s single, contradictory, but interconnected world. Such an ideological construction is already acquiring a fundamentally different, international sound. Key questions, which make it possible to qualify and typologize variants of theoretical national consciousness, come down to the admissibility or impermissibility of a compromise in realizing the needs and interests of different national-ethnic groups, as well as in the choice of ways and methods for resolving possible contradictions.

National identity is a set of views and attitudes, opinions and assessments that express the ideas of members of a national-ethnic community about their history and prospects for their future development, as well as their place among other similar groups.

National identity includes two components:

1. Rational (awareness of oneself as part of a nation).
2. Emotional (unconscious empathy for one’s unity with other representatives of the national-ethnic group).

National identity is the core of national consciousness. It acts as a core system of evaluative relations and rational-value concepts necessary for the appropriate self-determination of a person in spiritual and socio-political life.

In contrast to national consciousness, which reflects the generalized ideas of a given national-ethnic group, national identity is a more individual concept, expressing primarily the level at which a member of the community has learned the importance of self-awareness.

Having understood the basics of the concept of national identity, I would like to touch on the next, important topic. When and how did this phenomenon begin to form?

The genesis of national self-awareness is a long historical process, multi-level and very uneven in the course of its development. Initially, in historical terms, the emergence of the rudiments of national self-awareness occurred at the everyday level. It was associated with the action of one of the basic socio-psychological mechanisms of the development of human consciousness as a whole, with the formation and rooting in the psyche of representatives of a particular community of the antithesis “us” and “them”. Awareness of oneself as a member of a certain group, of integrity (“we”) is precisely built through opposition to representatives of another group - a certain “they”.

The basis of the antithesis “we” - “they” is usually one or more of the most pronounced features characteristic of “them” as opposed to “us”. This may be a physical appearance (different appearance, facial features, etc.) or cultural characteristics (different language, customs, traditions, etc.).

There may be religious beliefs(other idols, totems, gods, religion) or socio-economic structure (another method of social production and way of life, nomadic or sedentary, agricultural or pastoral, etc.). Such signs can also be a political structure (other ways of organizing power and management) or an ideological doctrine (other value systems). The combination of several of these characteristics in one, opposite national-ethnic group automatically elevates them to the status of negative (they differ from “us”, therefore “they” are bad, and “we” are good). And, sadly, such views are absolutely mutual for both sides.

Later, such antipathy develops into hatred on, say, religious grounds. And this is one step before war.

There are plenty of examples of this at the political level. Let's look at a lesser-known, but no less typical one. Thus, J. Peron carried out his coup in Argentina in 1944, relying on the slogan of a “national revolution” that would build a society of justice that would have the strength to resist both American imperialism and international Bolshevism. He spoke of a special “society of vertical trade unions,” subordinated to national rather than class principles, and achieved victory.

The development of national self-awareness is not linear, but rather wave-like in nature. Its ups and downs are determined by the format of the national-ethnic group. It is known: the smaller the community, the more acutely the problems of national identity are experienced in it, and the more likely its sharp outbursts are. On the contrary, the larger such a community, the more confident its representatives feel, the less concern they have about these problems, and the less likely their sudden aggravation. Representatives of a large nation, as a rule, do not need constant confirmation and self-affirmation of their national identity. Issues related to it have long been resolved on an appropriate state-political basis. Therefore, it is natural that they are concerned about a wider range of national problems.

If we talk about the meaning of national consciousness in political terms, it has a dual role. On the one hand, this can become a progressive process leading to the rapid development of community. However, such a tendency can lead to idealization and absolutization by the nation of itself. A national-ethnic community may begin to place itself above others and ultimately come to the idea of destroying everyone in whom they find even slight differences. History knows several such examples.

Otherwise, on the other hand, the development of national self-awareness may turn into its opposite - the decline of value-semantic structures of consciousness to lower levels, the denial of values belonging to communities of a higher order - for example, universal ones, the reduction of consciousness to a narrow framework, such as racism .

Ethnocultural problems and the development of national self-awareness are currently acquiring special significance and depth of socio-philosophical understanding. This is due to the socio-economic, socio-political and historical-cultural processes that are currently taking place in the country.

In the conditions of renewal of social life, the dynamics of the development of national self-awareness are expanding, interest in understanding the cultural classical heritage is deepening, and a new phenomenon is being developed in the sphere of spiritual culture. Now the spiritual heritage of all peoples is being comprehended, powerful layers of national culture are returning. All this has a great influence on the formation of national identity and contributes to the development of spiritual and moral values.

The structure of national identity, for many scientists and in to a greater extent For ordinary people, is perceived as a unity of awareness of national identity, commitment to national values, and the desire for sovereignty.

National identity includes belonging to a given community, love for the native language, national culture, commitment to national values, a conscious sense of national pride and awareness of common interests. These structural components of national identity are in constant dialectical development. This is what Ch. Aitmatov wrote, discussing the role of the native language in the fate of the nation: “The immortality of a people is in its language. Each language is great for its people. Each of us has our own filial duty to the people who gave birth to us, who gave us their greatest wealth - their language: to preserve its purity, to increase its wealth.”

An important aspect of national self-awareness is people’s awareness of their individuality, of belonging precisely to this, and not to another national-ethnic, socio-political community - a nation and nationality.

Under the conditions of authoritarianism in the USSR, the existing system caused the degradation of national consciousness, the rupture of historical thinking and national self-awareness, which negative impact on the development of ethnic culture, the infringement of national self-awareness, its atrophy occurred against the background of the supposed prosperity and well-being of all the peoples of the country.

The level of national self-awareness must be considered in its variability. Thus, according to the results of sociological research in the Republic of Bashkortostan, there is a qualitative and quantitative growth of national self-awareness. And the factors of this growth are not only the productive activity of the creators of national ideas and views, but also their wide prevalence in the mass consciousness.

A special place in the formation of national identity belongs to historical figures, whose activities determined the fate of the people and statehood. In our country there were many destinies covered with falsification, deliberate distortion of the lives and personalities of outstanding politicians, military men, revolutionaries, scientists and even heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. Our people are now learning the truth about most of them and they are beginning to occupy their positions. historical memory a proper place for each of them.

The development of national self-awareness as a structural element in the system of social consciousness is a complex, long-term, contradictory process. The above facts and provisions carried out by us sociological research indicate that national consciousness is focused on the formation of a civic position, responsibility for the fate of one’s small Motherland, patriotism, a feeling of love for one’s ethnicity and national values in the name and for the benefit of one’s people. Various destructions in moral and political issues and national relations will have their own specific consequences. The self-awareness of peoples must develop in a favorable socio-political environment, in a civil state in which the principles of civilization and democratic approaches to resolving national issues are observed.

Azamat Suleymanov, Bashkortostan