Why did the confrontation between Russia and the West arise, resulting in a war in Ukraine? Why have Russia and the West been opposing each other for more than a hundred years and are irreconcilable enemies?
The roots of this confrontation lie deep at the level of philosophy and ideology.
Since the victory of the revolution in Russia in 1917, Russia, in fact, has become the personification of socialist ideology for the whole world.
What is socialist ideology?
This is a teaching that promotes the primacy of society over the individual, the collective over the individual. Socialist philosophy says that the interests of society are above the interests of one person, and the interests of an individual can be neglected in the name of the common good. Hence the belittling of the role of the individual in everything: in culture, economics, politics. The socialist approach presupposes equality of people. Not equality of opportunity, but equality, equalization. This means that if you are even smarter and more enterprising than others, you should not be significantly richer than others and you should not live significantly better than others. You have to sacrifice your personal benefits for the sake of society.
The patriarchal way of life is inextricably linked with the socialist ideology. That is, a strict hierarchy by age, position, gender. The patriarchal way of society presupposes the supremacy of fathers over children, bosses over subordinates, men over women.
In addition, the patriarchal way of life presupposes strict observance of social attitudes and intolerance of individual freedom. In a patriarchal society, it is unacceptable to violate traditions, moral norms, and ignore the opinions of others. In such a society, bright personalities, individuals, and people who challenge the foundations are intolerant. In patriarchal countries, such new and fashionable phenomena as, for example, once punks and hippies, in music – hard rock and rock and roll, in fashion – bright and provocative outfits, and in public life – unconventional sexual orientation, and so on.
In contrast to the socialist way of life and socialist philosophy in the world there is a so-called Western ideology or liberal, that is, free.
Liberal ideology presupposes the supremacy of human interests over the interests of society, assumes maximum personal freedom and limits it only to the freedom of surrounding individuals. Liberal ideology welcomes freedom of speech, freedom of thought, pluralism of opinions, diversity of views and encourages competition in everything: economics, politics, culture, and so on. Liberal ideology is less conservative than socialist and patriarchal, and treats everything new and progressive with understanding and tolerance, as it considers it a manifestation of individual freedom, freedom of opinion and views.
For more than a hundred years (in fact, much longer, but this is a separate conversation), an invisible, and sometimes explicit war of these two ideologies has been waged: socialist and liberal.
The personification of socialism all this time has been and is Russia and the Soviet Union, and the personification of Western values are the United States and Western Europe. In this war, both sides use propaganda techniques to denigrate the opponent and exalt themselves. For example, Russia stigmatizes the Western way of life and believes that immeasurable freedom has led to rampant non-traditional sexual orientation, drug addiction, prostitution and the devaluation of family traditions and values, which leads to the degradation of society.
In turn, Western propaganda focuses on the lack of individual freedom in a socialist society, the inability of citizens to influence their fate, dictatorial regimes, and so on.
But the main argument in the ideological dispute between liberals and socialists is the economy. Modern history has shown that economic freedom is impossible without political freedoms, and economic freedom and competition are the most important factors in the development of the country’s economy. It is no coincidence that liberal states are now the most economically developed. Per capita incomes in these countries are many times higher than the incomes of citizens in socialist and totalitarian states.
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