the World in which we live the powers that be seem to ordinary people mysterious. It is not clear how it works – what are values, what are the rules? Who can get there and what to do to gain a foothold there?
With the help of Anastasia Nikolskaya, associate Professor of psychology, University. Kosygin, members of the independent research group * L – we tried to look into the world of our elite, beautiful and terrible at the same time.
Ministers, governors and other high officials often appear to us as aliens from another planet. They take a very wrong decision, which is expected of them. Promise not what you need. Give inadequate explanation of the events. Publicly speak in insulting to the people key. Maybe they are from another planet?
– the Worlds ruling elite and ordinary people are not on different planets and at different stages of moral development. Society on the same level as the elite on the other. In addition, we have a different worldview and different ways of adaptation to the environment.
What is this stage of development? How are they defined?
According to Lorentz theory of Kohlberg (this American psychologist, the founder of the Theory of development of morality), there are six steps or stages of moral development.
the First is the lowest. All morality is based on punishment and obedience. Who is stronger that and the rights. It is all about power.
In the second stage, the basis of morality – interchange. I do the same thing done to me. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but for the good I say good.
In the third stage, morality is determined by the social norms of the inner circle. Well that’s good my environment, so I do what’s best for him.
the Fourth stage is based on the maintenance of law and order: I do it because it’s the law. At this stage in society there is a strong request to the law to be enforced in court, and that the government comply with the laws of their own country.
At the fifth stage, the laws are seen as products of the social contract, and not as strict instructions. If the law does not promote the General welfare, it changes.
and the sixth stage is when it is in fact a halo around his head. I do so because there is a higher moral principle, not because I dictate the law, fear or a desire to benefit from.
At what stage is now our society?
– On the fourth. We are aware of the existence of laws, understand what they do, see law enforcement the ability to defend their own rights. The laws define what is right and what is wrong, so we must abide by the laws, and the government also must abide by the laws.
– How did you come to the conclusion that our society is now such a stage?
– In the past year we’ve conducted a sociological study: interviewed 11 thousand people who asked to fill in the same questionnaire, and saw the responses that society has matured.
I am studying the development of Russian society since 2011. We used to hear from people that the country need to change medicine, education, social security, everything must change. But in 2018, people began to say that needs to change is ourselves. If we don’t change, nothing will change. We must take responsibility for what is happening in the country.
Values, too, began to change the health and well-being in the direction of respect, freedom of choice, peaceful life. And their behavior people affirm that in the first place come now the value of such order. Endlessly rising taxes, increasing tariffs, and even pension reform did not cause serious protests. Serious protests occur when the affected values of the environment (landfills and incinerators) and freedom of choice – as for example in Yekaterinburg, where people protested against the construction in the Park of the temple, or now in Khabarovsk.
State the system is in this sense far behind. It offers value to society of the early XX century: unity around the flag, patriotism, benefits, salaries.
– From this it follows that public managers are at a lower stage of development?
– Yes, we have the impression that the elite is more likely in the third stage. But while this is only a hypothesis. We can’t confirm it with data, a representative survey of members of the elite. The system is closed, and researchers like us, there not really allowed.
We managed to collect a total of 15 questionnaires from persons occupying high state posts. To make evidence-based conclusions, this is not enough. But the questionnaire also showed us the third stage. In addition, we did some interviews with members of the elite, and they also confirmed our hypothesis that elite is “not Mature enough” to the stage of development on which a society stands.
– As officials have described to you the world? On what “whales” is it worth? That there is appreciated? Is it good to live in it?
– One of those whom we interviewed said that they, like us, every day have to survive in their world. But if our problems often come down to how to hold on to salaries, to buy a child a new gadget, to repay loans, their problems are how in the world to resist, not to be thrown overboard. It is impossible to relax. It is difficult to trust someone. They do not feel safe. They understand that too many people from their entourage will be glad to any of their mistake. To some extent our world more secure.
Why they are in power?
– Want status and money. But together with money and status get the fear. And constantly live under the pressure of fear. The country remains behind the scenes. It simply does not remain forces. They have to constantly prove your worth and confirm your status – it is their way of adapting to their environment.
– They care about what is happening in the country?
– Not that I care. As explained by one of the people we interviewed, they do not want the people lived from hand to mouth. Just being inside they built a system they do not understand how the product of this system from the outside. I think that any problems people from the ordinary world can be filled with money. If they receive a signal that somewhere something is wrong, allocate money.
But at each lower level these funds allow lower-level officials to solve the same problems that they have problems of their own survival in this system. So we end up a little bit. But they don’t want to understand that in the bottom of the food chain, little falls, and we seem ungrateful. The money they allocated, and we are still dissatisfied.
– What is the value in their world?
Connection. In our world, reliance for survival is money, and in their world – relationships. But communication is such a fluid matter. They can never be completely sure. Therefore, they have clans. The new generation of the clan is literally grown, to pick up the reins. Their own future depends on the success of their clan. Good for them that is for the benefit of their clan, that is, the immediate environment. That’s why we’re talking about the third stage of moral development. According to Kohlberg, it is definitely her.
People, the truth is, no matter what in the power of the clans and who is associated with someone. We just want to be well and effectively used the budget money. Why does it not work?
– the Effective Manager it doesn’t hurt his status, and for the cause which he has been entrusted. It is driven by the need for self-actualization in their professional activities. In the pyramid of Maslow, this need is much higher than the need for money and status that drives managers.
in addition to the state system and the request wasn’t for professionalism. It was not needed. Need loyalty. And to be loyal, professional and impossible. Because a good professional is always an independent.
– the System only needs dependent people?
One of the people we interviewed said an interesting thing. He is the representative of the elite and now just retired. “Corruption – he said, – in my time was the backbone. Without it, nothing worked.” He was not acquitted, but considered that it had a positive meaning, because I forced the system to work.
If things are this wayω, then the independent managers in the state system to be, of course, can not.
from what you tell, fall into the power is not the most brilliant person, but rather quite primitive and unprincipled, who are trying to cram a little more fatty material pieces, and then shaking, as if they were taken away.
– It is not. The impression is created because we look at them from the side and can’t see their situation from the inside.
the Philosopher Nigel Thomas wrote a great article “What it means to be a bat”. The gist of it is that no matter how we try to understand the consciousness of another person, we will never understand, watching him. Need to be that other to understand what he feels.
People can imagine it hanging in the dark upside down like a bat. But this is only his human performance.
same Here. We live in different worlds and adapt to a different environment. In the force adaptation task, we have intelligence develops differently. They know what we don’t know and Vice versa.
Elite – not villains. They have no idea of the genocide of the people. Of their world where everything is decided by money and connections, they are trying to help us as well as help people from your world – well, that’s money, not realizing that we are in a different world and in our world other queries.
And, sure, we, too, seem to them primitive and insatiable.
If you live in the jungle, you look at the inhabitants of the metropolis as a degenerate, because he can not distinguish poisonous from non-poisonous plant. A resident of the metropolis looks at you like a Scarecrow in feathers, who does not know how to turn on the air conditioner in the car. Right?
Great comparison. But why are you studying the world elite? You still won’t understand it until you are inside.
– It is of interest to us as scientists. In addition, we would like to see in the mass consciousness there was a realization that we have outgrown the elite. Perhaps this will force the elite to catch up – go with a third stage of development of morality on the fourth and to catch up with us.
