On peculiar features of Ukrainian evolution

Recently, domestic media space has been full of stories about the opposition’s victories and failures and the government’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Instead, the role of an individual in the political system of the country is mentioned very rarely. However, the recently published sociological data reminded about the way things are. According to them, Ukrainians do not trust government institutions (the president, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Verkhovna Rada), they basically expressed a desire to live in an authoritarian country, and a considerable part of our fellow citizens still misses the “glorious” Soviet past. The Day talked about the nature of Ukrainians’ worldview attitudes with social psychologist Oleh POKALCHUK.

“THE MAJORITY OF UKRAINIANS WHO WANT A ‘STRONG HAND’ HAVE A ‘WEAK HAND’ THEMSELVES”

The results of the latest sociological studies showed that more than a half of Ukrainians (59 percent) believe that the country lacks a “strong hand,” and 41 percent regret that the USSR collapsed (according to the sociology group “Rating”). If compared to 2010, we see a positive tendency (46 percent of citizens felt nostalgic for the USSR back then), but the Soviet Union fell apart all the way back in 1991… Why does Ukrainians’ psychology change so slowly?

“These data are very far from social psychology. People who long for something suffer from a lack of it in themselves. In particular, the majority of Ukrainians who want a ‘strong hand’ have a ‘weak hand’ themselves. Roughly speaking, their desire is to increase their own political potency. But what people mean by their answer should also be taken into consideration. The practice shows that the desire for a ‘strong hand’ refers to the attitude to neighbors in the first place, but not to people themselves: none of the people talking about this, projects a ‘strong hand’ on themselves. So, everyone dreams of a so-called quasi-fascist regime, envisaging by default that it will be them who takes the lead. However, this feature is universal, it is not necessarily purely Ukrainian. This in general is the psychology of the weak.”

At the same time, every day we talk about Europe-oriented policies, democracy, freedom of speech, etc. But this is the absolute opposite of what existed in the Soviet time.

“Undoubtedly, it is great that such ‘grant-eater’ political bluff exists: freedoms, rights, you name it… But we need to keep in mind that all that is good in Europe was created there not by political doctrines, but during centuries of mutually effective cooperation based on direct agreements between people. Basically, this can be called democracy, but it is not achieved by signing any of the European Union’s papers. But for some reason, we have a very strong reaction to texts, including the international ones. In general, Ukrainian psychology is rather childish. Someone says nice words to kids, tells them tales, and this makes them happy, or they can be offended by words, too. Even though words or texts do not have any meaning and it is pointless to pay too much attention to them.”

“A POLITICIAN IS NOT A PERSONALITY, IT IS A FICTION CHARACTER”

Other surveys showed that Ukrainians’ political preferences directly depend on age. The younger a voter is, the stronger is his desire to vote, for example, for oppositionist Klitschko during the next presidential elections. And vice versa, the electoral of incumbent President Yanukovych is mainly concentrated in the age group of 60 years old and higher. Why is it this way?

“Young people are always more radical, it is an absolutely normal human standpoint. When these young people grow up, they become more conservative, stable, and try to minimize their risks, because the chance to lose increases with age, when young people never really give it a thought. That is why there is nothing political about it.

“The only thing is that when we talk about surveys, the specificity of sociology is that interviewers cannot technically ask their respondents about the meaning of the words they are asked about. That is why fantastic things start: statistics and sociological data show one thing, and practice or interpretations – an absolutely different one. For example, for different people, the notion of democracy means absolutely different things, I would even say, opposite things. This applies to the notion of order as well. Hardly anyone would agree that their driving license should be taken away for a minor speeding violation, but when it is about others, everyone would say that it must be taken away. And this applies to all spheres.”

Several names of the most likely presidential candidates in the 2015 elections are mentioned today: Yanukovych, Klitschko, Yatseniuk, Tiahnybok, Symonenko. How would you describe the political portrait of each of them?

“It is hard to draw a politician’s portrait because in this case it is not a personality, but a fiction character. As individuals, they are all quite different, but the thing they try to portray in front of other politicians while playing the same electoral standard, significantly narrows the range for their personal activities. That is why personality has nothing to do with what politicians pretend to be during the campaign. Common people are the same, actually: they communicate with each other according to one principle, and outside, they put their masks on and perform their social roles. This form is particularly interpreted among politicians, sometimes even to a comic or tragicomic extent.

“The same applies to candidates, these are absolutely different people with different personalities, experience, age, etc. But what they will be projecting for the public is a totally different thing. One will rely on socialist, social compounds, let us call it this way, and the others – on national ones. And they may not even use these terms, they can be switched, and renamed, which will lead to the usual electoral and non-electoral mess. That is what politicians want, this is something they gladly play each time. And voters like it too, by the way.”

“UKRAINIANS ARE NOT YET READY TO SAY WHAT THEY WANT”

We know that the society has developed a strong apathy towards politics and politicians. In what way can the degree of social responsibility be raised to let people know their vote does matter?

“The approach you are talking about hides a political hypocrisy in it: people think they vote for changing something, but usually, the process of changes technologically has nothing to do with the activity of public politicians, but with that of highly skilled and competent people. And this is quite painstaking and systematic work. In general, that is the reason why power is divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and there are people who are skilled to do their job in these branches, but they are not bright and attractive enough. They are just highly qualified professionals who do their jobs, and there are people who understand the popular worldview and can transform it into texts or speeches, so it is about different people.

“And when people say they want changes, it means they do not always talk about themselves. Yes, they may simply want to declare that ‘yes, I exist, I am different, and I oppose something.’ But we always ‘oppose,’ and this is normal. And when you ask any group what changes they want, it will take them no more than three sentences to describe them. Because people speak briefly of the things they want and then will take forever to talk about what they do not want. By the way, this is a sign of a childish worldview, when a person focuses on the negative particle ‘no,’ which is the first self-asserting compound of childish psychology.

“However, we as an individual nation and culture are too young to talk about what we want. Some individuals do know it indeed, but for the rest we need education, which we sorely lack. That is why the ‘people who are against everyone’ is not an exhaustive definition, they just do not want to deal with disgusting politics. In olden times, people managed to live without electing such politicians, and even without the Verkhovna Rada (laughs). So, this is a common human behavior.”

“WHETHER THE POLITICAL ELITE WANT IT OR NOT, WE WILL CONTINUE MOVING IN THE EUROPEAN DIRECTION”

What is the main problem: us or the government institutions?

“First of all, this government, whatever you call it, is Ukrainian. And it did not come from somewhere else, because for the most part, it is people who were born and grew up in Ukraine. That is why we raise what we raise. Our own model of social behavior is whimsical, ambitious, and ineffective. Those very people who strongly protest against the previous government act in the same way as it did when they come to replace it, or even worse. This is a thing that should be clearly realized. That is why people should understand that while criticizing the government, they criticize themselves as well. And they need to make serious conclusions out of this. Voices of despair are heard over the years, but on the other hand, there have been no feasible changes inside ourselves in all this time.”

So, the source of the nation troubles lies in each of us?

“We should always start with ourselves first. Otherwise, it is the usual behavior of a morbid, neurotic person, who shifts the responsibility for what is happening around them to the higher power. There is nothing special about this. And unfortunately, even though I should probably mention the light at the end of the tunnel, I do not see it. There is a lantern on the wall at the ‘end of the tunnel,’ but it is very dim. The change of generations is the only thing that changes the situation in each country. At least 20 percent of people with similar type of mentality are required for the changes. And they would influence the rest.”

How long would it approximately take?

“If we make predictions, we might receive this critical number of new people in about 20 years. Given the mortality and emigration of young people. You see, our Ukrainian evolution moves in a zigzag pattern, it makes two steps forward and two steps back. Actually, we are moving in the same direction with everyone else, we are just dragging behind. It does evolve in European direction, and it does not matter anymore whether the political elite want it or not, we are going to follow the global processes. We are going to be dragged into them anyway. Ukraine is just too big a piece of land, profitable and convenient, that is why if we are helpless enough to be able to use it ourselves, we will gradually be divided between the East and the West, as it happened before. I wish it never happens again.”