Who's regimented?
Conventional USA wisdom says that Russians are easily regimented and naturally prefer a Strongman like Stalin.

I blindly accepted this wisdom until RIGHT NOW when I finally stopped to think about it.

Obvious caveat: PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT, and any nation-sized sample will contain a huge range of personalities.

Based on three data points, I have to conclude that the typical or median Russian is far less regimented, much harder to control, harder to deceive, than the typical American. The correlation may have been different before 1900, but these data points cover a considerable range of time.

1. Ford's attempt to set up a Russian factory in 1920. Ford production methods required strict organization and regimentation. Americans adapted easily. Russians didn't. Ford found it was simply impossible to pull Russians into tight synchrony and finally gave up.

2. Soviet math and science education starting in the '50s. While America responded to Sputnik by strict rigid implementation of an insane brain-destroying dystheory, Russian students were doing hands-on experiments and discussing the results. American teachers occasionally try the experimental method but soon fall back into line because the students can't deal with anything beyond memorization. (I know this from direct experience!)

3. The ex-Soviet immigrants who moved to Spokane in the 1990s are tremendously entrepreneurial. Many of them run their own businesses. This didn't take any training or adaptation; they just started and succeeded. Caveat: Migrants tend to be the looser or wilder types within a national personality range. BUT these folks were not escaping the Soviet system; they were escaping the immediate post-Soviet mess engineered by Soros to enrich Soros. Thus they are more likely to be at the orderly end of the behavior range.

Three different observations in different areas of life over 80 years. In each case Russians found it easier to act individually, and harder to take regimentation, than Americans.

= = = = =

Half-baked genetic guess: Before 1900 Americans were more English than anything else, by genes and culture. We were stubborn and rebellious. Our self-myth retained this image after it disappeared from reality. After 1900 we're more German than anything else, by genes and culture. We follow Kraut models in everything. Stalin felt the need to keep America weak because he understood this. He knew that we would realign with Germany after WW2, so he tried to keep Germany divided and keep us conflicted.

Labels: switchover, Гром победы

  ¶ 5:35 AM