Chapter I. The Lao people in a cultural and historical retrospective.

§ 1. A brief excursion into the history of the Lao people.

§ 2. Ethno-demographic structure of the Lao society.

§ 3. Socio-economic processes in the Lao society.

Chapter II. The specifics of the socio-cultural development of the Lao society.

§ 1. Dialectics of traditions and innovations in the development of Lao society.

§ 2. Socio-cultural values ​​of Buddhism in religious and secular practice.

Chapter III. Empirical research project on the dominant personality type in Lao society.

§ 1. The problem of the adequacy of the dominant personality type to socio-cultural changes.

§ 2. Socio-psychological portrait of a resident of the Lao country.

§ 3. Typological analysis of the daily life of the Lao society.

Introduction to the thesis (part of the abstract) on the topic "Socio-cultural features of the development of modern Lao society"

Dissertation conclusion on the topic "Social structure, social institutions and processes", Kengkongkham Suban

List of references for dissertation research PhD in Sociology Gyeongkongkham Suban, 2000

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The culture of the 20th century is united in its diversity. Mankind comes to universal human norms, values, forms of perception and evaluation of the world as a result of the development and mutual influence of national cultures. The ideals and attitudes of modern culture are an alloy of what mankind has achieved by the end of the 20th century. In modern culture, humanistic ideals and principles. Of course, humanism is a rather diverse concept. Renaissance humanism, for example, which affirmed the power and freedom of the creative human spirit, was in a certain sense elitist, since its morality was individualistic, significant only for the elite. with it, the socio-cultural system is a science. Back in the 19th century there are the first signs that science has become global, by combining the efforts of scientists from different countries. The internationalization of scientific relations arose and developed further. Technogenic attitude to nature as a means of satisfying not spiritual, but purely technical needs becomes in the first half of the 20th century. one of the leading trends in the development of culture . Cosmism- a unique, most interesting phenomenon of modern culture, the significance of which is beginning to be realized only now, on the threshold of the third millennium. This is the idea of ​​active evolution, which expresses a new quality of the relationship between man and nature. Based on natural-science evolutionary views, traditionally valued in Russia, the cosmists put forward the idea of ​​the inevitability of the development of man, nature and space; when consciousness, reason become the leading force of world development, a person takes responsibility for space evolution. He must be imbued with the spirit of cosmic ethics. However, the culture of the 20th century reflected the crisis into which technogenic civilization was slowly entering. Modern production, which gave birth to a new type of civilization, industrial society, has led to the actual domination of impersonal economic, technological, political structures over living human activity, the individual "I" of true culture. As a result, in the culture of the XX century. a contradiction developed, manifested in the confrontation of two attitudes: scientist and anti-scientist. Concept " scientism"- knowledge, science. Scientists say: everything is subject to science. Indeed, modern science has penetrated into all pores of modern society, penetrating not only industry, agriculture, but also politics, administrative and military spheres. However, not everything in the world is science For example, there is the realm of art, faith, human feelings and relationships. anti-scientism appeared as a reaction to the exaggeration of the role of science. It is characterized by belittling the importance of scientific knowledge, blaming science for causing possible crises: economic, environmental, national. In the XX century. Man is faced with problems on the solution of which the fate of civilization depends. These problems are called global (which means the globe). What is the cause of global problems?

First, it is the integrity of the modern world, which is ensured by deep political and economic ties. Secondly, the crisis of world civilization is associated with the increased economic power of man, who has never taken so much tribute from nature as he does now. Thirdly, one of the reasons for the emergence of global problems is the uneven development of countries and culture. The economic and political interdependence of countries is complemented by information. The essence of the new culture grows out of the destruction of the systems characteristic of the classical industrial society that outwardly determine the life of the individual. A person ceases to be an element of technological, economic or political systems, where his activity is strictly determined by qualities external to his personal culture. There is a new information culture, new ways of obtaining information, production and scientific activities. Access to information networks, knowledge is the defining basis for stratification, division of society.

15. Culture, its content. The concept of culture is fundamental for sociology, since culture determines the uniqueness of the behavior of people who are its bearers and distinguishes one society from another. A person can live normally only in an environment of his own kind, subject to the rules developed over many thousands of years. Man stood out from nature, creating an artificial environment outside of which he cannot exist - culture. It is sometimes said that in the form of culture man has created a “second nature”. Culture is the cumulative result of the activities of many people over a long period of time. In sociology, culture in the broad sense of the word is understood as a specific, genetically non-inherited set of means, methods, forms, patterns and guidelines for the interaction of people with the environment of existence, which they develop in their life together to maintain certain structures of activity and communication. In a narrow sense, culture is defined by sociology as a system of collectively maintained values, beliefs, norms and patterns of behavior inherent in a certain group of people.

The sociological approach to culture considers it as a factor in the organization of social life, as a set of ideas, principles, social. institutions, providing collective activity of people.

16. Types of crops. The classification of cultures is based on several criteria: connection with religion (religious and secular cultures); regional affiliation of culture (cultures of East and West, Mediterranean, Latin American); regional and ethnic features (Russian, French); belonging to the historical type of society (the culture of a traditional, industrial, post-industrial society); economic structure (culture of hunters and gatherers, gardeners, farmers, cattle breeders, industrial culture); sphere of society or type of activity (production culture, political, economic, pedagogical, environmental, artistic, etc.); connection with the territory (rural and urban culture); specialization (ordinary and specialized culture); ethnicity (folk, national, ethnic culture); level of skill and type of audience (high, or elite, folk, mass culture), etc.

material culture- physical objects or artifacts created by people who are given a definition. meaning. spiritual culture Religion, science, philosophy. Dominant culture- values ​​or traditions that are recognized only by a part of society, but this part has the ability to impose them on society as a whole.

17. The main forms of manifestation of culture in modern. society.Elite culture created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. It includes the fine arts, so-called serious music, and highly intellectual literature. folk culture created by anonymous creators with no professional training. Folk culture is called amateur (in origin, as it can be very high in terms of performing skills) and collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs, dances. Mass culture created by professional authors and distributed through the media. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media (radio, print, television, various types of audio recording, video recording) made mass samples of culture available to all social strata of society. Mass culture can be international and national. Examples of mass culture are popular and pop music, circus, love-sexual novels, thrillers, newspaper "sensations".

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called dominant culture. Subculture- part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a large social group. Counterculture denotes a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but also opposes it, is in conflict with state values.

18. Functions of culture in human life. Culture plays a very contradictory role in human life. On the one hand, it helps to consolidate the most valuable and useful patterns of behavior and pass them on to subsequent generations as well as to other groups. Culture elevates a person above the animal world, creating a spiritual world, it promotes human communication. On the other hand, culture is able, with the help of moral norms, to consolidate injustice and superstition, inhuman behavior. In addition, everything created within the framework of culture to conquer nature can be used to destroy people.

19. Social functions of culture - the ability of culture to act as a means of accumulation, storage and transfer of experience.

1. Disintegrative- the ability of culture, uniting some communities, thereby opposing them to other communities and generating cultural conflicts. 2. Integrative- the ability of culture to ensure the integrity of the community on the basis of the development of its culture. 3. Cognitive- the ability of culture to concentrate the knowledge and social experience of many generations of people; and thereby create favorable opportunities for knowledge and development of the surrounding world. 4. Regulatory- the ability of culture to regulate human behavior in various areas: in the family, at school, at home, in production and in other areas. 5. Regulatory relies on a system of certain prescriptions and prohibitions, the violation of which triggers sanctions established by the community and supported by the power of public opinion and various forms of institutional coercion 6. Recreative- the ability of culture to contribute to the restoration of a person's spiritual strength, renewal and normalization of his spiritual potential. 7. Semiotic- the need to study culture as a certain sign system. 8. Meaningful- the ability of culture to create a certain system of communications, which should ensure the exchange and interaction of participants in the cultural process with the help of creative techniques specific to each type of spiritual activity; languages ​​and signs; a specific set of characters and images; concepts and ideas.

20. The crisis of modern. culture. Until recently, the crisis has manifested itself in a variety of forms, the common denominator of which is lack of spirituality, expressed in the indifference of industrialized countries to poverty in third world countries, the death of millions of children in them from causes that could have been prevented, etc. And so now the crisis becomes obvious and global, it captures such areas as the environment, food, climate, water, etc., which constitute the natural foundations of universal existence, it shows how dangerous lack of spirituality and indifference leading to the crisis of Man. The priority of economic values ​​over others, in particular spiritual values, led, according to N. Berdyaev, to the fact that “the autonomy of economic life led to its dominance over the entire life of human societies. Mamonism has become the defining force of the century, which most of all worships the golden calf.” Today, not only philosophers, scientists, but also politicians from the leading countries of the world are looking for ways out of the critical situation that is developing in the world. According to the results of the VTsIOM poll of May 13, 2005, 59% of the Russian population are concerned about the acute crisis of morality, culture and ethics.

21. The relationship between the concepts of "man", "individual" and "personality". Human- 1) the subject of cultural-socio-historical activity, which is the unity of biological and social nature; 2) a being with the gift of thinking and speech, the ability to create tools and use them in the process of social labor. Ch. - a creature that arose in the team, reproduced and develops in the team. Historically established norms of law, morality, everyday life, rules of thinking and language, aesthetic tastes form the behavior and mind of a person, make an individual a representative of a certain way of life, culture and psychology. This is the elementary unit of various groups and communities. The value and role of man in society are immeasurable, since he is not only an object of influence of the surrounding world, but also its subject, that is, he is a great creative force that changes nature, society and thinking.

Individual: An individual, a separately existing organism or a single person, as a representative of the human race.

A separate representative of a social group, society, people. From the moment of birth, a person is an individual, an individual is not “one”, but “one of” human society. The concept emphasizes the dependence of a person on society. An individual is a person who has characteristics characteristic only of him, both external and internal.

Personality- the individual himself as an active subject of social relations and purposeful activity activity, as well as the systemic quality of the individual, due to his conscious activity in the system of social relations and emerging in the conditions of interaction and communication.

22. Mechanisms of socialization of the individual. Personality socialization is a process of personality formation in def. social conditions, the process of human assimilation of social. experience, during the cat. man transforms social experience in your system of behavior, those norms and patterns of behavior, cat. accepted in a society or group. 2 phases of social personality: 1. Social adaptation. Adaptations of the individual to the social-eq. conditions, role functions, social. norms, social groups and social organizations acting as the environment of his life. 2. Interiorization. The process of incorporating social norms and values ​​in ext. the world of man. The nature of the translation of social values ​​and norms in ext. "I". It is conditioned by the structure of a particular personality, formed by previous experience.

Macrofactors influencing the process of social-ii yavl. social-ec., social-political. and ideological system, within the cat. the formation and development of people. To the number mesofactors rel. features of the region, the nature of the change. in the time of the cultural environment and those changes, the cat. is subjected to affecting the person env. natural environment. Microfactors influences on the mechanisms of personality formation from the immediate living environment, family, school, university, labor collective emerge.

Psychological mechanisms of social(according to Z. Freud): imitation- a conscious attempt by the child to copy the model of behavior; identification- a way of understanding belonging to a particular community; feelings of guilt and shame.

Socio-psychological mechanisms: 1. Identification- identification of an individual with some people or groups, which allows assimilating a variety of norms, attitudes and forms of behavior, a cat. characteristic of the environment. 2. Imitation- yavl. conscious or unconscious reproduction by an individual of a model of behavior, the experience of other people. 3. Suggestion- unconscious reproduction by the individual ext. experience, thoughts, feelings and mental states of those people with a cat. he communicates. 4. Social facilitation("relief") - the stimulating effect of the behavior of some people on the activities of others, as a result of the cat. their activity proceeds more freely and more intensively. 5. Conformity- awareness of differences of opinion with others and external agreement with them. Implemented in behavior.

23. Social status of the individual- this is the rank and position of the individual in the group, his relationship with other individuals; it is a set of rights, privileges, duties that are associated with age, gender, origin, profession, marital status. Types of social statuses: 1.prescribed (innate) to a person by the society or group in which he lives: nationality, place of birth, social origin; regulated by a rite showing the transition to another social status (for example, a wedding ceremony: the transition of a person from the status of a bachelor to the status of a married person); 2. the status achieved (acquired) by a person, thanks to his own efforts, opportunities for a defined period of time: profession, education (i.e., associated with the activity of the subject to acquire it), for example: a worker of an enterprise became a director - the status of a manager; 3. personal - determining the position of the subject in the system of interpersonal relations, depending on the recognition of his personal qualities (especially in a small group); Social status has an impact on human behavior --> knowing the status, you can determine most of the qualities, predict actions.

24. Social. role, its relationship with the social. personality status. Social role - a pattern of behavior recognized as appropriate for people of a given status in a given society; (the action of a person within the framework of his rights, privileges, duties, i.e. social status). 2 nature of the social role: 1 formal (enshrined in legislation); 2 informal. Main roles: 1 role of a worker; 2 the role of the owner; 3 the role of the consumer; 4 the role of a citizen; 5 the role of a family member.

25. Role tension and role conflict. Role tension- a situation in which one social role makes conflicting demands on a person and it becomes difficult for him to fulfill this role.

Role conflict- a situation where a person is faced with two or more simultaneous requirements, in which the performance of one of the roles makes it impossible for him to perform the other roles.

26. Deviant behavior and factors of its development. 1. Behavior that deviates from the moral norms of human society and manifests itself in various forms of social. pathologies: alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, crime, homosexuality. 2. Behavior that deviates from mental health norms, i.e. the presence in a person of explicit or hidden psychopathy: asthenics, schizoids, epileptics; people with accentuated characters suffering from mental disorders "within the normal range".

The most important factor in this development is deviant peers. The presence of a deviant group: a) facilitates the commission of deviant actions if the person is internally ready for them; b) provides psychological support and encouragement for participating in such activities and c) reduces the effectiveness of personal and social control mechanisms that could slow down the manifestation of deviant tendencies.

This creates vicious circle. Deviant acts increase the attractiveness of the person who commits them to others who adopt such a style of behavior; by committing anti-normative actions, a person attracts attention, interest, etc. At the same time, deviant actions increase a person’s need for social approval of the group, especially if he grew up in a normal environment where such actions are condemned.

Anomie- this is the “collapse of norms”, “normlessness”, which characterizes the state of society, its social structures. This is a serious social ailment of a society that does not have and does not comply with generally accepted norms of behavior.

When considering deviant behavior, one cannot avoid the question of social heredity. Social heredity is not limited to biological processes, but extends to many others, including social ones. The reproduction of both positive and negative aspects of people's lifestyle is associated with social heredity. The mechanism of social inheritance is not without controversy. One of them is that the subject of continuity is not only normal, but also vicious life experience, which is transmitted from generation to generation through social information.

Finally, deviant behavior is related to inadequate reflection in the minds of some people of the process of development and functioning of social relations. There are two types of such inconsistency. First, the views and sentiments that have developed at the previous stage of social development often come into conflict with the new conditions. Secondly, in the course of practical activity, ideas arise and come to life that unilaterally interpret the meaning and direction of the transformations.

Moral collisions can be divided into external (between people) and internal (when a person has a struggle of motives). External collisions testify to the divergence of the orientation of the values ​​of orientations (up to their opposites), which manifest themselves in social relations as a clash of various moral systems. Nature internal conflicts different. They are determined by the inconsistency of individual moral consciousness. Most often, this is a clash between motives of public duty and motives expressing group, family, and personal interests. Internal conflicts can develop into external conflicts.

27. The social structure of society. Any society always has a social structure, which is understood as the totality of classes, strata, social groups, etc.

The social structure of society is always determined by the mode of production and changes accordingly as social relations change. Social communities are relatively stable populations of people that are distinguished by more or less similar conditions and lifestyles, more or less similar interests. Societies of various types are forms of joint life activity.

Communities are: static (nominal categories) - for example, by registration; real - the same townspeople, in a real setting; mass (aggregates) - populations of people identified on the basis of behavioral differences that are situational and not fixed; group - small and large social groups. Classes are the basis of the social structure of society. 1. Working class: - highly educated, politically active; - medium-educated (the most massive type); - workers (they take more from the state than they give); 2. Peasantry: - rural workers; - farmers; - collective farmers; 3. Intelligentsia; 4. Military personnel; 5. Entrepreneurs; 6. Major business leaders; 7. State and party workers; 8. Top political leadership; 9. etc. (students, pensioners, declassed elements, homeless people, clergy...).

28. Marxist theory of the social class structure of society. Having summarized various views on the origin and essence of classes, K. Marx was able to develop a scientific, materialistic theory of classes, linking their emergence and existence with the development of material production. The dialectical-materialist concept of classes contains a lot of rationality, it reflects important aspects of the objective development of society. At the same time, this doctrine shows a clear absolutization of the role of classes and class relations, which led to a number of major distortions in the socio-philosophical picture of social development.

Classes arose during the period of decomposition of the generic layer. The main prerequisite for the stratification of society into classes was a combination of two processes: the development of productive forces and the social division of labor. This development led to the separation of agriculture from cattle breeding, and then crafts from agriculture, to the emergence of surplus product and private property, which led to the social differentiation of people, which was the basis for the formation of classes. A scientific analysis of the history of society makes it possible to show that the essence of a class is directly dependent on what place it occupies in the system of social production, in what relation it is to the means of production, that its social position in society ultimately depends on this, the image life, and this in turn determines his psychology and worldview. Since the decisive condition for the life and development of society is material production, it is precisely this that constitutes the real basis for the division of society into classes.

29. Basic provisions of the theory of stratification. Social stratification is the identification of social groups, strata based on certain criteria, such as 1. nature of ownership, 2. income, 3. amount of power, 4. prestige.

The social stratification of society is a system of inequality, social differentiation, based on differences in position and functions performed.

This theory describes the existing system of inequality in terms of status, role, prestige, rank, i.e. gives a functional description of the social structure.

30. Social mobility- change by an individual or group of the place occupied in the social structure, moving from one social stratum (class, group) to another (vertical mobility) or within the same social stratum (horizontal mobility). Sharply limited in a caste and class society, social mobility increases significantly in an industrial society. vertical social mobility - social mobility associated with the movement of an individual or group in the system of social hierarchy, including a change in social status. Horizontal social mobility - social mobility associated with the movement of an individual or group in a social structure without changing social status.

31. Features of social stratification in Russia. In the process of developing democratic and market reforms, the social stratification of Russian society has undergone a significant transformation. 1. The very nature of the stratification system has changed radically. In modern Russian society, the formulation of the stratification system takes place on an economic basis, when the main criteria are the level of income, ownership of property and the ability to carry out independent economic activity. 2. A rather numerous entrepreneurial stratum has formed, the highest representatives of which not only constitute an essential part of the economic and economic elite, but in a number of cases are also included in the political elite of the country. 3. In the course of the reforms, new prestigious types of activity appeared, which significantly changed the socio-professional stratification system. Thus, the prestige of entrepreneurial, commercial, financial and banking, managerial, legal and some other types of activity has sharply increased. 4. There has been a polar stratification of society, which finds expression in the growing differentiation of incomes of the population. 5. Despite the significant social polarity of society, a middle class is beginning to form, the core of which is formed by highly productive, enterprising and enterprising social categories.

32. Social generality, types and main. traits. Social community is a broad concept that unites various populations of people who are characterized by some of the same features of life and consciousness.

Communities of various types are forms of joint life activity of people, forms of human community. They are formed on a different basis and are extremely diverse. These are communities that are formed in the sphere of social production (classes, professional groups, etc.), growing on an ethnic basis (nationalities, nations), on the basis of demographic differences (gender and age communities), etc. Historically, the first form of social community was the family and such based on kinship relations, social communities, like a clan and a tribe. In the future, social communities are also formed on other grounds and bear the imprint of a specific socio-economic system. Social communities are characterized not only by the presence of common objective characteristics, but also by the awareness of the unity of their interests in comparison with other communities, a more or less developed sense of “we”. It is on this basis that a simple (statistical) set of people with common objective characteristics is transformed into a real social community. People are simultaneously members of various communities, with varying degrees of internal unity. Therefore, often unity in one (eg, in nationality) can give way to difference in another (eg, in class).

33. What are the types of social traits. The following can be distinguished as the main features of social communities: reality - social communities are not speculative abstractions or experimental artificial formations, but exist in reality, in reality itself. Their existence can be empirically fixed and verified; integrity - social communities are not a simple collection of individuals, social groups or other social, but integrity with the resulting characteristics of integral systems; acting as an object of social interaction - social communities themselves are the sources of their development. The formation and functioning of social communities occurs on the basis of social ties, social interaction and relationships. Social communities are distinguished by a huge variety of specific historical and situationally determined types and forms. Thus, in terms of quantitative composition, they vary from the interaction of two people to numerous international, economic and political movements.

34. Why are small groups the basis of society's life? Most of a person's life takes place in small groups: in the family, gaming companies of peers, educational and work teams, neighborly, friendly and friendly communities. It is in small groups that personality is formed, its qualities are manifested, therefore personality cannot be studied outside the group. Through small groups, the relationship of the individual with society is carried out: the group transforms the impact of society on the individual, the individual affects society more strongly if the group is behind it.

35. Social group- an association of people based on their common participation in some activity, connected by a system of relations that are regulated by formal or informal social institutions. Signs of a social group: 1) the presence of an internal organization; 2) the general (group) purpose of the activity; 3) group forms of social control; 4) samples (models) of group activity; 5) intense group interactions. Definition social group includes four main points:

social interaction- that is, communicative interaction carried out with the help of sign systems (“codes”);

stigma- "sticking labels", by which we recognize membership in a group that has taken shape in a social gestalt (image in the mass consciousness) - the lifestyle of this group; identification- identification by the individual with this group through the opposition of "we - others" with the establishment of social boundaries and filters at the "input-output" (and the implementation of "reflexive monitoring", according to E. Giddens); habitualization- that is, “accustoming” (according to P. Bourdieu), the development by an individual of a given social position and the formation of attitudes, stereotypes inherent in this group. stand out large, medium and small social groups. Large social groups (in addition to classes) include aggregates of people that exist on the scale of the whole society as a whole: these are social strata, professional groups, ethnic communities (nations, nationalities), age groups (youth, pensioners), etc. Awareness of belonging to social group and, accordingly, its interests as its own, occurs gradually, as organizations are formed that protect the interests of the group (for example, the struggle of workers for their rights and interests through workers' organizations). The middle social groups include production associations of employees of enterprises, territorial communities. Diverse small groups include such groups as family, friendly companies, neighborhood communities. They are also distinguished by some kindred contacts with each other.

36. Social institution- a set of norms, regulations and requirements associated with a certain organizational structure, through which society controls and regulates the activities of people in the most important areas of public life.

Social institutions are: property, state, political parties, family, church, labor organizations, educational and upbringing institutions, science, mass media.

social institution(lat. institutum - establishment, establishment) - a system of restrictions created by people, the implementation of which is supported by coercion mechanisms. Both sanctions for non-compliance with the rules and various incentives for following them can serve as coercive mechanisms. Sanctions and incentives can be both material and non-material.

Also social institution can be defined as: a set of persons, organizations, institutions, material resources, providing a certain social need through the functioning of a system of mutually agreed, expediently oriented standards of behavior; a stable set of norms, rules and symbols that regulates any of the aspects of human life and organizes them into a system of roles and statuses. Institutions can be classified according to various criteria: formal and informal; legal and illegal.

37. Basic institutions in the main. spheres of life Keywords: property, state, political parties, family, church, labor organizations, educational and upbringing institutions, science, mass media.

38. What are the consequences of excessive dependence and excessive autonomy of social institutions. The fact that the main institutions of socialization do not form a single hierarchical system significantly increases the autonomy of the individual from each of them separately, and this autonomy is objectively necessary for the formation of a flexible, creative personality capable of making decisions independently, resisting external pressure, etc. Together at the same time, autonomy also contains the possibility of social anomalies, deviant behavior, etc. In order to coordinate the efforts of these institutions, it is necessary to clearly understand the possibilities and trends in the development of each of them. mutually agreed system of expediently oriented standards of behavior. Their emergence and grouping into a system depend on the content of the tasks solved by the social institution. Each such institution is characterized by the presence of an activity goal, specific functions that ensure its achievement, a set of social positions and roles, as well as a system of sanctions that encourage the desired and suppress deviant behavior.

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The entire history of Russia is marked by the significant factor that, due to its geopolitical position, the country found itself between two civilizational centers - the West and the East. Russia, which united many ethnic groups, emerged at the crossroads of the power paths of Europe and Asia, experiencing a powerful socio-cultural influence of both the West and the East. The Eurasian position of the country, of course, is not limited to a purely geographical interpretation. Bearing in mind this feature of Russia, V.O. Klyuchevsky wrote: “Historically, Russia, of course, is not Asia, but geographically it is not quite Europe. It is a transitional country, a mediator between the two worlds. Culture bound her inextricably to Europe, but nature imposed on her features and influences that always attracted her to Asia, or Asia was attracted to her. The peculiarity of the position of Russia is that from the very beginning it acted as an object of Europeanization by the Western European peoples (for example, Norman and German) and at the same time as an agent of Europeanization in relation to the peoples located to the east of the original settlements of the Slavs. At the same time, Russia is an object of orientation on the part of an array of its Eastern peoples and an agent of orientation in relation to the European West. Hence the initial dilemma of civilizational identity for the Russian national self-consciousness with the constantly recurring impossibility to choose between “our own” and “foreign” values ​​(in this case, both the East and the West act as “foreign”), as well as the impossibility to unite them.

The genesis of Russian civilization, a cumulative (from Latin cumulatio - accumulation) process of accumulation of a civilizational resource, which spanned several centuries (VIII-XV centuries), already initially combined many cultural influences. The spiritual face of Russia was formed under the influence of three ideological and cultural flows coming from the south (Byzantium), the west (Western Europe) and the east (Golden Horde). The influence of either the South, or the East, or the West, alternating, alternately dominated Russian culture. In the VIII - XIII centuries. in this influence the South (Byzantium) dominated. The strongest impact from the X to the XV centuries. rendered the East (Mongol-Tatars). And after that, Rus' was subjected to powerful Western influence.

The specificity of Russia lies in its civilizational and cultural complexity, which includes many religious, ethnolinguistic and cultural-historical streams. Here the impulses of East and West, North and South, Forest and Steppe, Nomadism and Settlement, Ocean and Continent collided. However, it is precisely this complexity, which, of course, is a feature of Russia that makes it difficult for her civilizational identity. We can talk about the drama of civilizational uncertainty in relation to Russia. The search for one's own civilizational identity has become one of the dominants of Russian national identity.

The thesis about the civilizational uncertainty of Russia (in a “soft” or “hard” version) is put forward by many modern well-known domestic scientists, historians and philosophers. Thus, I. Yakovenko defines Russian civilization as a semi-barbarian “civilization involuntarily”, the outskirts of the civilizational world. A. Panarin points to the absence of strong “civilizational staples” in Russia, to the fragility of its civilizational syntheses. Historian V. Mezhuev characterizes Russia as a country “not so much becoming civilization, the appearance and contours of which are still only vaguely visible in the ideological searches of its thinkers and artists.

Views according to which Russia is a conglomerate of various civilizations, "inter-civilizational space" are quite widespread. “I proceed from the premise,” writes Yu. Kobishchanov, one of the leading African theorists, “that Russia arose and developed as a dynamic system of cultures and civilizations. Russia has never been the territory of any one civilization.” L. I. Semennikova believes that Russia is a special historically formed conglomerate of peoples, belonging to all existing types of civilizations, united by a powerful centralized state, and this turns Russia into a heterogeneous, segmental society.

The ideas of civilizational “underdevelopment” and “intercivilization” of Russia are united in the concepts of A. Akhiezer. In his opinion, the country is, as it were, torn between two civilizations: traditional and liberal, having gone beyond the first, it has not been able to overcome the boundaries of the second. Occupying an intermediate position between these civilizations, Russia has developed the inorganicity, instability of its civilizational status into a special systemic quality of an “intermediate civilization”, stimulating the destructive tendencies of socio-cultural reproduction, in particular, the split of culture and society, reproducing their inorganic nature.

A compromise position is taken by E. Rashkovsky. Recognizing that Russia has the qualities of “civilizational uncertainty” and “intercivilized continental ocean”, he considers this as a civilizational characteristic of Russia, “the basis of the content and structural originality of Russia”, which cannot interfere with studying it as a sociocultural, civilizational whole.

Along with the concept of Russia's civilizational uncertainty, there exists and is sufficiently recognized both in domestic and foreign science the point of view that Russia has its own civilizational peculiarity. For example, one can note the fact that all the famous authors of the theory of local civilizations (Danilevsky, Spengler, Toynbee, Huntington) considered Russia as a separate civilization, independent and original. At the same time, Danilevsky considered Russia the basis of the Slavic civilization, Toynbee characterized it as Russian-Orthodox (subsidiary of the Hellenic one), and Huntington considers Russia to be the carrier state of the Orthodox-Slavic civilization, representing one of the eight main civilizations. Russia is also considered as part of the Eastern European civilization. There is a concept of Russian civilization (Platonov O.). The Eurasian concept is very popular in our time, according to which a synthesis of European and Asian principles has been carried out in Russia, as a result of which a Russian superethnos and its original culture arose.

Russia has experienced several waves of targeted Western influence. The first powerful wave, of course, is associated with the Petrine reforms. It was a radical attempt to bring Russia closer to Western Europe, "Europeanization" from above. However, this attempt was made after the civilizational synthesis was completed. From now on, foreign cultural material could not be assimilated in significant volumes. It was "rejected as contrary to the quality of the system, although it was vital." The German philosopher O. Spengler characterized such a phenomenon as “pseudomorphosis” - the destructive influence of a borrowed culture on the recipient culture, associated with the inability of the latter to creatively master the acquired spiritual experience. The result of pseudomorphosis is the inability of society to independently move from one historical era to another. Society turns out to be split into two worlds that are not connected with each other (with their own type of social ties, type of economic and legal relations). The essence of the situation of pseudomorphosis in relation to Russia is that the reforms of Peter I split Russian society, led to the formation of two different ways - “soil” and “civilization” (in the terminology of V.O. Klyuchevsky). The way of the Western type (“civilization”) included only a small part of society, mostly literate and active. The majority of the population continued to adhere to the old ethical norms and forms of life (“soil”). In Russian society, a large gap has formed between the enlightened part of society and the traditionally living masses. They constituted, in fact, two civilizational levels related to the West in different ways. The narrow, upper, ruling, educated stratum perceived itself as part of the West. The bulk of the people lived in another world, from which the pro-Western force was often seen as hostile. The elite in its mass turned out to be alien to the people in spirit, there was a separation of the educated layer of the country from the people. The presence in the Russian people of the bearers of two psychological paradigms explains many aspects of Russian history.

All of the above allows, in our opinion, to conclude that Russia is only moving towards civilizational self-determination. This movement takes place in conditions when the world is divided into two parts unequal in their power and influence - the West and the non-West. At the same time, the non-Western world, including Russia, is extremely complex, heterogeneous and unable to compete on equal terms with the much more powerful West. “The West… uses international institutions, military power and economic resources to rule the world, maintaining Western superiority, protecting Western interests and spreading Western economic and political values,” says S. Huntington.

Thus, the entire social and cultural life of Russia is permeated by a mixture, interweaving and superimposition of not only contradictory, but also mutually exclusive orientations.

Modern sociocultural situation

The current socio-cultural situation can be characterized as the completion of the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial, information society, which leads to a change in priorities and values ​​not only in the sphere of economics and politics, but also in the sphere of culture and morality. Information becomes the basic resource, which inevitably leads to an increase in the value attitude not only to the information itself, but also to the ability to extract, process and use it.

The currently experienced socio-cultural as a whole and epistemological situation is also usually characterized as a "state of postmodernity", the basic characteristic of which is the crisis of the historical meta-narrative. It cannot be assessed in the moral and ethical categories of "good - bad", but it must be understood that the crisis of the national level metanarrative destroys social memory, leads to the atomization of society and, ultimately, to the loss of national-state identity.

The modern socio-cultural situation is also increasingly understood as a situation of cultural transition, which in terms of synergetics can be described as a kind of bifurcation point, in which a single social action can lead to large-scale and unpredictable consequences. In this situation, the tasks of professional humanitarian education change: from a simple transfer of professional skills to the development of the ability to comprehend the socio-cultural whole in its historical dimension and the conscious formation of a worldview. In this new socio-cultural situation, liberal arts education in Russia and in the world as a whole is undergoing cardinal changes. In the new conditions of rapid social change, the development of globalization processes, the existence in the real historical process of various political systems, levels of economic development, the dialogue of cultures, society presents new challenges to the humanities, and historical science in its broadest sense.

This requires a specialist to use non-traditional methods for solving non-standard situations, presenting a qualitatively different intellectual product to society. Naturally, with this approach, the traditional model of liberal education, which is widespread in the world, focused on the transmission of ready-made knowledge, an illustrative way of teaching, passive assimilation, loses its effectiveness. The new education strategy highlights the disciplines aimed at the formation of a specialist who, at the level of understanding, knowledge and skill, is able to develop such an intellectual product as new knowledge.

Characteristics of the modern socio-cultural situation in Russia

To characterize the current sociocultural situation in Russia, it is necessary to take into account three groups of factors that determine it today:

Factors of internal development, such as the economic model of development, social dynamics, changes in the state structure and political regime, and many others;

Historical factors, national factors in the development of Russian culture and features of the culture of the Soviet period, in the spirit of which the living generations of Russians were brought up and educated;

Influence on modern Russian cultural processes of the global, primarily Western, socio-cultural situation.

It should be noted that all of the above factors do not just determine the current socio-cultural situation, they determine it in a sharp objective competitive struggle among themselves for the right to become the spiritual dominant of today's cultural development in Russia. One can draw a parallel with the Middle Ages, when at least three traditions fought among themselves for the right to determine the sociocultural situation in Europe: barbarian - of the northern Germanic tribes, ancient - Greek and Romanesque and Christian.

Christianity won, becoming the spiritual dominant of European cultural development for a whole millennium.

Now in the economic life of Russia there are complex, ambiguous, often contradictory processes associated with the initial accumulation of capital, which often takes uncivilized forms and causes complex relations regarding property. In conditions of various kinds of monopoly, market relations are established, which has the most ugly consequences. The principle of private property has been proclaimed politically and legally, but its implementation takes place in a bitter struggle, without finding adequate forms (suffice it to recall voucherization, privatization). The model of social development has changed in the country, but it is still too early to talk about the replacement of sociocentrism with anthropocentrism, according to some researchers. Today one can talk about anthropocentrism as one of the tendencies in the development of Russian society. Real, established anthropocentrism presupposes a civil society, the existence in society of a formalized ideology of free owners, respect for the dignity of the individual, established at all levels in society. And it will be in Russia when, in the community of free owners, not a class, not a nation, not a social stratum or a group, but each separate individual becomes the measure of all things.

Confirmation of the fact that an anthropocentric trend exists in Russia is the policy of the state in matters of culture.

In 1984 for reading, distribution and reference to the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn (b. 1919) could lose his job, become "for life travel restrictions", be expelled from the party. At that time, no one in the most rosy dream could dream that ten years later the head of the Russian state would talk for several hours with a recently disgraced dissident writer, asking him for advice on how to equip Russia.

Sociocentrism is the concept that in the relationship between society and the individual, priority belongs to society.

Anthropocentrism is the concept of the Italian Renaissance, according to which man is at the center of the universe. This concept became the ideology and practice of the European Modern Age and the Enlightenment. The centuries-old existence of this idea as a priority in European ideology contributed to the early emergence of the idea of ​​human rights and its formalization into an independent concept already in the second half of the 17th century. This concept, known as the "concept of natural law", was formulated by the English philosopher J. Locke (1632--1704), who singled out the rights to life, liberty and property as the main natural inalienable human rights.

In the new Russian state, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion are legally fixed and implemented in practice, atheism is no longer the position of the state. The state stopped engaging in ideological censorship, and many outstanding works of philosophy and fiction were returned to the Russian reader. The pluralization of the mass media has led to the elimination of the propaganda function of these media in favor of their information purpose.

Radical changes have taken place in the relationship between the state and the intelligentsia. Discrimination against progressive intelligentsia has not just stopped: citizenship has been returned to those who were expelled, deported, who left during the period of previous political regimes, their works have not only been rehabilitated, they have become the property of those for whom they were intended - spectators, listeners, readers. For the first time, the government brought highly professional people closer to itself on an equal footing, provided a political and professional platform to all those capable of creating alternative programs for organizing economic and social life in the country. The special depositories were liquidated, overflowing with forbidden works of Russian and world classics. The pluralism of publications expanded the reading circle of an ordinary citizen, provided the opportunity for a real spiritual choice (and the authenticity of a choice is a criterion for the authenticity of freedom), made it possible to form a home library without looking back at the “knock on the door” for the fact that it contains the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn or A.D. Sakharov.

However, this phenomenon, which is decisive for the emancipation of the individual and the development of a genuine culture in the country, still has negative aspects. First of all, the intelligentsia, whose activity and struggle ensured the changes that have taken place, cannot always take advantage of the benefits brought by these changes. The low salaries of scientists, teachers, doctors, creative intelligentsia, the symbolic scholarship of students do not allow them to buy books, visit theaters, travel to get acquainted with world and domestic culture.

For the intelligentsia, the creator of works of art, the process of emancipation was not only a boon, but also a test. These processes became a test, however, for the entire intelligentsia. So, the teachers faced the questions of how to teach, what to teach, what sources to teach, since not only the vices of the past, but also the negative phenomena of the present became obvious. Not all intellectuals pass this test. Freedom of creativity often turns into freedom of rivalry between different factions of the spiritual elite. For example, conflicts, strife in the Art Theater, the Bolshoi Theater. Union of Writers and other creative unions. It can be said that not a single fundamental work has been created in any area of ​​culture over the years. Similar facts have already found their interpretation in the works of Russian culturologists. Some consider acquired freedom insufficient:

“I think that the current social confusion, in which you can’t figure out where to go - to church or to the market, is not yet freedom, it’s chaos. And it is right to talk about the influence of chaos on culture... But freedom... We have not lived up to freedom yet. Freedom is not a simple absence of censorship, it is a balance based on one's own depth, on the existing personality.

Quite often a person, after seventy years of guardianship (and rebellion against guardianship), has not yet learned to stand on his own feet and go his own way, not paying too much attention to politics. The trouble is not in freedom, but in unaccustomed to freedom.

Despite the positive trends in the current socio-cultural situation, they are not sufficient grounds to define the current political system in Russia as a democracy.

Democracy is, in addition to these characteristics, a developed community. And today the organized society is destroyed, the organized anthropocentric society has not been formed. In society, there is a confrontation between democrats and conservatives, while none of them has a developed concept of a positive political and state arrangement of the country. Everything is expressed on the contrary: the democrats do not want totalitarianism, the conservatives do not want Russia to turn into the "backyard of the West." And society, under the influence of the processes of social stratification, under the influence of party confrontations, is disintegrating, any commonality is lost, including the commonality of cultural orientation.

The past, of course, was difficult and forced the Russians to endure and suffer, but everyone “endured”, and today in Russia “new Russians” are rising spiritually and materially due to the impoverishment and degradation of others, whose mental level is below the permissible norm.

All this serves as the basis for the emergence of potential and social conditions for the transformation of Russia into a third world country or for the emergence of an authoritarian strict regime in it.

However, what has been said does not mean a thoughtless praising of the past - a balanced analysis, accounting and preservation of everything positive from the past is necessary, because civilization and culture always rest on continuity and preservation of the conquered and acquired by labor, barbarism always destroys. Wise guidance of the ongoing spiritual and cultural processes is necessary.

A positive aspect of the current socio-cultural situation in the country is the de-ideologization of the entire education system.

Freedom in itself does not solve a single problem, but, on the contrary, by shaking social norms and increasing the spontaneity of people's behavior, it gives rise to many new problems.

“Meetingism is one of the most accessible forms of outpouring of mass group feelings. Apparently, it was not in vain that the ancients spoke of domination in such times of ochlocracy - the domination of the crowd. Against this background, demagogy flourishes, since the opinion of the masses in such a state does not constitute a basis for truth. All decisions, without exception, taken under the pressure of this kind of rallies, give unpredictable, often unpleasant social consequences.

They also point to the "rampancy of feelings" characteristic of the transitional era, since the transition of large groups of people to new values ​​​​first of all occurs at the emotional level.

In this connection the problem of culture and democracy arises in general. It seems that this problem is solved by itself: democracy creates optimal conditions for the development of culture. Indeed, democracy is the most favorable regime for the exercise of the power of the people. It is democracy that protects the pluralism of positions and freedom of choice, but, as N.A. Berdyaev (1874-1948), there is also an inverse relationship between culture and democracy: democracy needs a sufficient cultural basis, certain conditions are necessary for its implementation, brought up in the masses for centuries and even millennia.

Spiritual liberation revealed the weaknesses and limitations of professional and humanitarian education in the country during the Soviet era. This, in particular, manifested itself in the inability of the majority of the population to adequately perceive the works of Russian classical philosophy that came to us after decades of prohibition.

The system of higher education has received a fresh breath - being an educated person is again becoming both fashionable and profitable, education brings respect and weight in society. In turn, today specialists are required not only deep highly specialized knowledge, but also methodological training, knowledge of not only exact, but also humanitarian and social sciences, which makes the division of higher education into humanitarian, natural science and technical to a certain extent conditional, and narrow specialization in some cases - unacceptable, especially in industries with high rates of scientific and technological progress. In recent years, the so-called alternative education and distance learning, which is possible with the use of modern computers and connection to the international Internet information systems, have become widespread.

Among the positive changes in the cultural life of Russia can be attributed the appearance of a large number of periodicals - newspapers and magazines - as well as a large selection of various literature. Of course, among this abundance there are books whose name is waste paper (lat. - mediocre, low-grade literature, not of great value). But in most cases, this is literature in almost all branches of knowledge, of good content and in good printing performance.

The culture of recent years is expanding in breadth. The spectrum of cultural undertakings is enriched through the development of various kinds of public associations, movements, clubs, and associations. The cultural exchange with other countries has become richer, the feeling of cultural isolation disappears. New radio stations are being created. Public galleries, museums, many of which have appeared in recent years, as well as exhibitions, are returning artistic values ​​that have been unfairly forgotten. New orchestras, including symphony ones, are organized, new theaters are opened. Let us recall in this connection what place the art of the theater has always occupied in the cultural life of Russian society. And in perestroika times, the theater fulfills its mission. He remains at the forefront of social thought, helping to form civil consent with his own means.

After a period of almost complete collapse of the domestic system of film production and film distribution, when hundreds of cinemas were closed across the country, a certain upsurge has now been outlined in this area of ​​culture. More and more films are being created that can already compete with Hollywood productions and are in demand by the viewer, because he is already rather fed up with the foreign entourage on the screen. Domestic cinema continues to perform several basic functions: introductory, educational, critical.

The spiritual life of modern Russian society has become much richer due to the return of religion (the values ​​of religious culture). The return of religiosity is associated with the increasing complexity of life, with the search for stability, psychological stability in the face of problems generated by the modern stage of social development, such as alienation from nature, loss of connection with traditions, moral degradation, etc. However, the level of religiosity, i.e. sincere faith is rather low, which reflects only the external and often formal recognition of religious values.

2. Problems of development of the socio-cultural sphere of Russian society

It can be argued that as a result of the economic, social and political processes of recent years, Russian society has not yet been able to consolidate around common goals and values. At present, it is a gradually becoming more complex set of microcommunities that have arisen for a variety of reasons.

It is somewhat more difficult to determine the exact list of problems. However, among them, one can single out the main problems, the presence of which is beyond doubt: a drop in demographic indicators, a deterioration in living standards against the backdrop of rising prices and lower wages, and the social vulnerability of the poor.

According to studies, the majority of Russians consider high prices for housing and communal services to be the most painful social problem. Also, Russians consider the lack of financial resources for food and goods, rising prices and inflation, high prices for medical services and medicines to be the main social problems. The listed problems of social and cultural development are supplemented and exacerbated by political instability in the world, the development of the financial crisis affecting the growth of the Russian economy, as well as cultural problems. Workers of cultural infrastructure are reduced. The cultural infrastructure in Russia is quite developed, but at the same time it remains ossified, technically and morally obsolete. A strong imprint on it was left by the former social order and the cultural policy inherent in it; the consequence of this is an orientation towards centralized management and direct budgetary support, a noticeable lack of own initiative of cultural institutions, their unpreparedness for existence in conditions of social and economic pluralism and a free market. As a result, there is a cooling of the population's interest in the heritage of Russian and world civilization. The average Russian considers going to a bar or watching a TV show as cultural leisure. It is also a result of the mass craze for cinema, the Internet, and the high cost of other cultural entertainment. The level of political culture, the ability to adapt in society, the quality of the performance of professional duties directly depend on the general level of culture.

In the field of healthcare, a multiformity and fragmentation have formed, which worsens the quality of medical services provided.

The second feature of modern health care is its rise in price. The development of modern diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, on the one hand, has improved the quality of diagnostics, improved treatment results, and reduced the time to restore lost health. On the other hand, it led to a rise in the cost of medical care by several orders of magnitude.

The next problem is the lack of funding, ie. discrepancy between the real needs of healthcare and the allocated financial resources.

The fourth is a costly healthcare model with an excess bed capacity. Previously, poor health care equipment, the lack of effective medicines and advanced technologies were compensated by a large number of hospitals, an entire army of doctors and a strong clinic. Over the past 10 years, the preventive component of healthcare has weakened, and from preventive it has become curative. The result was a bloated bed network and a large number of inefficient hospitals.

It can also be noted that, in general, Russians' view of the future is becoming more optimistic compared to the past decade. People attach more importance not only to economic and political issues, but also to relationships, careers, and a healthy lifestyle. The desire for the latter is especially expressive against the background of the problems of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Also, the socio-cultural development of Russia is influenced by terrorism, the role of oligarchs in the political and economic life of the country, the environmental situation, bureaucracy, the presence of extremist and fascist youth groups.

The aggravated ideological and socio-cultural problems of modern Russia are reflected in the state of the whole society.

If we talk about the problems of modern Russian culture, then the following can be distinguished here. Firstly, it is a trend of social stratification between generations, which is reflected in such socio-cultural foundations as lifestyle and lifestyle, as well as value orientations. Contradictions between generations (the problem of "fathers and children"), and, above all, at the psychological and ideological levels, are inherent in all societies, regardless of territorial, social and historical factors. But they are especially aggravated in an era of change, transition from one social system to another, when the worldview of the “fathers”, formed in the old system, cannot “get along” with the new reality, because the idea of ​​continuity is cut off. Therefore, the old and middle generations of Russians and the young generation are at different poles of national culture.

The second problem of modern domestic culture is the gap between the potential of culture's influence on society and the really existing ability of the masses to master it and use it in everyday sociocultural practice. The dynamism of modern life has caused a significant complication of the structure and content of people's relations with each other, with the natural and cultural (artificial) environment. This is expressed in such objective indicators as a quantitative increase in qualitatively diverse objects, scientific ideas, artistic images, patterns of behavior and interaction. In addition, the possibilities for choosing forms and places for leisure, recreation, satisfaction of intellectual and aesthetic interests have significantly expanded.

But these opportunities are often not realized, and, above all, due to the constant rise in prices for all types of services, including cultural purposes - the cost of books, tickets for concerts, theaters, cinemas, and sometimes for exhibitions of fine arts, etc. d. All this narrows, reduces the real consumption of modern cultural values.

But the biggest problem of modern Russian culture is the confrontation between the so-called "serious" and "folk" culture (primarily in the field of artistic culture) and "mass culture". By the way, Russia has almost always been characterized by the fact that true (highly artistic) art is always the art of the past, not the present.

The most significant problems are related to the general state of the spiritual life of Russian society.

The processes of erosion of the spiritual identity of Russian culture are intensifying, the danger of its westernization is increasing, and the historical and cultural identity of individual territories, settlements, and small towns is being lost. The commercialization of cultural life has led to the unification of customs, traditions and way of life (especially the urban population) according to foreign models. The result of mass replication of the Western way of life and behavior patterns is the standardization of cultural needs, the loss of national and cultural identity and the destruction of cultural identity.

Indicators of the spiritual life of society are declining. The gap between the specialized and ordinary levels of cultural development continues to grow. Movies and music are losing popularity. There is a sharp decrease in the role of television in familiarizing the population with art. Almost completely absent in the preferences of the population of contemporary domestic art. Decreased demands on the artistic level of works of art led to the expansion of the flow of low-grade literature, cinema, and music, which to a large extent deformed the aesthetic taste of the population.

There is a significant reorientation of public consciousness - from spiritual, humanistic values ​​to the values ​​of material well-being. In many ways, such moral values ​​as love for the "small motherland", mutual assistance, and mercy have been lost. In essence, culture begins to lose the functions of social regulation, social consolidation and spiritual and moral self-determination of a person, approaching a state that in sociology is characterized by the concept of anomie, i.e. abnormality, dysfunctional. The values ​​and norms that make up the moral vertical and the spiritual core of Russian culture are unstable, vague, and contradictory today.

Of particular concern is the younger generation, which is increasingly moving away from spiritual culture. This is largely facilitated by the crisis in the education system, the politics of the media, which introduce immorality, violence, neglect of the profession, work, marriage, and family into consciousness as a norm. The discrepancy between the declared priority of universal human values ​​and real life leads to the destruction of moral foundations, legal lawlessness.

At the level of state policy, there is an underestimation of culture as a consolidating and meaning-forming factor, as the most important resource for the spiritual transformation of Russia. The main emphasis in the state cultural policy is on the development of mass commercial culture, which is seen as a necessary component of a democratic social order and a market economy, the basis of civil society and the rule of law. On the one hand, the market principles of organizing culture weaken the managerial dictate, involve the population (consumers) in participating in cultural policy, eliminate ideological influence, expand the possibilities of cultural and leisure institutions through new sources of funding, allow increasing the wage fund, etc. On the other hand, there is a commercialization of culture, a washout of free forms of cultural and leisure activities, a shift in the priorities of culture from the content of activities to making a profit. Artistic creativity, freed from the oppression of censorship, found itself under economic oppression. The film industry is experiencing a deep crisis. The video market is monopolized by the pirate industry. The consequences of this process of commercialization, the scale of which is still difficult to predict, are of concern to artists.

So, the problem of confrontation between “serious” and “mass culture” is the most difficult one and cannot be solved by any special government instructions. There is only one principle here - "serious" culture should be subsidized, it should be financially supported. It can be both state support (budgetary funds) and the help of sponsors, but it is help. Because the market as a mechanism for creating and disseminating highly artistic values ​​among the masses is not effective. Everywhere, not only in Russia, for example, a symphony orchestra or an opera and repertory drama theater will not survive without subsidies, but a pop group will survive, because. it is an integral part of show business, i.e. "mass culture".