Eastern mentality. Deterioration of the situation in Egypt and a few words about the Eastern mentality

Mentality is a picture of the world and the sum of everyday principles and norms that a person has. It is formed by upbringing, environment and moral values ​​of the individual.
The main difference between the Western and Eastern mentality, in my opinion, lies in the sphere of attitudes towards property and money.
The West is more pragmatic and businesslike. The East is more contemplative, meditative. The meaning of life is more likely to be sought in the East, while in the West they are busy arranging their lives. Therefore, it is better to look for religion, mysticism in the East, it is more developed there, and for comfort you need to go to the West. Capitalism arose precisely in the West, therefore, it is not at all accidental. The Western world is generally built on the priority of money over everything else. Money, their earnings for a Western person is as natural as the change of day and night. From childhood, he is accustomed to the realities of money and learn how to earn them. Moreover, he knows that only through money he can take place as a successful person. It doesn't matter that you are talented, smart, kind, honest, if at the same time you do not know how to convert your virtues into money. In the East it's different. Especially where people went through the school of socialism. I remember that under socialism for many people it was even uncomfortable to talk about money. It was considered something shameful, not worthy of a person. People could not evaluate themselves and their work in terms of money. People did not know how to earn and profitably sell themselves. In the West, a person is a commodity. If he is engaged in business, then by default it is considered that it should bring him profit. It is not for nothing that the Western word "business" is translated as "business", which is incorrect, because a business does not have to be profitable and be done only for enrichment. For example, a person did a job - planted a tree, but he did it for himself, for the soul, and this, of course, is not a business at all. On the other hand, business can be done without necessarily doing the business itself - without producing a new quality. For example, doing resale. And for deeds for the soul in the West, there is a special word - volunteer, showing the exclusivity of such deeds, emerging from the general series of normality. Pushkin derived the formula - "Inspiration is not for sale, but you can sell the manuscript", in which he distinguished between God's work and business, trade. Business - strictly speaking, this is not a business, but the art of making money. On anything. Even from the air. Best of all, money is made on deceit, so religion in the West is, first of all, a business, as well as culture, art, science, and politics.

An experienced and self-confident sales manager enters the office of an Eastern decision maker (DM) and after a while leaves home with a feeling of bewilderment. Something clearly went wrong. There was a need for the product, the quality and prices were normal, they spoke only on the case, but the conversation did not “stick” from the very beginning. This could have been forgotten if history had not repeated itself again with another "Eastern" client...

The mistake was very gross and could not be logically detected, because it was made at the level of the cultural code. The client should not have smiled. Even having lived in Moscow for more than a dozen years, the client still continued to subconsciously perceive the businessman who came to the negotiations with a smile on his face as a rogue who wanted to deceive him.

Ignorance of the cultural code in situations where people are financially motivated to make contact sometimes gives rise to ridiculous situations. First of all, people try to adapt. Saying at the meeting "Salam!" or "Nihao!" they hope to show respect and earn the sympathy of the interlocutor. Again, by - only well-known people greet like that. How would you personally react to "Great!" or "Hey bro!" at the beginning of a business meeting with a person you see for the first time? Here it is not so much a matter of impudence as of cognitive dissonance arising from the fact that these words are uttered politely and formally. People can make allowances for many things, but not for those that irritate them without reason.

In principle, the path of opportunism is a dead end, since it does not tolerate half measures. If such thoughts come to your mind, then bring them to the point of absurdity. For example, imagine that you came to a meeting with a client in a burqa specially worn for such an occasion. It will be quite enough to find and read a good book on foreign business etiquette written not by a theorist, but by a successful practitioner who has something to say. Such a practical guide will not make you an expert, but it will save you from blunders - which is quite enough.

Another feature of the Eastern way of life, which causes a lot of trouble, is the ignorance of the true decision maker. In short, a senior in position is not necessarily a decision maker. This should be understood not in the sense that there are "gray cardinals" - persons influencing the decision-making (LWR) of the leadership - in Western terminology, but literally. Making serious proposals without understanding the true decision maker is fraught with at least a waste of time.

There are features in which the eastern mentality is very similar to the domestic one, only they manifest themselves to a greater extent. For example, both domestic and Eastern businessmen are not internally close to the concept of win-win. The winner (ideally) either takes all or at least negotiates significant concessions. When preparing for negotiations, this will need to be taken into account in advance. Get ready for the "fight", but do not take what is happening too close to your heart.

Inadequate, from our point of view, the reaction of the eastern partners to situations associated with the "loss of face" also seems to be inadequate. The point is that Asian partners often exaggerate their real possibilities during negotiations, but this is not dishonesty among them. In situations where it comes to signing a contract, and the partner is not ready to seal his recent verbal obligations in writing on the originally proposed terms, you should in no case draw the attention of other compatriots of your counterparty to this - otherwise you will make yourself a mortal enemy. In such a situation, you need to either calmly leave the negotiations, or continue them until a solution is acceptable to you.

As mentioned above, there is a lot of sensible literature on cross-cultural management, using which you can not only avoid the mistakes associated with ignorance of the Eastern mentality, but also become culturally richer, because many things can only be understood in comparison.

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This letter was sent to me by a friend by mail, read it, it is very interesting.

For contemplation...

A quick review of the socio-cultural differences between the European and Eastern mentality.

.... people simply do not understand the reasons why "refugees" act the way they do, because they approach the understanding of their actions with their own "European" measure, which is at least naive, but in fact short-sighted.
Some things are simply not able to come to the head of a European, even if they are turned upside down and shaken.
In connection with the relevance, I decided to share my life experience on the topic of the Arab mentality, in no way claiming to be complete and exclusive, and I will be glad if there are people who also have practical experience of immersion and understanding.

Let me start by saying that I love the Arab East. Yes, yes, I love him. The Arabic language is unrealistically cool, I can't wait for my pension when I finally have time to finish learning it.
I wore women's closed Muslim clothes (out of curiosity), I liked it. These clothes make you change your step and make your walk, well, just extremely feminine. I really like wedding dresses, though for everyday life.
Yes I .. eh)
The East cannot possibly have a more loyal supporter than me.
That is why everything I say - I say without anger, from the standpoint of a keen understanding that the West exists West, East is East.
I know that the power of the East is immeasurable compared to us and they will sweep us away like microbes from the face of civilization.
The fact that I really love the Arab world is absolutely no reason to destroy Europe as a branch of human development, just like you do not let your flower bed be destroyed simply because the vital power of weeds is several orders of magnitude higher.
You can be called a racist about weeds all you want, but for some reason you continue to weed your flower bed ..

Now for the practical training..
1. Warm up.
Just to start with something simple, let's start with the bazaar, the easiest thing is to start to feel the difference.
...I asked my friends how many times it is necessary to lower the price at the bazaar here so as not to be a tourist sucker.
I'm not greedy. It’s just that I’m not a tourist here, and you don’t need to treat me as a tourist.
Not immediately, but they admitted that it was necessary to lower the price by 15-20 times, but without a local assistant I would never succeed in this.
I got sad. Too much. Especially without free Arabic.
I decided to be realistic and aim for 10 times.
Regarding Europe, you yourself know - if you managed to bring down the price by 2 times, then the purchase was successful, if by three, your level is "God".
None of the Europeans will simply come to raise the price of their goods for a foreigner by 20 times simply because you assume that he should have this money.
.. every day as if I were going to work, I go to the market and learn how to bargain. The number of items purchased for training purposes is growing at an alarming rate, and I figure out who and when I will give them away. I started knocking down the price five times almost immediately, after suffering for a couple more days, I improved the result to seven, and then things stalled.

I just can't seem to grasp the crap they're doing to get around me in our argument, and it pisses me off. NLP does not work on them.
...the suitcase announced that I could only buy one more large item. I usually knock down the price seven times, but this is my last! a chance not to fail my studies, and I continue to bargain.
The atmosphere is heating up.

The owner throws a "silver" antique knife into the fight, which I briefly touched, and we start anew. The show goes to a new level, the owner gets into my dish with two legs and jumps in it, proving what an exceptional thing it is.
I already know this, but - at least at 9 raaaaz ...
Suddenly the owner turns purple and begins to bliss in some kind of Berber, apparently, to pour selected curses.

I get frightened and I'm about to kick my butt, but suddenly a memory emerges from the depths of my foggy consciousness that only if the owner curses and curses you, only then can you be sure that you received a more or less fair price. He silently packs the dish, showing with all his appearance that I robbed him, and I snort angrily at the exit.
The next day, when I pass by (I went to the oils section, but bargaining there is blasphemy), he rushes to hug me and drags me to drink tea. Every day I explain that I will not buy anything else, and every day as a result we sit, drink freshly minted mint and chat about life.
A week later, he asks me if I'm ready to buy an ink bottle. I did my best not to look at the ancient Arabic inkwell, but the more I tried, the more I realized that its place was on my desk.
I don’t want to bargain, I already feel guilty for the museum-level object snatched from him on the cheap, I know that I will take an inkwell for any money and internally prepare for everything, but suddenly the price turns out to be what is called "without asking." I go to the shop opposite, buy all sorts of cheesecakes fried in honey, and this time the owner and I not only drink his tea, but also eat my buns.
I feel good. I feel like I'm at home.

Further thesis.
1. Attitude towards children.
I laugh at naive people who believe that "refugees" run to save children.
In the Arab world, there is no such “trembling” over our children, the attitude towards children is more than calm.
Probably, exactly the same attitude was in Russia 150 years ago, when families had 10-12 children, and there was no way to take special care of them. "God gave, God took."
Arab families still have many children. A lot. With especially acute curiosity, I talked with people who have 7 children each (I did not manage to meet such parents with many children on the European continent). It's no joke to grow so many!
First of all, you see a huge parental fatigue and emotional burnout.

I think that this defines the situation.
And you see very high demands on children - they are seen primarily as a tool for family survival. A three-year-old boy in the market helps his father lay out something there and tries to attract passers-by - and his father only praises him with restraint. Who was moaning about the fact that refugee children are forced to work from the age of 6? Do you think they were taken by the hand to figure skating at home before that?

Oh, by the way, in simple local schools, children are still punished with a whip.
The complete absence of our sense of the significance and importance of children comes to the point that the parents themselves will ask the girl who dishonored the family to commit self-immolation. For good, for good. Otherwise, they will have to.
Again, there is no intention to condemn it. Those same 150 years ago, even in our country, a disgraced girl could have just drowned herself, anyway, she would not have had any more life. However, the question is, do those who traveled to Europe from Russia want to end up back in the same Russia, only 150 years ago?
I hope, after my explanation, it is more clear HOW children end up on leaky rafts in the open sea and how rare "refugee" fathers with small children in their arms for some reason climb to the forefront of clashes with the police.

2. Lies.
Lying is the norm. It is so comprehensive that in fact you find yourself in some kind of unreality, like fairy tales of 1000 and one night, and you will doze under it, like that shah.
They can lie about everything. When the plumber comes, about the quality of the goods and, of course, about any services provided. The "best" guide may not know anything about the city at all, and the "best car" will definitely turn out to be a rare roar.
Sometimes they can lie just from the breadth of the soul. Well, I really want to help them, so they will promise just to please you (you were delighted, right? Well, it will be with you :), without having any opportunity in principle to fulfill the promise. Having made you "pleasant", they will be very satisfied with themselves and it will not even occur to them to experience any moral inconvenience. And sometimes they can lie out of the best of intentions, sincerely believing that some other solution will be better for you than the one you are going to take.

3. Theft
Theft is generally not considered something reprehensible. It is, rather, a certain norm of life, something from the "daring" section.
You can cut tourists' wallets, or you can steal panties from a neighbor's balcony.
So what if the neighbor can start yelling, anyway, tomorrow his son can steal your bike, and you will be quits.
In general, it is more like a kind of primitive communal consciousness, when everything belongs to one tribe, so the one who needs it more can use the thing.
They say that in the Emirates they chop off hands for theft, but I was not there, my mother did not allow me. She, like so many others, was extorted a large amount of money at the hotel on the road, and since I don’t understand how this differs from theft, I decided to refrain from such prohibitively ambiguous morality for the time being ..
And it's not about rich prosperous countries.

4. Hygiene.
To see and understand this in its entirety, everyone needs to live in the medina - the heart of the Arab city.
Of course, it is dangerous to walk in the medina alone, primarily because you will definitely get lost without any chance to get back, but you can take a guide.
The concept of hygiene does not exist there at all.
Slops are poured under the feet of passers-by, a live bird is gutted right on the same table where it was bought, and if the buyer does not take the offal, then they are thrown again at the feet of passers-by, and it’s good if dogs come to the rescue, but local suffocators most often do not can consume the volume of offal that is sent to the floor.
The tanning and dyeing industry also dumps its waste somewhere right on the street, which is why there are some white puddles of incomprehensible chemical origin.
And in many places, a rare, simply fantastic stench at the level of a gas chemical attack.
I'm not criticizing, this way of life is thousands of years old, but do you want to be in that millennium too?
About how beautiful and majestic the medina is (especially at sunset, when storks fly home from the fields), I will not tell you. Not this time.
Today I will tell you that no matter how many times you go outside the city wall to meet storks, your joy will be overshadowed by the sight of half a dozen men pissing on the thousand-year-old wall of their native city. No, not in some secluded place, but in front of a couple of dozen walking here same women and children. But you will not have time to be offended, because you will immediately see something even more shocking - a couple of men crouched "in a serious way". Everything is right there in plain sight.
The walls of the medina reach 20 meters thick. Though in full stench, but she endures.
What about the walls of your houses?

5. Work
In the West, since childhood, people are instilled with a sense of guilt if you do not work (do not study, do not put away toys ...)
Subbotniks, when you have to do someone else's work for free and in your free time, are the highest form of imposing this feeling of guilt.
In the East, the only decent job for a man is trading.
But it is much more decent to sit all day in a coffee shop, sip coffee and bawl with other idlers of the same kind and look at passers-by.
I puzzled for a long time, due to what do they live, or what are all the rich heirs?
But then I realized that people live according to the Soviet "chord system" of earnings. I sold something to someone for 200% of the price - and again you can sit with respected people in cafes for a month.
If you try to explain there what a "subbotnik" is (just for the sake of interest), they will think that you are out of your mind.
But those who believe that a million workers have come to them have outlived their minds much more strongly.
And in conclusion, I bring to your attention a completely brilliant story (not mine), in which the author himself is not yet able to understand to what heights of foresight he rises.

In this question, "who will collect whom, a whale or an elephant?" European culture and mentality will be mechanically replaced by the Arab world within 5-10 years if the new arrivals are not sent home.
You can pity them, you can shed a mean Dostoevsky tear, but the problem is that they will not pity you, because if this concept is in their mentality, then it definitely does not apply to you.
Therefore, ask yourself where the line is between pity and a sense of self-preservation, and read the rules of lifeguards.
The rescuer, for your information, must first make sure that nothing threatens his life.
P.S. Please note that I am writing without anger, just about what I know well.
If this causes rage in you and a desire to offend the author, it is your fear that is looking for a way out. Think about it before commenting.
aurora_hws wrote in pora_valit 10 September 2015

Introduction

2. Specificity of European and Eastern mentality

3. Features of the Russian mentality and mentality

· Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Culturology is the science of culture, of meanings. What distinguishes culturology from history is that history tries to establish the time of this or that fact, for the historian the fact itself is important, and for the culturologist it is important what culture meant at one time or another. The most common definition of culturology is its understanding as the science of the most general laws governing the development of culture. Cultural studies, as well as humanitarian knowledge in general, for a number of reasons, does not fully satisfy the criteria of scientific character that have been formed within the natural sciences. Therefore, when they want to emphasize the socio-scientific nature of cultural research based on appropriate methods, they talk about social cultural studies. Following the scientific methodology in this case is mandatory and affects both the object and the subject and method of conceptual presentation.

The necessary empirical and theoretical basis, which serves as a kind of criterion for the validity of cultural hypotheses, determines the boundaries of their application. Humanitarian issues and the style of thinking corresponding to it are determined both by the uniqueness of each individual, his inner world, emotional states, feelings, giftedness, and by his belonging to the socio-cultural environment. Depending on whether we are striving to explore the social forms of human life in culture, or, on the contrary, we want to understand the individual, personal refraction of sociocultural phenomena, the aspect of cultural studies is also chosen - either social or humanitarian.

Mentality is a certain property of the traditional ethnic consciousness in a special way reflecting (and expressing by its behavior) a certain ethnic picture of the world.

The ethnic picture of the world, in turn, is a person's ideas about the world, formed on the basis of certain cultural and value dominants. These representations are partly conscious, partly unconscious. In general, the ethnic picture of the world is a manifestation of the protective function in its psychological aspect.

Mentality, thus, acts as a set of unconscious complexes that are formed in the process of adaptation of the human collective (ethnos) to the natural and social environment and play the role of the main mechanisms in ethnic culture responsible for the psychological adaptation of the ethnos to the environment. These unconscious images, included in the system of ethnic constants in one way or another, determine the nature of human action in the world. The latter is specific to each ethnic culture. Mentality is a system of ethnic constants, which is the prism through which a person looks at the world.

This understanding of the problem is close to the classical views expressed by A.Ya. Gurevich, who defined "mentality" as "mental tools", "spiritual equipment", "a specific structure of consciousness", "people's awareness of themselves, the natural and social environment"; as mental attitudes, general orientations and habits of consciousness not formed explicitly, not expressed explicitly, not fully realized in culture; as common psychology and worldview, a way of worldview. There are other successful definitions, which the author largely shares.

Mentality as a collective-personal formation represents stable spiritual values, deep axiological attitudes, skills, automatisms, latent habits, long-term stereotypes considered within certain spatial and temporal boundaries, which are the basis of behavior, lifestyle and conscious perception of certain phenomena of reality. These are a special “psychological equipment” (M. Blok), “symbolic paradigms” (M. Eliade), “dominant metaphors” (P. Ricoeur), finally, “archaic remnants” (S. Freud) or “archetypes” (K. Jung), "... the presence of which is not explained by the individual's own life, but follows from the primitive innate and inherited sources of the human mind." Unlike Freud, Jung believes that not only the subjective, repressed beyond the "threshold of consciousness", but, above all, the collective and impersonal mental content is included in the area of ​​the unconscious. "The collective unconscious as a heritage of ancestors ... is not individual, but common to all people ... and represents the true basis of the individual psyche." The collective unconscious is based on stable images, called archetypes by Jung. In its essence, mentality is just historically processed archetypal representations, through the prism of which the perception of the main aspects of reality takes place: space, time, art, politics, economics, culture, civilization, religion. Consideration of the mental features of the consciousness of a particular social group allows one to penetrate into the “hidden” layer of social consciousness, which more objectively and deeply conveys and reproduces the mood of the era, to reveal a deeply rooted and hidden behind the ideology slice of reality - images, ideas, perceptions, which in most cases remains unchanged even when changing one ideology to another. This is explained by the greater, in comparison with ideology, stability of mental structures.

Patterns of behavior, value orientations are usually set within the framework of the mentality of the educated part of society, and then, somewhat simplified, gradually penetrate into the mentality of the people, becoming fixed in it for many years, decades and even centuries. The social differentiation of mentalities reflects the existing division in society into social groups with their inherent material interests, lifestyle, etc. For example, the peasant mentality of the last century in Russia was characterized by greater conservatism than the mentality of the educated classes, and even early peasant uprisings can be characterized as conservative, because their ideals were not in the future (like the intelligentsia), but in the past. Further, the peasant mentality, which forms and models the behavior of its bearers, was characterized by collective fears, fantasies, separate and rather cruel manifestations of fanaticism and cruelty, which was explained by the difficult conditions of peasant life - poverty, hunger, epidemics, high mortality. But, in contrast to the prevailing opinions about the "peasant mass", the Russian peasant was characterized by an awareness of his special "I", a tense perception of the relationship between eternity and temporality of being with a general orientation towards Christian values. By reproducing the peasant mentality step by step, one can gradually construct the way of life of the peasant, his spiritual and material world. The same method underlies the analysis of the intellectual world of the intelligentsia. Textological analysis of the works of famous representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, their language, reservations, manner of presentation, and finally, the suggestiveness of the text, allows us to judge their mentality; rationally designed systems, developed concepts speak about their ideology.

Let us pay attention to one more difference between mentality and ideology - the difference in the temporal aspect. Different structures of consciousness develop in different ways - some of them become stable for many generations, others disappear during the life of one generation of people. F. Braudel identifies three types of historical time - time of great length, time of medium length and short time. If the development of politics corresponds to a "short term", and the economy "time of medium duration", then the mentality exists in the "time of long duration" as the most stable and inactive structure of consciousness. “We come here to the question of the relationship between a brief real history, and a long history of intellectual phenomena. Their relationship is very complex. Nevertheless, it is clear that intellectual phenomena should be included in the history of "great duration" and great space. J. Le Goff noted that “inertia is a historical force of exceptional importance. Mentality changes more slowly than anything else, and studying them teaches how slowly history moves. In this regard, the statement of K. Marx seems interesting that "the traditions of all dead generations weigh like a nightmare over the minds of the living."

If ideology, with certain deviations, as a whole develops progressively, so to speak linearly, then within the framework of mentality, representations change in the form of oscillations of various amplitudes and rotations around a certain central axis. At the heart of such a movement and the development of ideology and mentalities lies a certain way of life. Thus, ideological theories were developed mainly by the intelligentsia, as a rule, living in cities, the rhythm of life of which was much more dynamic in comparison with the patriarchal and partly stagnant, cyclical (depending on the agricultural calendar) life in the countryside. With the development of rural schools, a certain level of literacy in the countryside, with the appearance of literature intended for the peasants, certain elements of ideology penetrate the village, contributing to the social transformation of the peasant way of life and accelerating the pace of its development.

So, mentality is a concept that is very rich in content, reflecting the general spiritual mood, way of thinking, worldview of an individual or a social group, unreflexed or insufficiently conscious, in which the unconscious occupies a large place.

The model of perception and comprehension of reality characteristic of its era consists of a large number of elements, often contradicting each other, and is not limited to a reflection of external reality. In many ways, it is formed by customs, “prejudices” and superstitions that already exist at the mental level, symbols and norms of behavior, hopes and phobias, along with material interests, the relationship with which is different in each case. Mentality reflects that layer of social and individual consciousness, in which systematization, reflection and self-reflection are virtually absent, and individual ideas are not the result of the activity of individual consciousness, but are unconsciously and automatically perceived attitudes that are common in general for a particular era and social group, representations and beliefs conditioned by collective determinants, traditions implicitly contained in the consciousness of values, attitudes, motives and behaviors that underlie rationally constructed and logically meaningful concepts, theories, ideological systems.

In contrast to the mentality, limited by certain spatio-temporal (epoch, period, region, state, ethnic territory) and socio-cultural (really existing communities and individuals) framework, the archetype is universal, regardless of time and place. It is a biosocial process, the purpose of which is the realization of the personality originally laid down in the embryo in all its aspects, with all its mental givens. If the mentality depends on the socio-cultural context with its inherent ethical ideas, then the archetype is ethically neutral. “An archetype is a structure-forming unit that serves as a basis (framework), a mental vector of socio-cultural development. The archetype is the root, on the surface of which history and culture produce ever new outlines and forms, colored with the whole gamut of colors of the human state of mind. Mentality is a formative unit that gives the archetypal content a qualitative characteristic. ... Archetype is an abstract category, mentality is always concrete, archetype is content, mentality is form, archetype is essence, mentality is phenomenon”. Mentality expresses its archetypal content through culture, that is, through a certain cultural code, the bearer of which, first of all, is the intelligentsia.

Specificity of European and Eastern mentality

One of the tasks of ethnological science for a long time was the search for a methodological approach to the study of cultural complexes and the identification of their variable types. Scientists have developed, it would seem, a fairly coherent taxonomy (classification) of world cultures, based on such criteria as the spatial factor (geography of settlement), human type (race, or phenotype), lifestyle (producing systems) or language (language families) . At the end of the XIX century. German scientists (L. Frobenius, F. Gröbner and others), then American anthropologists (K. Wissler, A. Kroeber) were among the main authors of such classifications, who divided the diversity of cultures on Earth into so-called "cultural circles" or areas. In Russian ethnography, this scientific tradition was reflected in the development of the category of “economic and cultural types”, or “historical and cultural areas” (V. G. Bogoraz, S. P. Tolstov, M. G. Levin, N. N. Cheboksarov ).

West and East - a conditional semantic construction used for the primary typology of world culture. West and East are a paired category expressing the dichotomy of the polarized whole of world culture, therefore it simultaneously characterizes both the ambivalent unity of the culture of mankind and the division into fundamentally different from each other, and in many respects opposite models of cultural identity.

Western and Eastern cultures are such different worlds that it is impossible not to remember the well-known joke: To the question "How is the Japanese language and culture different from other languages ​​and cultures?" The correct answer is "Everyone". The only feature that certainly unites Western and Eastern cultures is that they are cultures. So, for example, modern Japanese scientists drew attention to the difference in the way of thinking of the Japanese and Europeans. They called their way of transmitting information "communication of the minimum message", and Europeans - "communication of the maximum message". The essence of the first is similar to the Zen way of communication "beyond words", because words cannot convey the essence: "Truth is beyond words." Therefore, there should be as few words as possible, but they should influence the consciousness in such a way as to cause an explosion of information in the mind of the perceiver, he should intuitively grasp the whole, the meaning of the unsaid.

Even in modern conditions, many culturologists come to the conclusion that it is impossible to consistently implement the idea of ​​a single culture. This is expressed in the theories of polycentrism, which were discussed in detail above. Polycentrism should be understood as the idea of ​​a plurality of semantically different cultures. O. Spengler wrote most categorically about this: “There are numerous absolutely original cultures, just as there are different types of plants with their own flowers and fruits, with their own specific cycle of growth and death.” This also applies to the thesis of the primordial opposition of the West and the East. In practice, this means that all cultures can be attributed to the Western type or predominantly to the Eastern type.

Indeed, the words "West" and "East" mean two very different ways of contacting the world.

What is the fundamental difference between Western and Eastern cultures, the roots of which are still in the first civilizations of both regions? Distinct differences between the West and the East came to light by the 3rd century BC. e. The beginning was laid almost simultaneously: from the sixth century BC. e. two main models, two programs are being formed. One in the west of the then Oikumene - in Athens, the other - in the east, in China. The first was created by Socrates and the sophists, the second - by the official and Teacher Kun-tzu.

The path of Athens is the all-round "emancipation" of a person and a new culture, autonomy, self-sufficiency of the individual, responsibility only to his own mind, "left hemisphere" (logic, rationalism, analysis, etc.). These are the basic principles that Socrates and the Sophists affirmed by their activities.

The transition to a new way of thinking was different in China. If the Hellenes moved in the future towards civilization (which is characterized by universality, comfort, technocracy) and towards a “post-biological” person, then Confucius saw this as a formidable danger. The gift of a new civilization - the consciousness of actions, the moral responsibility of the individual - he valued no less than the Hellenes. But he turned this gift not to a critical reassessment of tradition, like Socrates, but to its conscious maintenance, strengthening, conservation. Confucius thought about how, in the conditions of a new civilization, with its unsettled and at first somewhat chaotic position, to preserve the harmony of traditional, “natural” culture. And he succeeded. Through hierarchy, an internal return to nature with an external urban appearance, through reverence for elders and patriarchy, Confucius managed to combine the novelty of urban culture with tradition and naturalness, attractive to the East. And this still lies the qualitative difference between the East and the West from each other and from the initial common path: the Hellenes moved forward in a straight line, seeing the prospects, and this was for them culture itself, and progress, and civilization. China, on the other hand, went in a circle, from a "biological" person forward and upward, to a new culture and back - to tradition, to the origins and the previously unknown attraction of constancy. Moreover, such a movement also represents nothing but progress. But its different understanding and adherence to it determined the dissimilarity at the high, developed and elite level of the two cultures.

A characteristic feature of Western culture (as it has developed over the past 300 years and is now spreading around the world at an accelerating pace) is the belief in the "omnipotence of science." Even recognizing the obvious crisis of science, Western civilization still considers its accelerated development a panacea for all ills. In the East, for a long time it was believed that the development of science brings a person not so much happiness as all sorts of troubles. Hoping for the omnipotence of science, a person loses the ability for a quiet life, the gift of reconciliation with fate. Western culture with its scientism gives rise to a spirit of activity and energy in people, while Eastern culture educates a person in the spirit of prudence, helps to find “peace and clarity of heart”, “calm of the soul”. The idea of ​​progress is alien to the traditional East, the minds of the Chinese and Indians are turned to the past. Their cultures are traditional. They are much more than any Europeans drawn to the new, but they are less attracted to such a phenomenon of Western culture as fashion. European culture, seducing people with material goods, instills in them unlimited desires.

As already mentioned, the differences between East and West are already revealed in the very nature of their development. Eastern civilization climbed the steps of centuries smoothly and slowly, gradually adapting to new phenomena of life and (most importantly!) Carefully preserving established traditions. Western civilization, on the contrary, moved forward recklessly and rapidly, actively transforming reality, resolutely discarding everything obsolete and unnecessary and conquering more and more peaks of progress. A more complete picture of the features of these two civilizations will be given by their comparative characteristics:

So, if the differences between East and West can be reduced to the difference between progress and traditional immutability, then it is already clear from this that they mutually complement each other, like two great axes of world development, two wings of human civilization.

It is clear that at the heart of Eurocentrism, Afrocentrism and Americanocentrism lies the culturological monism already known to us, when one's culture is opposed to everything else as genuine and real. Moreover, if the defenders of the "West" in this dispute point to its current achievements, then their opponents most often appeal to the distant past, when the Europeans were still unable to carry out global expansion. And the idealization of the past in this case is symptomatic. After all, the "East" in its pure form no longer exists. And a realistically thinking person should proceed not from the independent development of East and West, but from the result of their interaction.