Western values and their expansion into Russia

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

After the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the centralized system of managing the country's values disappeared. And Russia began to search for new moral guidelines. Since that time, according to experts, the problem of correlating traditional Russian and liberal European values has arisen. Let's talk about what the Western value system is and why its spread in Russia causes various problems.

The concept of values

Since ancient times, thinkers have been occupied with the problems of what is important for a person and why. In ancient Greek philosophy, a branch has developed that studies exclusively values, called axiology. By this concept, experts mean some material or spiritual objects that give meaning to the life of an individual or a group, or humanity as a whole.

Moral and life principles are closely connected with the concept of values, which are transformed into the norms and rules of people's lives. Values inphilosophy is traditionally associated not with the value of objects in the material sense. This is not an objective characteristic, but a subjective one, which is assigned to objects by people. They are closely related to human needs.

Values play the role of a kind of landmarks on the life path of people. They help a person make everyday tactical and long-term strategic decisions. This is how values are translated into norms and rules. Each society develops its own value systems, although there are also universal groups of objects that are important for humanity as a whole. Today, when people talk about the expansion of Western values into Russia, they mean the introduction of one system of values into another.

Social functions of values

Societies develop a common code and rules of conduct from the very beginning of their existence. In order for people to coexist in a group, they need to enter into some kind of social contract about what they consider important in their lives. The main function of values is orientation in living space.

It is not in vain that there is such a thing as a value orientation. This suggests that people choose their path based on their own set of values. They help people understand what is good, what is bad, what is desirable and socially approved, and what is condemned.

The second important social function of values is motivating. A person is ready to carry out any activity in the name of achieving the ideal. It is values that determine the choice of ways to satisfyneeds, they allow you to balance the personal interests of a person and social norms.

Another function of values is goal setting. A person formulates life prospects, focusing on his own set of values. The lifestyle of people is always conditioned by socially significant important goals and objects. Therefore, when they talk about the expansion of the Western system of values, they mean the impact on the private life and choice of individuals.

Another function of values is evaluative. Focusing on a set of public ideas about what is good and what is bad, what is important and what is not essential, a person builds a hierarchy of objects, views and relationships in his life. Values also perform normative, regulatory, integrating and sociocultural functions. They are the ideological foundation of society, which is why it is so important for any society to preserve and transmit its own values.

Values and ideal

Even in childhood, each person develops ideas about how to live, where to strive, what to choose. These orientations are given by ideals. This concept means some idea of how the situation should develop in the best possible way.

An ideal is a kind of perfect pattern that people aspire to. Moreover, ideas about the ideal are closely related to values. But the ideal is a certain strategic direction, the vector of life, it is usually unattainable, and the goal of life is to move towards it.

Values are a kind of guide to action. They areregulate the activities and behavior of a person who lives in accordance with his ideas about ideals. Today, Western values in Russia suggest focusing on such ideals as universal equality, justice, honesty, and tolerance. However, the mechanism of influence of such ideals on the life of an individual, the set of values that are relevant for Russians, has not yet been finally formed.

Types of values

Because values cover a huge part of human life, they are extremely diverse. Therefore, there are several classifications. The most famous typology is based on human needs. In this case, material and spiritual values are distinguished.

In terms of content, spiritual, political, social and economic values are distinguished. There is also a tradition to divide them according to the culture in which they were formed. In this case, Eastern and Western values are distinguished. In Russia, it is customary to single out Russian values as a kind of alternative to the Western system of views. There is also the practice of highlighting values by subject. In this case, one speaks of individual-subjective and universal values. Personal values are formed in each person in childhood with the help of upbringing and social influence.

Universal Human Values

The question of the existence of universal values that would be shared by all people on Earth is debatable. Thinkers still haven't foundagreement on this matter. But still there is a tradition to talk about the presence of values that are approved by the majority of people. Often such a set of values is found in the religious precepts that are in every religion. They define the basic ones: human life, respect for other people and their property, observance of social norms, etc.

Western values are built on ideas of universal equality and tolerance for other people and their views. But such representations are not yet universal. Human life and he alth, family, self-development, human happiness can be called universal values.

American psychologist M. Rokeach singled out the so-called final values, that is, what people live for. These include: equality and brotherhood of all people, a comfortable life for every person, an active and rich life of a person, the possibility of self-realization, freedom, he alth, family, caring for others, security, mature love and friendship, joy, self-respect and respect for society, wisdom, peace for all, understanding of beauty.

European values

The European Union based its association on a certain set of values, which was called European values. They are designed to integrate society, create a single moral and cultural space.

However, there is a problem of Western values as antagonistic representations of Eastern and traditional societies. There is no single point of view on which axiological systems are more correct. WhyAre the values of, for example, China less important than the values of a united Europe? There is no answer to this question.

Europe has decided that its way of thinking is the most progressive, and hence the problem of the expansion of Western values to other societies has grown. For example, the cultures of South America, Turkey or Russia. Traditionally, European values include equality, tolerance, freedom, democracy, and progress.

Western and Russian values

The problem of correlating the system of ideas about the significance of different models of behavior in Russia and in the West has already become "eternal". If we compare the average Russian and a resident of European countries, then the difference in their views will not be particularly great. But building a hierarchy of values can be very different.

Thus, for Russian culture, freedom and democracy will not come first, the main achievement of Western culture is democracy and tolerance. In Russian culture, they are not even included in the top ten most important things in the life of people and society. In Western culture, the individual is always more important than the public. Russia today is also moving in this direction, but so far the importance of society is still great.

Spreading European values

The main mechanism for spreading values is the media and culture. It is through literature, films, journalistic materials that Western values are being introduced into other cultures. Not in vain in the USSR, for example, there was a strict censorship of Western books and films. After all, through them people could see opportunities to live differently.

Today, in the era of information freedom, there is a universalization of values. Globalization is gradually leveling national axiological features. Western civilization is actively using the resources of the media to spread their standards of life and values. This causes a lot of resistance from Eastern cultures, such as Chinese or Muslim, which is fraught with conflicts.

European values in Russia

After perestroika, Western values in Russia were perceived as the most desirable model. They were perceived as an undoubted blessing against the backdrop of the destruction of Soviet ideology. For the successful integration of the new axiological system, it was necessary to master new connections and ways of existing in the information society.

Also, the Russians needed to realize their place in world history. To create a new successful society, Russia needed to develop its own national idea that would unite people. At the first stage, European values were successfully introduced into the worldview of Russians, but gradually conflicts of value systems began to appear.

The problem of the expansion of values

Against the background of the awareness of the differences between European and Russian values, a tendency to strengthen the national self-identification of the inhabitants of Russia begins to grow. This is how the problem associated with the expansion of the Western system of values into Russia is formed.

National archetypes come into conflict with the traditional values of the West. The problem has become even morerelevant after the government line began to be based not on rapprochement with the West, but on confrontation with it.