The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 10)

Part of the series Perceiving complexity

⟵ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 9)

In this part of the series, I will get into more detail about how I see this fluid psychology and the relation with the classical static human thinking. As mentioned before, my impression is that the starting point is the development some time in the past by some Altaic women of some level of organization regarding that fluid feminine psychology accumulated along generations of disempowered observational perspectives.

It looks like initially this was more about a valuable psychology in facing the difficulties of real life. Then, in itself, it can turn into a fluid psychology when going through life. It feels like experiencing fluidly the unknown of real life as you go through it, you do not just orientate your mind around the existing static psychological ecosystem in your mind.

The initial “power mode” developed by women is like in Kazagım-ay of the Kazakh band Gaukhartas. Practical application in real life can appear like in Naqshli of the Uzbek singer Ravshanbek Abdullayev. It is about discovering how you can go through life not necessarily relying on the plateaus of the existing static psychological ecosystem. You can use that fluid psychology as organization to orientate in life and face the unknown.

For men, the inner experience is like in Amanat of the Kazakh band Hassak. It can feel like the awakening of some sort of unexpected masculinity that you don’t entirely know what to do with, as it has an abyssal psychology. It is not about the simplistic classical masculine gaze as control of the situation, it has some deep and fluid psychological observation that takes in consideration a huge amount of information, like the white reflexive eyes of the awakened man. Thus it does not necessarily depend on the existing static psychological ecosystem in the mind of the man and can experience fluidly the unknown as you go through life.

But then the question is what to do with this kind of psychology, as there are no available mental tools to work with it properly as an overall social organization. This issue appears especially when you are on top of the situation, when you are not confronting some overwhelming danger. The initial psychological development by the Altaic women grew likely in some overwhelmingly difficult situations, when the mind is orientating around the organization provided by the situation that creates the difficulty (the overwhelming difficulty limits how much can you decide about the unknown, it provides some inherent organization of the situation). But what are you going to do when you are on top of the situation? How are you going to organize things yourself?

The simple reaction for men is to end up with a “reality on the go” state of mind like in Oşko of the Kyrgyz singers Totomidin and Surma. It is about experiencing the unknown of real life, you pay attention to the fluidity beyond your classical masculine static ecosystem, but you still relate it to a monotheistic-like line in the mind that seeks to keep some coherence in the way the classical masculine mind is used to. The classical masculine static type of psychological organization melts down until you remain only with the driving wheel out of it, as a monotheistic-like orientation through that fluidity. And you experience a fluid real life on the go with a huge potential of unexpected unknown, beyond the usual classical masculine cluelessness.

At the end of the video, you can see that the man is driving a real car, the previous imagery is rather about how he is perceived by someone who has to spend time with him. This is the music video of a couple, it has both perspectives and the man too is part of the creation process of this video. This is missing in Naqshli, which has only the male perspective of the woman. Something similar at the end showing how the woman appears officially would have given the idea that she is not really like this in real life, this is rather about how she is perceived.

There are all kinds of nuances in a situation like in Oşko, depending to what extent you face what is going on with you. You may face how you practically create new organization at every step into the unknown, you may stick with the idea that you still can apply classical masculine organization in this situation and anything in between. In the extreme of the latter case, if you are bent to go to the bottom of the simplistic classical coherence in this fluid situation (while the classical masculine organization melted down to the point you remained only with the monotheistic-like driving wheel out of it), this can turn you into an enforcer of classical human order amid all that psychological fluidity (in contexts ranging from that of a family or of a local group to that of an entire country).

Even in this case, it depends to what extent you are able to be psychologically in the abyssal fluidity you are immersed in. Especially when you have serious organizational responsibilities, this may turn into a desperation to show classical simplistic control of the situation at every moment you experience unexpected fluidity. This may start to feel like riding some huge psychological fluid waves (determined by constant perception of huge, deep, unexpected nuances as you go through life) while striving to look like you are in control of the situation of that psychological landscape. The leadership turns into that of a dictator with some clownish nuances that still nobody has to dare to point out. It is about the discrepancy between the projection of strength and the feeling of struggling to ride those fluid psychological waves. The man knows deep inside him that he is not entirely in control of the situation regarding all those huge fluid perceptions, but still he wants to continue the classical masculine static self-centered organization.

The clownish aspect does not matter too much if you really let the organization of your mind work with this fluid environment at every step. If this is still about a simplistic classical organization, it may turn into a change of the real life landscape something like the style of Genghis Khan or Stalin. The new reality on the ground is clearly your creation, it really continues the classical masculine self-centered worldview, it is not some clownish play with self-centered imagery about control of real life. However, besides the senseless suffering inflicted on the others, given the simplistic psychological organization, it is not practical on the long term. It creates effects, but there is no deep substantial immersion in the underlying psychology determining this. All that self-centered organization can prove easily superficial and it soon crumbles down.

At a deeper level, people start to sense this, some feeling around this starts to accumulate. There is experience accumulated for those who sense the mental abyss of this situation (not only around the aforementioned Genghis Khan or Stalin, many similar situations happened also at smaller scales in history). Men can start to sense more directly that mental abyss and its own coherence. It is more like being yourself those huge waves and immersed in that psychological abyss and it feels like it is not necessary to project every time that static simplistic control of the situation. When the mind opens to this perspective, there are other things to do, there are other psychological priorities. At first it may feel depersonalizing, but then an unexpected sense of coherent self still appears. There is some abyssal control of the situation when being those waves.

Among this plethora of contemporary monotheistic-like Altaic dictators and strongmen, the recently retired Kazakh Nursultan Nazarbaev appears to be the only one with some of this realization about the perspective of being immersed in that psychology of the fluid waves and its abyssal feeling of control of the situation. It is like in Ana meen (translation) of the Lebanese singer Najwa Karam, it is about getting some sense about being in that fluid psychology and its own coherence. Here the woman is supporting the man like in the Middle East, while the latter does not have an organized awareness about that observational side like Altaic men in Sargardoringman of the Uzbek singer Umidaxon. For the Middle Eastern men it is more about being foolish of not paying attention to that psychology, for the Altaic men it is more about turning ridiculous, clownish when they inevitably pay attention to it while continuing to chase classical masculine organization. Nursultan Nazarbaev did not necessarily chase such organization, he knew how to project coherence while immersed in those psychological waves.

The practical result in the Kazakh context was that of not being so desperate to project simplistic static control of the situation at every step. This can let the society unfold more naturally to some extent and this is visible in the unfoldment of the Kazakh economy. Nursultan Nazarbaev was not so interested in projecting static coherence in order to show relevant leadership (this interest hinders a lot the people’s real life). He was toying with the concept of the “Singapore of the steppes”, as a society at peace with the idea of a plurality of cultures and nuances. Still, this is only about less hindering, the structural problem of a controlling dictatorship is still there, the current Kazakh political and social life is deeply corrupt.

An aspect common to all these dictators and strongmen is that they present themselves as enforcers of order when facing the fluid mental abyss underlying the Altaic nuance of the local cultures. Many times they further expressly cast real life as a mental abyss, in order to justify their leadership and make them look like the only ones who can guarantee some coherent social life. Some sense of coherence is obviously necessary. However, much of this scary imagery developed by these dictators is misleading and self-serving, as I will get into detail further on. There is already some accumulated cultural experience around how to relate with this valuable psychological fluid depth.

And further responsibility and work by the common people is also necessary. They have some responsibilities too, they can’t just expect some simplistic idealistic functioning of the society. They need to face themselves too that fluid unknown as they go through life. If you expect things unfolding well naturally with a savior assuming responsibilities for you, you get ridiculous, paranoid and fragile dictators assuming real life responsibilities for you.

They will most likely develop a simplistic state administration revolving around their self-delusional egos, they will surround themselves with some cronies they can rely on and sap the vitality of the country while the self-delusional electorate cheers them on. See this video explaining so well how destructive is Viktor Orbán’s leadership for Hungary, as a walk through the usual course of action in such cases. What else can you expect? Did you ever see men that can somehow assure an idealistic simplistic classical human organization while aware of that abyssal psychological fluidity?

Some are under impression that they can see such a man or overlook the subsequent problems, like the musical example I mentioned in the previous part of the Tatar singer Ilsiya Badretdinova with her song Putin kebek ir kirek (“We need a man like Putin”). Even more, this in itself is not the kind of clear endorsement such a man wants, as it can feel as banter and mockery of him in some aspects, given her genuine feminine immersion in that fluidity. The man is not really up to that abyssal control of the situation the woman is imagining and projecting. You may go along with her intended message, but, if you are already more realistic about what is going on, you also feel this rather like banter, as in practice the praised man is not really up to that projected image.

Many people in these societies get some peace of mind from the coherence assured by such dictators, considering the awareness they have themselves about that fluid abyssal perspective. And many times what is valid for such dictators and strongmen may also be valid for many contenders who appear to just promise a better simplistic idealism, like Alexei Navalny, as the better known figure by the outside world in the Russian case. There is a need for contenders to such lousy leadership, but it is necessary to face the underlying problems. This is not to discredit idealism either, and even less the suffering Navalny is going through (while stating clearly that Putin is a scumbag ordering people to be murdered left and right while keeping Russia stale). The idealism is necessary, but not the kind of idealism under impression that there is already a way to do things and those in power are not working with it because they are selfish and idiotic. People should pay more attention to practical aspects of social life. What is going on and how things can work?

Most of the aspects around how things can work need to be found out by facing the existing abyssal unknown. There simply is no current organizational material that really works well, people should be more realistic about it. With such realism, on the one hand there would be more strive to wonder what is going on and how things can work, on the other hand there would be more awareness about how to held accountable those in power more naturally.

An idealism like in Dostoevsky’s Idiot can open the mind to how the other idealism about an already existing way to do things properly is so riddled with problems. The former idealism is brave, the latter is about repeating the same stupid things again and again. An initial belief by default in a justice system like in Crime and Punishment turns into a direct gaze into how riddled with problems is the current understanding of justice in the first place, like in The Brothers Karamazov. It is current because not much has changed in the meantime in the public conscience since the publication of that novel, except some cynicism about political organization.

And remember that Stalin liked The Brothers Karamazov and got some interest in it. A way to approach the realizations from the novel is to get back to the premise from Crime and Punishment, that of a providential man who just goes along with classical masculinity and imposes a simplistic idealism. The concept that such a man may not follow the existing rules is even more enforced when the belief in the existing order is crumbling. Another way is to simply face the realized unknown and see what to do with it.

There was something serious in the initial hunch about how the existing rules are a joke. When you realize how flimsy are the classical idealistic human ecosystems of meaning and you realize that the option of enforcing simplistic idealistic organization is a disaster when you have such awareness, the situation in the mind is rather about what to do with the psychological fluidity, how to relate to it. Something like in Opmay-opmay of the Kazakh band Aziya with Baqay that I mentioned in the previous part.

To get also into more detail about that desperation of those who turn clownish when in a powerful position, it is about a strive to continue the classical masculine thinking in which knowledge is revealed too much as rather being an ecosystem with a self-serving coherence of its own, based on control of the situation (not plain knowledge about the world, as classical men imagine it to be). If you have some understanding about something, that is rather based on the overall control of the situation you have as a psychological ecosystem, as I get into more detail at Perceiving complexity series. The classical men are mostly clueless about this, but if you have a fluid psychology like in Oşko, you create new sense of reality at every step. You permanently go in all kind of unexpected psychological directions, thus it is obvious that your sense of static reality is just one among many possible diachronic directions, like the plurality of threads of the Lebanese singer Nawal El Zoghbi in Habeit Ya Leil.

If you continue to stick to the idea that your particular psychological ecosystem is “the reality”, “the truth”, you start giving a clownish feeling, because you give away how you feel yourself that your “reality” is just a particular diachronic development supported by your projection of control of the situation. It feels like you constantly need to cover up a desperation of projecting control of the situation every time you slide in all kind of unexpected directions. You take in consideration the fluid psychological environment with all that plurality of possible threads, but you seek to continue a static ecosystem of meaning. Will you strive to really be up to any unexpected directions you notice and give your own take on that or will you just strive to keep an imagery of static control of the situation?

You may impose on the others your monotheistic-like line as “the reality”, in order to keep some coherence, but it may look clownish if you do not really affect the society to the point it feels that real life is really your creation and not a desperation to impose an imagery of self-centered monotheism. In classical masculinity the self-centered understanding of the world is mostly an illusion those men are clueless of. With a fluid immersion in real life you sense that and you would really need to turn the world into your own self-centered reality like a Genghis Khan in order to be able to continue the classical masculine worldview and feel like having some personal coherence and meaning in life.

Unlike the Kim dynasty, Stalin really faced the unknown of the situation in some aspects when thinking how to mold the society towards a simplistic idealism. This absolute power can be just a strive to project an imagery of control of the situation when facing such a fluid psychological unknown, but it can also have some level of genuine gaze into the unknown (which is still useless, and potentially even more destructive in the long term, if it is about striving to sustain a simplistic idealism).

However, the psychological possibilities and the accumulated cultural experience among the Altaic populations do not stop here. Just to remind of the pan-Turkic character Nasreddin Hoca, with his immersion in unexpected psychological perspectives. I will write about this in the next parts of the series.

→ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 11)