The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 11)
Part of the series Perceiving complexity
⟵ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 10)
In the previous part I wrote about how all kinds of unexpected realizations appear when you simply go along with that fluid psychology in the framework of the classical human static organization. The classical organization is revealed as such a flimsy and fragile ecosystem and it is a problem with the attempts to continue with it as the only known organizational refuge when facing such a mental abyss. There is also some accumulated cultural experience around these issues.
For men, it depends on the extent they pay attention around how this masculinity is not the typical classical one. As a start, let me give the example of the Kazakh singer Gazizkhan Şekerbekov and his music video Erkekpin men (“I am a man”). In this case, he has female support able to make him sense to some extent how this fluid psychology has some unexpected coherence of his own. This turns into a deduplication, a side of him goes along with really experiencing the gist of this psychology as supported by the woman, another side of him keeps a masculine sense of overall coherence with an observational perspective. It is a further development from the feminine worldview like in Sargardoringman of the Uzbek singer Umidaxon or Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zogbhi, with one side observational and another side experiencing a psychological fluidity. It comes a time when the man realizes the two sides in him, the active one wants to assert the overall control as in classical masculinity. The woman can make him sense how he can be concomitantly both of these points of view from the empathetic identification with her own deduplication, which feels psychologically authentic and relevant.
Compare this with a feminine doom and gloom perspective and unconditional amazement with masculine capabilities like in the 1954 film La Strada of Frederico Fellini or Ya Tabtab (translation) of the Lebanese singer Nancy Ajram. This may be about a dose of peace of mind around “I can’t do anything about this situation”, but it can also really be about having no clue about facing real life from the perspective of that fluid psychology. The problem is not about Gelsomina from La Strada being simple-minded, as that is a rather consequential situation you have to go through when being immersed in this psychology and the Altaic people can have plenty of it, as I mentioned in the previous part. This simple-mindedness is not something redeeming in itself either, as in the Christian fetishization. I see it as a practical consequential situation and, if you pay attention to what is going on, it can further open the mind to unexpected perspectives, like the path from The Idiot to The Brothers Karamazov of Dostoevsky.
Notice also how in Erkekpin men the psychologically fluid side of the man can also be aggressive and controlling. Don’t necessarily consider something like the funny guy from La Strada as naturally fine. It is not a given that things will simply unfold well if the man has a start in getting the gist of that fluidity. It is about having some coherence and sense of order in the mind. The classical masculinity works with a self-centered sense of order and the man needs to realize how he can have some coherence with a plurality of concomitant perspectives.
Even more, further music of Gazizkhan Şekerbekov shows the serious consequences of having a start in realizing what is with this psychology. Some years later you see him in Dostarga (“To friends”), a video in collaboration with Meyrambek Besbaev. It looks like he reached a deeper practical understanding around what a complexity this fluid psychology supposes. At first, it may appear as such a relieving panacea of unexpected out-of-the box solutions, but, in time, if you pay attention to all those unexpected ramifications, your mind opens up to a deeper complex view of the world. If you are used to a simplistic self-centered worldview, this may come as a heavy surprise. This awareness may have been from the start in what the woman was conveying, but the man may notice initially only the easy solutions.
In this case, the observational side of the man did not experience initially himself what a mental abyss is in that “cinema seat” observational perspective when immersed in the fluidity of all kind of diachronic directions. He was leaning too much on the woman’s psychological support for that and he simply did not notice much about that abyssal complexity. In Dostarga, he starts to have himself some sense around the diachronic fluidity. He manages to some extent to gauge the situation by letting unfold in the mind the possible diachronic developments, like in Ayrilamiz of the Uzbek singer Shahzoda.
Further on, it depends on how the man is facing this awareness. It can turn into a further enforcement of a straightforward monotheistic-like moving through the diachronicity of life, like in Oşko. It can turn also into a deep awareness of that diachronic complex fluidity. In this case, when further seeking to think from this perspective, it appears that the original feminine psychology developed around this observational awareness functions as a rather disconnected inner space when seeking to think about the situation.
There is the observational perspective around the existing masculine organization, like the “cinema seat” in Sargardoringman of Umidaxon or Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zogbhi. This is about observing how someone else is organizing the situation and the possible diachronic unfoldments around it. When seeking to think for yourself as your own take on the situation, it looks like an inner space disconnected from the static classical masculine psychology, in which you can let unfold the diachronic fluidity.
I mentioned before the increased Altaic awareness about this space, as it probably developed when facing the complexity of living in the Siberian environment. It feels like in İstanbul Ağlıyor of the Turkish singer Gülay when letting unfold the diachronic fluidity at the interaction between the long-term accumulated cultural experience and the existing context of the real life. It can turn like in Benim Yarim of the Turkish singer Songül Karlı when noticing some unexpected aspects and angles that wipe out in your mind whatever impressions you had about the situation up to that moment as stemming from that long-term cultural experience. You need to think again the situation from scratch and tap afresh into the accumulated cultural experience.
The stairs leading into walls feel like the natural impulse to just think the situation according to the existing understanding, which is considerably easier. The Altaic mindset considers this a recipe for disaster, you can’t do that, you need to immerse afresh in the accumulated cultural experience and something like the foggy diachronically fluid display of objects populating the inner space from İstanbul Ağlıyor will grow again, but with some new nuances taking in consideration the unexpected angle that wiped out your previous understanding of the situation. This can make a huge difference in surviving in a harsh environment, although at times it may look like disconnection and lack of awareness about what is going on around you (which is an aspect that can be improved by facing its psychology, it is not necessarily a given).
When men become more conscious about a complexity like in Dostarga, they can have a better perception of that inner space, as they are immersed in the psychology of this worldview and the inner space is the area where things can be thought about all that diachronic fluid complexity. It has some similarities to the classical masculine sense of an ecosystem of meaning and there is something recognizable in it as an ecosystem, only that it does not have that automatic coverage on anything in the world. The classical masculine ecosystem works with the idea that you kind of have the basic understanding of the world deriving from your control of the situation and the power to take decisions, you just need to fill in specific details about whatever novelty appears in your perceptions like a progressive growth of a spider web in the mind.
The view from that inner space can give practical realizations about what a huge unknown and a complex psychology can be beyond that simplistic self-centered worldview. It appears like an inner space in which you can let unfold fluidly all kind of perspectives in order to gauge an abyssal unknown in real life that you realize you do not have much control of. It can also show how much can escape the classical masculine sense of socially oriented self-righteousness, with the mind opened to long-term accumulated feminine perspectives like in Yuh Yuh of Cemali. The interpretation of this situation can be like in the lyrics of this Turkish Alevi song, in the idea that I need to have a moral code of conduct that answers how the world is revealed so painfully unjust and haywire (if I don’t want my psychological organization crumble down).
But this realization and the strive for a code of conduct to face it may not be at all an immediate solution. There may not appear also the realization of deeper psychological insights incumbent in this worldview and the classical masculine organization simply applied to this perspective can turn into an idealism that can easily slide into something like Dostoevsky’s Demons (many women end up like this too when assuming the classical human static organization).
Another aspect is that this inner space that is kept functional by women amid a huge unknown is identified by men as a delimited place where proper attention is paid to a deep valuable fluid diachronic psychology, compared to the rest of the world that does not pay any attention to it. This can be interpreted as an ecosystem of meaning like in classical masculinity and this can slide into the perception that “I have access to the right knowledge and the rest of the world is guilty of not following it”. Such a man may really be immersed in that valuable fluid psychology with a sense of deep authenticity, but the way he interprets it may turn into a lazy self-centered idealism.
The original feminine experience appears to be about living with a direct fluid psychology, as a direct experience and not much socially useful overall organizational interest about it (but it still has lots of accumulated valuable perspectives about the human social organization). Such organization is necessary, but simply transposing the classical masculine psychological ecosystem in this environment is not at all a solution. More in-depth perceptions are necessary.
The aforementioned Yuh Yuh of Cemali has some vibe of accumulated historical masculine experience about how there is a direct deep view I need to pay attention too and not slide so much into the idealism of my organizational stance. But it is just as an accumulated practical masculine experience, the video still does not have further organizational ideas about this situation.
Another video of this Alevi song, Yuh Yuh of Koray Avcı is back at paying more direct attention to the revealed psychological complexity about the world as in Dostarga. The lyrics are about relying on a code of conduct, but the mind is back at paying attention to all that complexity, while not knowing what to do about it. Simply bringing forward a code of conduct does not answer what is going on with all that complexity. One can lean on such a code as some sense of order, but, if really relying on it as an organizational peace of mind, he simply avoids the reality of all that complexity.
Yuh Yuh of Haluk Özkan is the situation in which the man rediscovers his “I can do it” approach to life, even in this context. It is in the idea that I can face this situation, I am going to dive into its unknown with organizational capabilities based on my strength. Here it depends to what extent he continues to pay attention to the gist of this abyssal fluid psychology and not just turn it into a vehicle for an easy self-centered organization. The official idea may be about upholding a moral code of conduct, but in practice it can easily slide into the situation in which the man from Oşko is striving for upholding simplistic self-centered classical organization.
The vibe from this video of Haluk Özkan has some accumulated experience about such misleading situations and keeps to some extent this approach with a direct focus on that deep fluid psychology. But still no organizational ideas. At its basic level, there is something good in this “I can do it” attitude, but it needs more psychological depth, expertise and experience around what to do with that direct focus. If it turns into a simplistic self-centered organization, this creates men feeling like having access to deep understanding of the world, but processed through their own self-centered perception. This can make them feel like having the right understanding of the world, while everything else is fake.
Originally, the feminine use of that inner space is in relation with a huge unknown of the rest of the world. A simplistic masculine approach after sensing the gist of that deep fluid psychology can be to get under impression of being immersed in the right deep understanding of the world, which in fact grows around your own self-centered idiosyncrasies. The mind can function on a “first come, first served” basis amid all that richness of unexpected diachronic perspectives like in Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zogbhi. It chooses one of these thought threads as the truth and it is under impression that it honors that deep fluid psychology because it based its choice on the fluid psychological gist while feeling in overall control of the situation. With that unexpected choice taking the man out of his usual ecosystem, the mind feels like being out of the classical masculine stale worldview, it feels like it understood a deeper truth. That leap of faith felt like taking the gist entirely in consideration. Then the man may end up defending that “truth” desperately, since he has some background realization around how fluid these perceptions can be. It is more about defending the overall feeling of being in control of the situation psychologically than around what is that “truth” about.
Even more, at times, the man may suddenly jump from one thought thread to another (among that plurality from Habeit Ya Leil) without much concern about the overall coherence of his ecosystem of truth. You need to pay attention in these situations that such men really base their psychology on that deep fluidity. If you argue with them about their own inconsistencies, they will judge you as an ignorant who does not know that deeper abyssal truth and does not pay attention to it. If they feel like having an overall control of the situation in a plurality like Habeit Ya Leil while immersed in the gist of that fluid psychology, then they can jump from one thread to another as their constant generation of defensive psychological positions reveals them at every moment. A more efficient line of argumentation can be around how this practical application misunderstands what is that deep fluid psychology about when pointing out the inconsistencies (with a feeling of authenticity that you really take that abyssal psychology in consideration as a direct focus and paying attention to not sliding yourself into some sort of simplistic “truth”). In the next part of this series, I will write about women’s approaches to such situations.
→ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 12)
