The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 14)

Part of the series Perceiving complexity

⟵ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 13)

The evolution in time of the Uzbek singer Umidaxon can also give some more insight around the topics I wrote about in the previous part. By the beginning of her career, her music was about a woman on the sideline, judging situations and working with them from the “cinema seat”, like in Sargardoringman.

This is more about paying attention to possible diachronic unfoldments around the existing masculine initiative and organization. The existence of this initiative and organization simplifies a lot the diachronic worldview, as you don’t need to really face the unknown of real life as it is revealed by such a realization of the diachronicity. In the same time, women may take for granted some aspects around the coherence of such initiative and organization.

They may have the impression that there is a core of that organization that works and the men apply it badly in real life. From a male perspective that realizes the feminine angle and is not being determined by feminine pressure for providing coherence, this organization rather appears as a poor quality ecosystem, like a decrepit car or a derelict building as in the examples from the previous part of this series.

The approach from Sargardoringman is an observational one about what is going on and how to work with the possible diachronic evolutions of the situation in time, with minimal personal investment of the sense of self in how the human society works. Yorim bor is about a more direct stance about what is going on in gender relations, as some general conclusions around practical situations. This is the kind of situation when a woman ends up too invested in an ecosystem of meaning with the impression that she understands what is going on.

The majority of the men are portrayed as carried away by the impression of being in control of the situation, when in practice they are not so much in control as they imagine. And, indeed, men can be very optimistic about their own capacities, as they don’t really see the exertion of power as reigning over a psychological depth like in Habeit Ya Leil of the Lebanese singer Nawal El Zoghbi. They live with their minds in imaginary worlds, their expressivity of giving meaning to the world feels so ridiculous and intrusive when expecting the woman to just enter in their “reality”. They quarrel over a woman while not even realizing she already found interesting a man who gives her more of a feeling of noticing real life.

There is still a problem in the way she is under impression that there is already an organizational core that can take in consideration a diachronic realism like in Habeit Ya Leil. This stems from the fact that she does not have herself experience to work with the existing organization. If a man gives her a feeling of noticing real life, then she is under impression that the organizational core imagined by her as taking in consideration the psychology from Habeit Ya Leil will unfold naturally. A more adequate perception would be to sense how the existing organizational possibilities are like a decrepit car or like a derelict building. Of course, there is potentially organization that can take in consideration that diachronic realism, but it needs to be found out (which is a very non-linear process and you need to get used with this as something normal; if you start such an endeavor as a linear quest, you likely achieve nothing).

Her understanding of the situation from Yorim bor is a mixture of really noticing such unexpectedly valuable aspects with sliding into such a gross simplification of what is classical human social life about. In this manner, the woman herself enters in a static mental plateau the same as a man, under impression she knows what is going on, with knowledge as control of the situation.

The continuation video with that man, Dema dema, shows them married two years later. There are problems in the supposed use of that imagined organizational core that knows how to work with a psychology like in Habeit Ya Leil. The man is already bored with her, fancying attractive female stars, while not treating her well as at the beginning. She gives him a lesson about the simplicity of the mind around dreaming of idealized situations, with an implicit opening of the mind about how he can pay more attention to how she already has a psychological fluidity that can answer his boredom.

This is something similar to the situation from Toñnuñ daa of the Yakut singer Künney, in which the woman intervenes to correct masculine perceptions that lack depth. However, the woman herself is relying on that lack of depth when needing the man to sustain the coherence of an ecosystem of meaning. She does not really face that abyssal unknown. She is relying herself on the oversimplifying approach of the classical masculine ecosystem of meaning.

She is not interested in stepping herself in the organizational position to see how it is like, she is relying on the man, while under impression he is applying badly a supposedly organizational core that can work with the fluid diachronic psychology. She may feel like a prisoner in a poor quality application of organization, others have the prerogative to organize, but they do it so poorly. She notices better nuances around the existing organization and, if this gives her the impression that she has a better understanding, then she abandons the Sargardoringman observational perspective and becomes invested in the ecosystem of meaning (but without experiencing herself what is like that organizational state of mind). Künney managed to avoid that by relying on the huge organizational unfoldment of nature (while she entertained the same as Umidaxon some simplistic imagination about an organizational core that can work with the fluid psychology).

In the next years, Umidaxon produced some other videos with interest in mental imagery versus a sense of reality, like Serial, about people ending up too immersed in TV dramas or a more painful topic, Umr o’tar, about Uzbeks seeking work in Russia, being duped into slavery conditions.

Then she came up with Kel yarashaylik, about the consequences of really believing in the consistency of the ecosystem of meaning as a result of being under impression of understanding what is going on. Now she sees this ecosystem crumble from even tiny divergent diachronic evolutions when sharing it with a partner. The man is expected to end the spiral of retorts by apologizing and letting it go, as the woman is too blocked as a result of being so aware of the diachronic possibilities in time around that ecosystem, like the entanglement of cable threads around Umidaxon (like the plurality of “cinema seat” threads in Habeit Ya Leil or the entanglement of threads around Albina Karmışeva in Teläklärem sezgä, as a woman who really thinks by herself about the concept of organization in general and realizes how complex it gets).

This blockage is the kind of complexity supposed by really taking in consideration a psychology like in Habeit Ya Leil. She has a sense of realism from paying attention to a plurality of diachronic threads, but it is revealed how much she is relying on the existing ecosystem of meaning to unfold that. Initially, with a perspective like the one from Sargardoringman, she mostly unfolds the diachronic perspective around the existing ecosystem, she notices unexpected perspectives around it, while relying on the power that sustains its consistency. She does not really face directly all the complexity supposed by a psychology like in Habeit Ya Leil.

When she slides into being herself invested in the ecosystem with an impression that she understands stuff, it is a matter of time to end up in the problem that such understanding is rather an imagined ecosystem of meaning sustained with the feeling of being in control of the situation. On the one hand, she is too aware of the larger complexity, like that entanglement of threads around her. On the other hand, she does not use the masculine approach to suspend the belief in the consistency of the ecosystem, to not care so much about its consistency and to tweak it when necessary as a result of the contact with real life. Hence she feels like even small divergences make its consistency crumble down.

Women may start initially with a perspective like in Sargardoringman, noticing how simple-minded can the men be when not paying attention to the diachronic possibilities. But, if they end up with impressions of knowing stuff as a personal investment in an ecosystem of meaning (while not paying attention to the long-term feminine experience around this issue), they find themselves blocked by all kind of diachronic divergences and in need to support the consistency of that ecosystem like an Atlas supporting the sky on his shoulders.

They look at the men at how easy they sustain the belief in consistency by being assertive and this concept of assertiveness turns into a conflict over all kinds of details, while not using the power to take their mind off the ecosystem and work with it from the perspective of an external gaze. The long-term feminine experience accumulated around this issue along generations warns of such situations if the woman becomes invested in such an ecosystem like a man with a personal feeling of being in control of the situation, but still not finding a way to feel like a man in control of the situation.

In a more recent video, Yo’limdan qoch (“Get out of my way”), she had an unexpected expressivity. She found in nature the natural expression of the plurality of diachronic threads of the “cinema seat”, with a feeling of liberation. The entanglement of cable threads from Kel yarashaylik is not anymore under pressure to support an ecosystem of meaning like Atlas holding the sky, it can unfold naturally with the organizational possibilities offered by the huge unfoldment of nature.

It is still a problem that she frames this “get out of my way” change as “against the system”. She still relies on a classical human ecosystem of meaning for psychological organization when she is against it. She does not really face the unknown. In practice, I notice how women in real life in this situation still end up sustaining this unfoldment in nature like an Atlas holding the sky, if it is “against the system”.

I don’t see her music as wrong, exactly because there is no existing organizational core that works and possibilities to organize things when having such larger awareness need to be found out. I like in fact each of her videos, as they feel like a genuine strive and I understand myself better what is going on from a female perspective. There is a problem with the pivotal Yorim bor, in which she draws some misleading conclusions around what is going on. After that video she still has a focus on the psychological fluidity, but she pays the price for the conclusion she drew.

Other women, after conclusions like in Yorim bor, end up with such a stifling presence, like the ones from Jalğız-aq bile of the Kazakh singer Nurjan Kermenbaev. This is not to dismiss the seriousness in facing real life, but sometimes when having the impression you are serious about it you can be in fact so narrow-minded and inefficient in facing real life.

Another example along these lines, the Turkish singer Gülben Ergen. She had initially music like Bay Doğru (“Mr. Right”, translation), finding the expressivity to sustain her point of view regarding men who are too limited in what they perceive. Also music like Panda, in which she notices what a psychological power she has, she can turn lions into pandas. However, this impression that you have a better way of using the existing organization is exactly what makes you slide into a static mental plateau. Initially, there is another way of seeing things, a diachronic fluid one like in Habeit Ya Leil. If you slide into the impression that such psychology gives you better solutions around the classical human organization, then you lose its initial gist. You enter into the mental plateau of “knowledge as control of the situation”. It is a locking-in elated feeling of knowing stuff, combined with apprehension about the psychological abyss beyond it and with impulses to defend your turf of “knowledge”. Further on, men work with such states of mind in contact with real life by suspending when necessary the belief in their consistency and tweaking them.

Gülben Ergen is not the kind of woman to end up “against the system”, as she has enough self-confidence in relating to abyssal raw real life, probably developed from the background she grew up in and from her own life experiences. But, after some time, a deep lack of satisfaction comes more and more to the surface. More recent music is like in İnfilak (translation), with this feeling of developing an identity around the man, with an initial good fluidity, but then feeling stuck by the man’s lack of attention and understanding about it. “Give me my water […]. The man invented himself, warn me of unhappiness. Give us a chance, be crazy.”

What is changed now is that she has an investment in the satisfactions given by the ecosystem of meaning. Her problem is not about divergent diachronic evolutions leading into spirals of retorts, as she has her own self-confidence to begin with (and lots of men have in fact things to learn from her nuances of self-confidence, of course, by noticing what is valuable, as not all appears valuable, while she has too still things to learn from the men). The relation between the entanglement of threads and the self-centered ecosystem of meaning from Kel yarashaylik turns in this case into a feeling of losing the psychological fluidity. There is this initial impression that the man’s organization has a core that can sustain that entanglement of threads, it is only that the man applies it poorly. If she slides into the impression that she has a better use for that organization that can work with that entanglement, later on, when it appears obvious that such organization cannot sustain that entanglement, the impression continues to be that the man works poorly with it.

Does she think to do such organization herself? Some months later she came up with something along these lines, with Müsaadenle (translation), as a personal recovery of the psychological fluidity. This is more like a prototype concept, how do you relate it to the unfoldment of real life? Some more months later she came up with Bu Benim Hayatım (translation), with nature as the place you can reliably unfold the fluid psychology in relation to real life. It still a bitter and cold unfoldment, there is a deep disappointment that she could not make the classical human organization work with this huge and fluid psychology.

A recent music video, Ben Buralardan Gidicem (“I will be gone from here”), has nature in an enclosed place, interspersed with moments with a plurality of threads of herself. Probably this is the most important attraction of the classical human organization, it delivers such a relaxing simplification about the world, creating a (locking-in) ecosystem of meaning as a world in itself. When they notice a larger perspective around such ecosystems, some women slide into the impression that such an organization can work naturally with the other fluid psychology. The most it can do is nature in a limited closed controlled environment. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as such a limited environment can also be considered as that inner space aware of the huge unknown beyond, like in İstanbul Ağlıyor of the Turkish singer Gülay or like in Benim Yarim of the Turkish singer Songül Karlı (which means that the rest of the diachronic fluidity is taken in consideration and it does not feel suffocating and stifling). But this is not the case in this video, the concept is that of a world in itself, like in the classical human organization.

In a moment similar to İnfilak, the reaction of the Turkish singer Fatma Turgut was rather to look more directly at the men, like in Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş (translation). What is going on, what is causing this problem? As a man, I notice how ridiculously simplifying and depersonalizing is such a female gaze and it makes me more aware about the extent I may look at the women in the same way. There is still a genuine gaze into the unknown there and it is commendable she is doing this, as it looks like simply there is not much human expertise for inter-gender relations. Some of the premise of casting the men in that manner appears to be about facing directly the current situation.

There is a vibe of real immersion into the unknown with interesting glimpses, so necessary for such situations. I didn’t know about this singer before seeing this video, I looked for more and I found interesting a previous one, İlkbaharda Kıyamet (translation). Some months later, by the end of 2019, when I was preparing to start publishing the texts from Perceiving complexity, there appeared some new unclear perceptions about the overall concept as expressed in writing. I already thought for about 20 years at that time and I had lots of long-thought ideas, but, when putting in writing, some new angles appeared about the overall concept. When thinking about them and watching some music, İlkbaharda Kıyamet had some nuances making those angles more coherent and understandable around what they are about. There are some nuances there that could make the passage for my masculine mind about some unexpected ways to think coherently in the psychological fluidity about those specific angles. Probably she manages to do this because she pays more attention to men as an unknown. It is something of the vibe of the woman from Aramızda engeller var of the Turkish singer Ferdi Tayfur, getting a sense of how the classical masculine organization cannot simply work with the diachronic psychology, only that in this case she further explores the situation.

After seeing it, my thoughts brought to light memories of Smells Like Teen Spirit of Nirvana from years ago. It felt like expressing the same perceptions, but put in practice. When watching it anew after many years, the music had unexpected angles. It is about some coherence, some organizational aspects about this fluid psychology as order in chaos and this was one of the facilitators for being able to write about this huge psychology (as there were many others). I was wondering if the musicians themselves had such perceptions. Maybe it was more about just living that state of mind. The practical results in real life are rather different.

By that time, I had already immersed in and studied for many years to get a deeper understanding of a psychology like in İstikrarlı Hayal Hakikattir (“Consistent fantasy is reality”) of the Turkish singer Gaye Su Akyol, about working concomitantly with a plurality of threads, like the plurality of people from different backgrounds in the same bus in the video (without the final classical feminine part after the bus breaks down, I found some other ways that I will get into detail about later on). But, when finally writing about it, some new angles appeared that I needed to fathom.

I still find valuable music like that of Umidaxon or Gülben Ergen too, as they may give a better understanding of what is going on (probably up to a point, in the idea that they still need themselves to pay more attention to the situation). The mental passages about specific organizational aspects like in İlkbaharda Kıyamet can give ideas about how to work with this psychology, but they don’t necessarily make me understand what is going on and what are the issues (and, of course, it is not only about such music videos themselves, but also about giving some ideas about real life situations repeating again and again).

To give also another valuable example, in a moment like İnfilak or Bir Varmış Bir Yokmuş, the Turkish singer Funda Arar rather has some perceptions about how everything is a creation in her mind. The man is like a romantic film she is creating in her mind, like in Roman (translation). In another video, in Arapsaçı (translation), she has a better idea about how she is herself trapped, it is not so much that someone else keeps her trapped. It is not so much an unfathomable mystery of power as in Kafka’s Castle you don’t know where and how to start, she has a start in facing that. It is so good to have your own agency.

There are real life situations in which one partner is selfishly trapped by the other and proper acknowledgement should be give to them. But there are also situations in which this is not (entirely) the case. They tend to stem from the impression that there is a core in the classical human organization that can work with the fluid abyssal psychology, from the reliance on the classical organization for that and from the expectations around that.

In Sevda Yanığı (translation), she is stepping out of the human ecosystem of meaning directly into the unknown. The women who feel like doing this probably should pay attention to whether they are really immersed in the gist of that mental abyss or not (which appears to be the case here). If they do this in the idea that they have what it takes to confront the ecosystem of meaning or that they have better perceptions than that of the ecosystem, then they in fact still relate all the unfoldment in their mind to the existing ecosystem and rely on its simplification. Sooner or later, they need to correlate the perception of the abyssal complex fluidity to the simplification of the ecosystem and they end up like an Atlas holding up the sky. This should not be like a straightforward quest for independence either, as this goes nowhere. It is more like having some understanding for the limitations of the ecosystem and continue to work with it from the perspective of this awareness, as currently there are no other human psychological organizations. Something like the vibe from this Güzel Qırım of a group of Crimean Tatar singers.

This understanding is not necessarily relaxed/pacifist either. It has some of the vibe from Çakıl Taşları (translation) of the Turkish singer Şebnem Ferah, with the clarification of that gist. “I have pebbles, big and small. When I’m lost, I spread them and make my way with them.” She is facing herself all that complexity and the man is portrayed too as facing it, she does not have expectations from him to provide coherence.

It should be paid attention that this straightforward struggle applies when facing the difficulties of real life. Many times, if you just go along with this struggle mindset when working with an ecosystem of meaning, it is rather counter-productive. There is something good in it, but it should be paid attention to what is valuable in that gist and see how it relates with ecosystems, when it is about ecosystems. Inadvertently, women like Salavat Minnikhanov’s mother in Ay-yay-yay have a role in the poor quality Altaic leadership focused on straightforward harshness as social organization, under impression that this is how you face the complexity of life. Salavat himself understands that such approach does not target well issues in normal social life and he is not sliding into that kind of organizational impulses.

→ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 15)