The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 7)
Part of the series Perceiving complexity
⟵ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 6)
Technically, in the previous parts of this series, I should have written first about the raw reality power as the introductory core aspect of the Altaic mindset, as this appears to be its initial source, and then about the ebru way of thinking that comes along with it. But I chose to start with the ebru because it seemed to me more relatable to the people in general, in order to make some real psychological bridges to understand what it is about. You need to feel first the mental abyss that comes with this power and with its kind of thinking if you are not exposed to it in real life. If I begin with the power, some people may have football fan-like sideline kibitzer reactions to take it as some sort of a solution to all kind of problems, when in fact, if you are really immersed in it, it opens your mind to the unexpected complexity of the raw reality.
Probably you may already ask, if this is so great, then what is the catch, why didn’t this novelty determined major paradigm shifts worldwide? The problem resides in the complexity of thinking from the point of view of the raw reality. This novelty does not solve this issue entirely. The awakening of the full-fledged fluid psychological power comes with the bonus of the single thought thread focus inside the raw reality perspective, which enables some level of rational thinking inside this perspective. This is very useful, but its use (at least as it appears at the first glances, when yet unelaborated) is still not enough to organize a social life with it.
After you managed to surpass some seemingly insurmountable difficulty with this fluid power and ebru thinking, how are you going to organize your life with this new awareness? The same as the populations with suminagashi mindset, they tend to avoid elaborating the “meaningful world” side of their life because of the awareness of the real complexity in doing that and they tend to rely on other peoples’ confidence in the “meaningful world”, they are too like the Finn who was wondering what the elephant is thinking of Finns (and they tend to be very sensitive about what other people think about their ethnic group and their country, something like the women in general tend to be sensitive about their image).
The general mood among the populations with the ebru way of thinking is to focus on the “meaningful world” side of the self, not as though they really believe in it, but rather as a self-image creation, like in the classical feminine perspective. This side is not taken for granted as the default sense of self like in the cultures with classical masculinity, thus it is perceived as an image, they do not really live within it. Nevertheless, this is the praised side that is taken seriously.
As for the raw reality side of the self, this is the real headquarters of their sense of self, this is where they assume more serious responsibilities. However, many tend to be ashamed of it, because, when there is no focus anymore on some exceeding difficulty for it to solve, this raw reality side is obviously going to take an interest in what happens in the “meaningful world”. If the “meaningful world” side (when there are no difficult situations anymore) goes by its classical rules and elaborates spider web types of mental structures, then the raw reality side inevitably notices all kind of unexpected points of view in there, which determine a propensity to move the mind in all kind of unexpected directions. These unexpected points of view are too raw, too real to at least turn you into some sort of a crazy savant, they would need a too steep learning curve for that (the usual crazy savants are not so abruptly profound, they appear in contexts with more incremental approaches). Thus, instead, the result is more like I am trying so hard to be a civilized person and here appears this crazy side of me that may ruin my public image.
This part from the 1977 Turkish film The King of the Street Cleaners, with the street cleaner ending up on the stage, is a good example of this Altaic fear of blurting out in public that side of yourself you don’t really know what to do about. The man does not have a very presentable demeanor, but then the way he is liked by the public for being a natural and authentic person reflects the ambivalent feeling of the people about this side of themselves. Or this parody of Shake it off of the Yakut singer Zloi Mambet, here with a more direct message of being more accepting of who you are. Zloi means “devilish” in Russian, Mambet means “country bumpkin” in Yakut, here Zloi Mambet is taking a trip to the capital city Yakutsk.
Or the specific type of humor like the Turkish Karagöz and Hacivat or like the Japanese manzai. It consist of a character who lets unfold in his mind the raw reality perspective (which thus brings all kind of unexpected points of view to the current “meaningful world” of the local society) and another character who is sticking to the allegiance to the coherence of the current “meaningful world” (and who thus has the impulse to suppress the discoveries of the previous character).
This keen awareness of the raw reality point of view can be helpful to surpass very difficult situations. But when the people with the ebru mindset are living a simple normal life, this keen awareness shows them an (overwhelming) complexity behind what looks like simple normality in human life. The perception of this complexity in normal life can have the opposite effect of being unexpectedly helpful, for example it can create a crazy side of you that you do not really know what to do about or, if it makes you wonder about the functionality of the classical human social life, it can cripple down the self-confidence in dealing even with simple tasks.
For women specifically, some can continue to be in the fluid flow of that raw reality power even in the simple normal life. Like the Turkish singer Tuğba Ger in this live interpretation of Dumanı da Vardır Şu Dağların Başında. From the first seconds I sense that self-confidence of the unhindered flow of Altaic raw reality power in her public presence, even though it is a moment of normal social life, without confronting extreme situations. This is an example with an inner balance between the sense of self and the external world, the kind of generic example that comes first to mind to give an idea about this state of mind. But there can be all kind of other nuances, like in Gidemem of the Turkish singer Sevda Özkaran, where the feeling is rather about what can I do with this power, what is the role of my own self in the world when life is normal and I don’t need to confront overwhelming situations?
As for those who are not currently in this raw reality power flow, some of them reverted to some extent to the classical femininity mindset (it is only to some extent because they continue to be aware of the Altaic raw reality power). I will write about them after I write about the men, since their case is too intertwined with that of the men. And then there are the cases when this awareness of the Altaic point of view makes the simple life feel rather much more complicated, by developing a crazy side of you and/or by crippling the self-confidence in dealing even with simple tasks.
I wouldn’t know what to say specifically about Altaic women dealing with the crazy side, I did not find aspects too different from the classical femininity. This issue tends to be more visible and more acute for Altaic men, since they do not have the female experience of hundreds of thousands of years in dealing with the craziness of the raw reality (and I write about this in the next part of this series). However, I have things to say about women who face rationally the raw reality complexity around the classical human mental structures. The first modern musical example in the general part of this series of articles, Ayrilamiz of Shahzoda, about a woman mentally paralyzed by the complexity of involvement in social life, was presented as a general case in which a woman has a keen awareness of the raw reality point of view.
In some aspects, this video goes beyond the classical feminine awareness because it is conceptualized, it is not such an informal point of view like at the classical women. It was a good example of the general female situation because of the conceptualization, but the classical women have this point of view at a more informal level, they do not take it so seriously. They appear to not really know what to do about it, the only psychological structure they take seriously by default is the classical masculine organization. The example was not about a woman who goes with the flow, watches her projections in the “meaningful world” and leans on the masculine organization there, like in the other example of Habeit Ya Leil of Nawal El Zoghbi. Shahzoda assumes responsibilities to organize life in the “meaningful world” with a single raw reality thread like in Yar Ali Senden Medet of Yıldız Tilbe.
As children, depending on the environment the grow up in, they can even be happily in the flow of the ebru thinking and power if the environment does not put in their face contradictory aspects of the “meaningful world” that they don’t know already how to deal with and consequently open their mind to some (crippling) complexity. If they stumble upon such complexities, it may take time to merkel and readjust on a more authentic basis the relation between their raw reality point of view and their “meaningful world”.
If they manage to do this, they can become much more profoundly self-confident than usual, their sense of self is a good flow between the raw reality point of view and the “meaningful world” and with this good flow they pay attention to take it in stride whatever complexity appears in their mind. It is not necessarily a solution to that complexity, ready to be applied in the “meaningful world”, but at least some way to relate to it while not betraying the authenticity of the raw reality.
I see this happening in general for women worldwide, if they keep merkeling for years about specific issues. About Altaic women specifically, it tends to be more prevalent, the ebru type of cultural ambient is more conducive to this. I notice how some of them can become rather shy in their youth, if they stumble upon aspects of the “meaningful world” from angles revealing their complexity. For many of them, this turns into a sort of responsible shyness, they do not let themselves go with the flow like the classical women, in the background they keep merkeling about the situations. And as they face complexities and get more wisdom about the relation between the raw reality and the “meaningful world”, they grow into self-confident women who can have a very authentic and meaningful expressivity.
As a musical example, Ali Nur of the Turkish singer Şirin Üstün featuring the band Leyl-ü Nehar. Şirin Üstün has that authentic and meaningful expressivity I was talking about, she has a natural way of being in control of her public presence, while some of the younger women are rather like the one from Shahzoda’s video, they are not very self-confident, they are facing the complexities of the relation between the raw reality and the “meaningful world” without yet the experience and wisdom to relate them well. Her authenticity feels earned after some responsible shyness. This is different from the nuance of being immersed in the raw reality power, like in the previously mentioned video of Tuğba Ger, but these two nuances can be complementary.
→ The mindset of the populations of Siberian origin (part 8)
