After the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the centralized system of managing the country's values disappeared. And Russia began the search for new moral guidelines. From this time, according to experts, the problem arises of correlation of traditional Russian and liberal European values. We will talk about what the Western system of values is and why its distribution in Russia causes various problems.
Concept of values
Since ancient times, thinkers have been occupied with the problems of what is important to humans and why. In ancient Greek philosophy, there was a branch that studied exclusively values, called axiology. Under this concept, specialists mean some material or spiritual objects that give meaning to the life of an individual person or of some group, or humanity as a whole.
Closely related to the concept of values are moral and life principles, which are transformed into the norms and rules of people's lives. Values in philosophy are 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 peculiar landmarks on the life path of people. They help a person make everyday tactical and long-term strategic decisions. So values are realized in norms and rules. Each society has its own value system, although there are universal groups of objects that are important for humanity as a whole. Today, when they talk about the expansion of Western values into Russia, they mean the introduction of one value system into another.
Social functions of values
Societies from the very beginning of their existence have been developing a common code and rules of conduct. So that people can coexist in a group, they need to conclude a social contract on what they consider important in their lives. The main function of values is orientation in the living space.
It is not in vain that such a concept as value orientation exists. 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 publicly approved, and what is reprehensible.
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 satisfy needs; they allow balancing a person’s personal interests and social norms.
Another function of values is goal setting. A person formulates life prospects, focusing on his own set of values. The way of life of people is always determined by socially important important goals and objects. Therefore, when they talk about the expansion of the Western system of values, they mean the impact on privacy and the choice of individuals.
Another function of values is evaluation. Focusing on a set of public ideas about what is good and what is bad, what is important and what is insignificant, 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 set by ideals. By this concept they mean a certain idea of how the situation should develop in the best possible way.
An ideal is a perfect model for which people strive. 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 purpose of life is to move towards it.
Values are a kind of guide to action. They regulate the activities and behavior of a person who lives in accordance with their ideas about ideals. Today, Western values in Russia offer to be guided by such ideals as universal equality, justice, honesty, tolerance. However, the mechanism of the influence of such ideals on the life of an individual, a set of values that are relevant to Russians, has not yet been finalized.
Types of values
Since values cover a huge part of human life, they are extremely diverse. Therefore, there are several classifications. The most famous typology is built on the basis of human needs. In this case, material and spiritual values are distinguished.
The content distinguish spiritual, political, social and economic values. There is also a tradition of dividing them according to the culture in which they formed. In this case, eastern and western values are distinguished. In Russia, it is customary to single out Russian values as an alternative to the Western system of views. There is also the practice of highlighting values by subject. In this case, they speak of individual-subjective and universal values. Personal values are formed in every person in childhood through education 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 have not found agreement on this issue. But still there is a tradition of talking about the existence of values that are approved by most people. Often this set of values is found in religious commandments that are found in every religion. They determine the basic ones: human life, respect for other people and their property, observance of social norms, etc.
Western values are based on ideas of universal equality and tolerance for other people and their views. But such representations are not yet universal. Human values can be called life and human health, family, self-development, human happiness.
The American psychologist M. Rokich 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 everyone, an active and eventful life of a person, the possibility of self-realization, freedom, health, family, caring for others, safety, mature love and friendship, joy, self-esteem and respect of society, wisdom , a world for everyone, an understanding of beauty.
European values
The European Union based its association on a certain set of values, which received the name European values. They are called upon to integrate society, to create a single moral and cultural space.
However, there is the 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. Why are the values, for example, of China less important than the values of a united Europe? There is no answer to this question.
Europe decided that its way of thinking was the most progressive, and hence the problem of the expansion of Western values to other societies grew. For example, the culture of South America, Turkey or Russia. Traditionally, European values include equality, tolerance, freedom, democracy, progress.
Western and Russian values
The problem of correlating the system of ideas about the significance of different patterns of behavior in Russia and in the West has already become “eternal”. If we compare the average Russian and a resident of European countries, the difference in their views will not be particularly great. But building a hierarchy of values can be very different.
So, for Russian culture, freedom and democracy will not be in the first place, the main achievement of Western culture is democracy and tolerance. In Russian culture, they are not even in the top ten of the most important in the life of people and society. In the culture of the West, the individual is always more important than the public. Russia today is also moving in this direction, but so far the significance of society is still great.
The spread of European values
The main mechanism for disseminating values is the media and culture. It is through literature, films, and journalistic materials that Western values are introduced into other cultures. Not in vain in the USSR, for example, there was 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, values are universalized. Globalization gradually eliminates national axiological features. Western civilization is actively using media resources to disseminate its standards of living and values. This causes great resistance among eastern cultures, for example, Chinese or Muslim, which is fraught with the emergence of conflicts.
European values in Russia
After perestroika, Western values in Russia were perceived as the most desirable pattern. They were perceived as an undoubted benefit 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 existence in the information society.
Also, the Russians needed to realize their place in world history. To create a new successful society in Russia, it was necessary 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 expansion of values
Against the background of awareness of the differences between European and Russian values, the tendency to strengthen the national self-identification of the inhabitants of Russia begins to grow. Thus, the problem is formed related to the expansion of the Western system of values into Russia.
National archetypes come into conflict with the traditional values of the West. The problem became even more urgent after the government line began to be built not on rapprochement with the West, but on confrontation with it.