The Failure of Capitalism in Russia

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, soon followed by the Soviet regime itself, Russians were clearly sick and tired of Communism. Under perestroika, Western influence was allowed into Russia. This influence came in the form of pop culture - fashion, music, cinema, and food, among others. This was all fine and dandy in and of itself, but the commodities did not bring with them the Western concepts and values that allowed aviator glasses, Converse sneakers, Levi jeans, and Paramount films to be created the way that they are in the West.

The national mindset of Russia may forever be locked in a binary. Iu Lotman and Boris Uspenskii wrote an excellent article explaining the origins of the Russian binary model. It is largely based in the heaven/hell dichotomy of the Eastern Orthodox church, which has no concept of purgatory that the Catholic church adopted. The opposite of heaven is hell, and vice versa, so when Russian society seems to be in "hell", its opposite - "heaven" - will be implemented by force. The October revolution was a "revolution from above" - party elites implemented the mechanisms of communism and kept them in place. The same was done for "capitalism". It was shoddily implemented by people who are still caught in a binary, elite as they are.

In the West, the rise of capitalism and industrialism did not come from government mandates and elites governing the situation. It was a direct result of the endeavors of common people, engaging the in the free flow of goods and services. A lack of state ownership preceding the concretization of the concept of free market principles was the framework (or lack thereof) that allowed capitalism to flourish and benefit Western societies. Like democracy in the majority of the Middle East, capitalism cannot expect itself to change anything in Russia unless the mentality of the Russian people changes. Only binaries exist: leading and following, complaining and making jokes (which is manifested in the differences between women and men in Nancy Ries' Russian Talk), among others. There is no concept of the 'individual' undivorced from some sort of collective, and thus Russian individuals are more subject to a herd mentality. That mentality is absolutely incompatible with real capitalism, which requires individual effort and sacrifice, the decision to take risks and accept the consequences, and to go out on a limb and make something different and unique.

Alien concepts, no matter how much they have benefitted others, cannot be forced upon a population by mandate. Give democracy to the Palestinians, and they'll elect Hamas again. Give copies of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to Russia, and they will commission all sorts of committees and ask party officials to implement the ideas that sound good, defeating the whole purpose. The 'invisible hand' becomes visible, and continues to manifest itself in incompatible ways as long as the state and the fundamentals of a free market are intertwined.

Now playing: Duobetic Homunkulus - 'Části a mechanismy strojů'