,
14 tweets,
3 min read
Read on Twitter
Take it from the source: "Foreign politicians point at Russia "for meddling into elections and referendum around the globe. In reality, things are much more serious--Russia is interfering into their brains and they don't know what to do with their own changed mentality." Surkov.
"Since the failure of the 90s, after our country has declined ideological loans, it started to generate meanings and started an information warfare counterattack on the West, European and the US experts started to make more mistakes in their predictions..."
"hey are suprised and maddened by the paranormal choices of the electoral bodies. Lost, they have announced the invasion of populsim. One can say that, if at lack for words." Surkov is one of the Kremlin's and Putin's main ideologues.
The Kremlin created a story, a negative narrative of “a weak European Union.” Russian ideologists like Dugin & Surkov engineer narratives (myths) through language & images. Trolls factories and bots use data as a tool and a weapon to spread these myths and turn them into reality.
The West needs to recognize the importance of the myths and narratives for individual and collective human psyche. Simply put, humanity is driven by stories. We think and operate in narratives.
To understand it, imagine social media as a communal dream space comprised of interconnected dream worlds. Data is translated into emotions and ideas that can be categorized as archetypes and comprised into myths. Actions in the real and dream worlds affect each other.
People feel and follow impulses and, thus, emotions created in the virtual reality are materialized into actions in the real world. Changes in individual and collective narratives lead to changes in the political landscape of society.
Myths transform consciousness, wrote Joseph Campbell. We need to understand this concept and adversary’s method.
We need to create our own narrative instead of desacralizing Kremlin myth. Competing byte for byte or playing whack-a-mole game is insufficient.
Offering a vision and a system of views as an alternative to the Kremlin myth of traditionalism, nationalism, patriarchy, orthodoxy, and totalitarianism and communicating the ideas of liberal democracy—values of individual freedom, citizen empowerment & human spirit—is critical.
As for Surkov, whose striking in its impudence opus I had to quote in the beginning of this thread: some basic facts: heavy.com/news/2017/04/v…
Many of Putin's "cardinals" suffer from self-identity issues, illusions of grandeur and imperfection complexes. It is sad that the rest of the world has to suffer with them. nybooks.com/daily/2018/01/…
Between working for Alfa Group & wanting literary fame, these political technologists are dangerous. They corrupt decency and sanity. Once again, I will conclude, do NOT underestimate the importance of myths, narratives and literature in this war. The battlefield is your mind.
Thank you, @WendySiegelman, for bringing this to my attention. I recommend following @WendySiegelman for the latest news and most relevant insights of today.
