"Problems of war and peace in the Middle East" - under this title, an All-Israel scientific Conference was held in Ashdod at the end of November last year. It was organized by the Alfa-Ashdod-Prosperity Association, supported by the Ministry of Absorption, the Center for Science and Technology, and the Israeli magazine "Thought".

More than 30 reports were heard. Among them are " Terror, the ideological Expansion of Islamic fundamentalism and Israel's security "(Prof. A. Rubinchik), "Current state and Prospects for the development of Israel's missile defense against Arab expansion" (Dr. M. Ziskin), "The contribution of repatriated scientists to Israel's Security" (Dr. A. Sharnopolsky), etc.

The Conference adopted an "Appeal to the heads of State and peoples of the entire world" to stop international terrorism and stop flirting with reactionary Islamic regimes.

Below we present (in abridgment) the report of Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor A. Nedunov (who has been living in Israel since 1999), which, in our opinion, may be of interest to the Russian reader.

A. A. NEDUVA (Israel)

Doctor of Medical Sciences

The widespread term "political correctness" usually refers to mutual respect for the views and positions of others, even if there is no overlap of opinions; the desire to overcome existing differences and avoid hostility. In theory, political correctness rejects violence and aggression in conflict situations.

Initially, the concept of political correctness played a positive role, meaning the development of ideas of humanism and tolerance. However, in recent years, this concept has been increasingly manipulated and abused in order to extract certain benefits for some and suppress others. This is not only a socio-political, but also a psychological problem.

* * *

Political correctness is designed to reflect humanistic trends in the development of society. It implies not passive adaptation, conformity to the accepted norms of life, but the position of each side in relation to its opponents, based on mutual respect and mutual understanding, with a flexible approach to assessing the situation, taking into account social and political values. At the same time, there should be no rigidity, cruelty of attitudes, or stereotypes of thinking.

However, at present, manipulators of this concept use it to undermine the ideological base of political opponents, destroy their confidence in their rightness and feasibility of the opponent's ideas, reduce the psychological stability, morale and other types of activity of the masses in order to put them under the influence of opponents.

Perverted ideas about other people's views, current events and trends in their development are being introduced into people's minds. At the same time, psychological pressure is used - repeated repetition of traditional, truly humanistic ideas, as well as techniques for imperceptibly introducing into the consciousness of another their ideas about good and justice, etc.

Political correctness, which grew up on the foundation of the ideas of humanism, non-resistance to evil by violence, proclaimed at one time by Rousseau, Voltaire, Gandhi, Roerich, Leo Tolstoy and others, was formed at a certain stage of human development, which had endured many wars, upheavals and crises.

Modern Western society is characterized by the desire for material well-being, comfort and tranquility. In other poor countries, there is an increasingly aggressive protest against this situation. This causes a police response, and at the same time creates a sense of guilt in the West for their well-being.

An insufficiently considered psychological factor plays a significant role in the spread of political correctness. Political correctness, akin to politeness and tact, seeks to verbally embellish the world, making it more pleasant to live in. It does not involve striving for the truth, showing tolerance even for what is obviously false. According to the German philosopher Norbert Boltz, in the ideology of political correctness, Western civilization breaks with the concept of truth, which lay at the very foundation of this civilization.

* * *

The refusal of political correctness from authenticity is also noted by the Russian sociologist L. G. Ionin: "This is not about equality before the law, but about the obligation of recognition and respect. This requirement is reasonable at first glance, but in reality it is not only impossible to implement in practice, but also contrary to common sense and elementary logic." He rightly emphasizes: "Political correctness is not a random, time-bound ideological phenomenon, but a fundamental and most important characteristic of modern mass democracy... Political correctness is the ideology of modern mass democracy, which serves, on the one hand, to establish the domestic and foreign policies of Western states and unions, and, on the other, to suppress dissent... Political correctness is the modern embodiment of the principle of equality and the denial of the existence of inequality with unequal responsibility to society. A direct consequence of this is the filing of-

the overriding principle is to treat the unequal as equals, which is regarded as one of the greatest values and achievements of our time. " ¹

While there is no formal censorship in most countries, there are requirements for political correctness. This is manifested in the West in the prohibition of objective discussion of racial and interethnic issues, attitudes towards sexual minorities, problems of feminism, etc. The issue of radical Islam, which has become the most urgent in recent decades, with its aggressive dictates and skillful use of Western political correctness to assert and spread its claims, is discussed in a particularly sanctimonious way. "The fatal incompatibility of cultures," writes public figure, scientist and publicist A. Voronel, "remains a pitfall of the" peace process " with the Muslim world, which is not dissolved in the bright speeches of our writers and demonstrations of good will."². Political correctness would have to counteract the rigid "either-or" dichotomy. However, what is needed here is not a confrontation, but interaction between the parties. Then there will already be true political correctness, and not its appearance.

* * *

The main modern factor of aggression is radical Islam, which links all the major terrorist acts of our time from September 11, 2001 in New York, the terrorist attacks in Times Square, the train station in Madrid to the metro in London and Moscow. The epicenter of Islamic terror turned out to be Israel, which has been waging defensive wars with the Arabs for all the years of its existence. However, many so-called European left-wing organizations, parties, and statesmen tend not to identify the causes of terrorism in the West and in Israel.

Israeli university circles are characterized by radical left-liberal views, and their calls for pacifism and political correctness are opposed to the official policy of the state. Psychological mechanisms of formation of personal attitudes of scientists are affected by upbringing in the family, team, the ability to adhere to the traditional values of good and justice laid down in childhood. Among the intellectual elite of Israel, there are also people who adhere to other attitudes: they have developed a sense of self-affirmation, confidence in their absolute rightness and exclusivity.

* * *

In Israeli society, we can roughly distinguish three groups of people with their main personal characteristics and the desire for the so-called politically correct ideology.

The first group is characterized by the conditionality of political correctness by the general characteristics of the individual, distinguished by the features of benevolence and humanity. This is true political correctness as a manifestation of personality traits due to the peculiarities of its formation in a certain environment, which is characterized by positive personal qualities of kindness, peace and harmony. These properties allow this group of people to become the best part of society, the standard of decency, the color of the nation. They have an opinion that the people around them do not differ from you in terms of good and evil, and at the same time they deny the possibility of a different understanding of life, the ability to think and act not from the ideas of kindness, which sometimes reach the level of benevolence.

A characteristic feature in families of the first group is the upbringing from childhood of the desire to enjoy helping the younger ones, using the examples of adults helping the weak and poor. At the same time, rejection is formed at the same time, the desire to ignore the abusers of the weak. Relationships in these families are characterized by integrity, the desire to see only the good, beautiful, avoiding though real, but unpleasant impressions. Also, since childhood, the desire to get satisfaction from the ability to forgive offenses, unfair actions of others is formed. All this is then transformed into the characteristic properties of the individual.

This category of people develops an unwillingness to see a threat and actively defend against it, while passive evasion is preferred, avoiding even being present in dangerous or even unpleasant situations. So gradually there is a tendency to ignore the fact of the existence of aggression, both in individuals and in entire groups. As the individual grows up, this leads to a rejection of views on the existence of radical, aggressive political groups, parties and organizations that could shape the policies of some states.

Brought up in an environment of kindness, care and mutual respect, these individuals do not imagine other relationships in society, or avoid the need to discuss "ugly" issues. In this environment, the fashion for political correctness, the desire to look kind is widespread, a kind of conformism has formed: "it's accepted", "it should be so".

In the mentality of these individuals, there is sometimes a veiled guilt complex in relation to the poor and the victims. The altruism inherent in this category of people sometimes leads them to consider economic assistance as a means to improve the mentality of those in need who have become aggressive. Thus, positive personal qualities brought up in a liberal, democratic society, reduced to the grotesque, become not only dangerous for the carriers of these properties themselves, but also harmful for backward societies, depriving them of orientation to economic well-being achieved precisely by work.

* * *

The second group, which is less numerous but very significant in Israeli society, includes people who also strive to be politically correct. They are characterized by theatricality, posturing, narcissism, and the desire to draw attention to their personality in any way. Most often they come from the creative intelligentsia, their parents-artists, artists, writers, journalists - from childhood taught their children not to be afraid of publicity, which often led the child to believe in their own exclusivity and special talent.

As children grew older, their perception of their supposed special gifts was strengthened if their lives and careers were successful. When obstacles in the way of life broke their ideals and dreams of becoming outstanding figures, "dissatisfaction with fate" was formed, and a feeling appeared that they were not needed by society and were doomed to live like all ordinary people. There was a complex on thoughts of misunderstandings, unrecognized. This sense of inferiority, combined with narcissism, demonstrativeness, theatrical traits, and the desire to become famous, creates an irresistible desire to "show yourself", "stand out from the crowd", and "not be in the herd"in any way.

Gradually, this group of people develops an attitude to achieve fame in any way. These individuals can become well-known figures of art, literature, science, and famous public figures.-

public figures. However, their failures lead them to the environment of protestors, protesters, organizing demonstrations, marches of solidarity and protest, etc. Caught up in the wave that makes them popular, these individuals no longer take into account moral criteria. Not finding recognition in an environment with the usual attitudes to useful work in their society, they seek recognition in any way, up to active activity in a society that is alien, and often hostile to their people. This "herostratic complex" combined with the narcissistic one pushes them into the ranks of those who are at war with their own people, into groups of terrorists hostile to their country. Complex personalities, unrecognized in their society, are looking for recognition, fame, no matter what! "good or bad.

Such deliberate self-assertion with the desire to show their otherness, peculiarity, has become common in recent years. Rallies, protest demonstrations, so-called "peace flotillas" are organized, where along with hostile elements and non-disinterested figures, representatives of the described group of demonstrative and theatrical political correctness take an active part...

This also includes some works of political and nonfiction that are thoroughly imbued with the spirit of purposefulness, where their authors, under the guise of political correctness, promote an unkind and sometimes hostile attitude towards their country and their people. An example of such literature is the book by the former Russian and now American Jew Yakov Rabkin: "Jew against Jew. Jewish resistance to Zionism"³. It presents a supposedly Torah-based concept of anti-Zionism, denies the religious and legal legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel, and justifies the militarization of Israel's opponents.

The same category includes articles by former Israeli journalist Yisrael Shamir, in particular, his online publication "A Yiddishe Medina", in which he compares Jewry to an invisible plane, asking: "Does Jewry even exist as a state, or is this just a figurative expression?" And the Israeli professor Benny Morris in his book "1948. The history of the first Arab-Israeli war" with pathos speaks about the illegality of the UN proclamation in 1947 of the independent state of Israel, created allegedly as a result of dishonest transactions and bribery. One of Israel's leading writers, Professor A. B. Joshua of the University of Haifa, echoed him, denying that Jews have the right to be called a people.

These examples show that Israel has a problem of negative political correctness towards its country, which turns into self-hatred. But the "demonstration" of political correctness does not know commitment to a particular people, country.

In Russia, there have even been cases when Russian soldiers and officers who started out with politically correct statements, then converted to Islam, took part in sabotage alongside Chechen terrorists. In America and Europe, there were also cases of complicity in uncovered Islamic terrorist organizations by individuals who found an opportunity to "prove themselves" by fighting for previously alien ideals promoted by radical Islam.

Common to all these and similar cases is the desire for thrills, self-demonstration, and self-affirmation at any cost, disguised under the guise of a struggle for justice. This is the characteristic desire of this group to use the ideology of political correctness, based on the feeling of love for provocation, fronde, when combining this feeling with the insatiable need for self-affirmation in people with a tendency to narcissism.

* * *

The third group of people whose political correctness manifests itself in a very peculiar way is people who use religious and mystical stories for this purpose. Along with true believers, there are pseudo-religious groups of adherents of political correctness who use the peculiarities of psychological attitudes of people who profess extreme religious and mystical beliefs.

In these cases, there is a hyperbolized, largely caricatured understanding of various postulates of spirituality and peacefulness that ignores reality. The propaganda of the well-known calls for non-resistance to evil by violence is here carried to the point of absurdity. These are people who are usually brought up from childhood in the spirit of extreme, unrecognized by most religious authorities and ministers of religions, unusual variants of various religious beliefs, often of a totalitarian nature. The introduction and dissemination of ideas of political correctness here have a prepared psychological basis in connection with the coverage of these individuals by the ideas of sinfulness and the beliefs associated with these beliefs in the need for individual and collective redemption. It promotes redemption by suicide. This also justifies the terrible historical events of mass loss of life, genocide and such facts as the Holocaust. The leaders of some sects in many countries, such as the USA, Germany, and Russia, also call for this.

Against the background of the tragic fate of the Jewish people during the Second World War, the Jewish religious movement called "Naturei Karta", which is also essentially a kind of sect, looks caricatured. Members of this sect call for the destruction of the State of Israel, created, according to their concepts, "by people without divine blessing and deeds." Moreover, true religious representatives of this trend profess their faith and beliefs, as a rule, without resorting to organizing rallies and demonstrations, but relying on the solution of issues of concern to them by the intervention of Higher forces, Divine providence. Those who embrace the ideology of perverse political correctness sometimes get close to forces that are hostile to their country, and even show friendly feelings towards its enemies, the terror leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, and some radical rulers.

* * *

This is, in general terms, the idea of the psychological mechanisms of the modern, unreasonably perverted use of the concept of political correctness. The disclosure of these mechanisms allows us to understand the reasons for such widespread and rapid implementation of this concept. Unfortunately, this leads to the loss of the unrealized rational, progressive pathos that was first embedded in the concept of correctness in general and political correctness in particular, and leads it towards demagoguery and lies that are dangerous for the very existence of the principles of public life.

^{Ionin L. G.} 1 Society of minorities: political correctness in the Modern World, Moscow, 2010.

^{Voronel A.} 2 The Testament of Confucius // Window. Weekly supplement to the newspaper "Vesti". 2010.

^{Rabkin Ya} 3 Jew vs Jew. Jewish Resistance to Zionism, Moscow, 2009.

Permanent link to this publication: