The Stoical post-Soviet smartass Dmitri Orlov, from "Reinventing Collapse":
Most Americans have heard of communism, and automatically believe that it is an apt description of the Soviet system, even though there was nothing particularly communal about a welfare state and a vast industrial empire run by an elitist central planning bureaucracy. But very few of them have ever heard of the real operative "ism" that dominated Soviet life: "dofenism," which ca be loosely translated as "not giving a rat's ass." A lot of people, more and more during the "stagnation" period of the 1980s, felt nothing but contempt for the system, did what little they had to do to get by (night watchman and furnace stoker were favorite jobs among the highly educated) and got all their pleasure from theri friends, from their reading or from nature.This sort of disposition may seem like a cop-out, but when there is a collapse on the horizon, it works as psychological insurance: instead of going through the agonizing process of losing and rediscovering one's identity in a post-collapse environment, one could simply sit back and watch events unfold. If you are currently a "mover and shaker," of things or people or whatever, then collapse will surely come as a shock to you, and it will take you a long time, perhaps forever, to find more things to move and shake to your satisfaction. However, if your current occupation is as a keen observer of grass and trees, then post-collapse you could take on something else that's useful, such as dismantling useless things.
The ability to stop and smell the roses -- to let it all go, to refused to harbor regrets or nurture grievances, to confine one's serious attention only to that which is immediately necessary and not to worry too much about the rest -- is perhaps the one most critical to post-collapse survival. The most psychologically devastated are usually the middle-aged breadwinners who, once they are no longer gainfully employed, feel completely lost. Detachment and indifference can be most healing, provided they do not become morbid. It is good to take your sentimental nostalgia for what once was, is, and will soon no longer be, up front, and get it over with.
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I prefer Ignatian indifference to apathy.
Tom Jackson
Nice comment.
Having thoroughly enjoyed reading Orlov's book, I have to say, I have a different take.
It's not that Russians don't give a damn. It's that they don't let anybody pull their strings for no good reason. Russians can be kind, generous, polite, and heroic--in the right conditions.
And as a Russian explained to me, the reason for their cultural characteristic comes from the Orthodox faith. As he put it to me, although I may be losing something in translation, depression is a sin. Fear is a sin. Doing nothing, that is not a sin.
This is nothing new. When I was in high school I remember reading about what the French called "Je-m'en-fichisme" (sp?) which was pretty much the same thing, back in the 1950s.
Brody, thanks for the Fred Reed link. Now there's a real cruncy-con!
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