Philistinism - (Petty Bourgeois narrow-mindedness)

Journalism in Bourgeois Society

Philistinism as a phenomenon that incorporates class affiliation, economic situation, political views, moral and ethical makeup, and psychological attitude, has its own history and etymology in philosophical, sociological understanding and practical everyday interpretation.

The words of A. V. Lunacharsky can serve as a methodological setting for studying it:

“Philistinism is an extremely complex phenomenon. Here one cannot get away with a victorious formulation, a crystal clear and even "obligatory" definition, here a historical and sociological classification is necessary.

The evolution of the very concept of philistinism in various languages ​​can serve as a kind of confirmation of these words, which is reflected in explanatory dictionaries and encyclopedic publications in different countries. In Russian, the word "philistinism" in addition to its direct meaning - the estate of the petty bourgeoisie - also acquired a figurative one, embodying the most important features of this estate.

In pre-revolutionary reference publications, only the original meaning of this word is given - as a designation of belonging to the lowest of the five categories of urban residents.

In the thirties, in the explanatory dictionary edited by D.N. Ushakov, the figurative meaning of the word “philistine” was first noted, meaning a person “with petty, limited, proprietary interests and a narrow ideological and social outlook.”

Later, this concept deepened, and in the fifties it was interpreted as "the psychology, ideology and behavior of the tradesman, philistine". In the latest edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the word "philistine" is interpreted in its figurative meaning: "... . philistines are called people whose views and behavior are characterized by egoism and individualism, acquisitiveness, apoliticality, lack of ideas, etc.” - and in conclusion, it is recommended to refer to the article "The Petty Bourgeoisie".

In English, German, and French, two different names are used to express two concepts - “the estate of the petty bourgeoisie” and “philistinism” in the sense of philistinism, philistinism, small-property narrow-mindedness, spiritual poverty, narrow ideology - two different names are used: in the first - “Petty bourgeois” and “ philistinism", in the second - "Jueinburgertum" and "Spienomicburger" or "Philister", in the third - "petite bourgeoisie" and "mesquinerie, trivailite".

The very fact of the existence in Western European languages ​​of different names to define the petty bourgeoisie from a class and cultural-ethical point of view, perhaps, is accidental, but it carries important information. In contrast to the expressively colored Russian "philistinism" and its synonyms in Western European languages, they do not contain a connection with the ideology and psychology of the middle classes.

From the class point of view, petty bourgeoisie was comprehended by the founders of scientific communism; their conclusions about its dual, contradictory nature became the basis for further research. In the work “On Proudhon (Letter to J. B. Schweitzer)”, K. Marx wrote:

"The petty bourgeois ... is made up of 'on the one hand' and 'on the other hand'." He is such in his economic interests, and therefore in his politics, in his religious, scientific, and artistic views. Such is he in his morality, such is he in everything (in everything. -Ed). He is contradiction incarnate."

 It should be borne in mind that people of various classes can be spokesmen for the views of the petty bourgeois. “By their education and individual position, they may be as far from them as heaven is from earth,” Marx wrote in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. What makes them representatives of the petty bourgeois is the circumstance that their thought is not able to transcend those limits that the life of the petty bourgeois does not transcend, and therefore theoretically they arrive at the same tasks and solutions to which the petty bourgeois is led practically by his material interest and his social status" .

This idea of ​​K. Marx later found its development in the works of V. I. Lenin and G. V. Plekhanov.

Plekhanov, analyzing philistinism from class, Marxist positions, pointed out that one of the first to understand that philistinism has its roots in private property was A. I. Herzen: “It was not for nothing that he went through the school of Hegel ... He persistently repeats that the opinions of the Western European world are ruled by the “merchant” or “small property”, that is, economics.”

A. M. Gorky has entered world literature. In his works of fiction and critical articles, the writer revealed the psychology, or "the structure of the soul," as he called it, of the tradesman of his day.

In Notes on Philistinism, Gorky wrote: “Fetishism is the structure of the soul of a modern representative of the commanding classes. The main notes of philistinism are an ugly developed sense of ownership, an always intense desire for peace inside and outside oneself, a dark fear of everything that in one way or another can frighten this peace, and a persistent desire to quickly explain to oneself everything that shakes the established balance of the soul, which violates the usual views on life and people.

The theoretical development of the concept of "philistinism" was continued by A. V. Lunacharsky. He sort of combines the main directions in his research and considers philistinism as an estate and as a specific psychological state of the individual. Lunacharsky raises a number of important problems that have become very topical in our day.

Developing the thoughts of K. Marx and V. I. Lenin about the inconsistency, duality of the petty-bourgeois character, he comes to the conclusion that the very “two souls” of the petty-bourgeois cause “... on the one hand, the desire for equality, on the other, the desire to rise” and give rise in a society where “the poor are taken away, and the possessors are given”, two types of bourgeois - “aggressive, dreaming of exaltation”, and “drowning”, continuing to “shout about justice”.

It was these qualities of a petty-bourgeois character that the fascists used in their time, going to power. Being essentially a dictatorship of the big industrial and financial bourgeoisie, fascism in its propaganda appealed primarily to the petty-bourgeois ideology of the petty bourgeoisie and skillfully manipulated the feelings and moods of the petty-bourgeois, both "aggressive" and "drowning."

Modern bourgeois propaganda achieves the results it needs by skillfully playing on such coexisting properties of petty-bourgeois psychology, as noted by A. V. Lunacharsky, as individualism and herding.

The individualism of the bourgeois, built, according to Lunacharsky, "on private production, private property and competition", has led to a personality crisis in the modern era. At the time of monopoly capitalism, the propensity for herding caused a global standardization of all spheres of life, since it was the bourgeoisie that “invented all the horrors of fashion, rampant life, so-called decency, etc., etc..”

Quite topical in the modern world is the problem of the theorizing of petty bourgeoisie, developed by A. V. Lunacharsky in close connection with the question of the role of the intelligentsia in society. The intelligentsia, according to Lunacharsky, supplies "masters of various kinds of ideologies to other classes" - "sometimes cynically for a bribe, sometimes sincerely adhering to one or another impressive force."

 Under certain conditions, more often at the time of the collapse of the usual bourgeois ideas, when the intelligentsia with great effort develops its own "universal" non-class ideology, it, whether it wants it or not, objectively pours water on the mill of one class or another.

A. V. Lunacharsky, revealing the petty-bourgeois essence of the theoretical constructions of the defenders of the capitalist system contemporary to him, essentially substantiated and predicted the emergence of pseudo-scientific theorized petty bourgeoisie, which today acts as an ideology. It is not only propagated by the mass media at the level of the layman, but also operates in the sphere of socio-political sciences, working out the forms and methods of the capitalist system.

The theorization of philistinism has become the norm and even naturally the modern stage of the increasing crisis of capitalism. The critical attitude, characteristic of most Western fashion concepts, often acts as a camouflage of their philistine essence, which skillfully spoils bourgeois propaganda for their purposes.

So, in the period of the 60s-for the 70s, the revisionist theory of Markuz, who pretended itself as a “short-fitting Marxist”, was raised to the shield. The “Ma-Shanskaya background” of Marcuseanism was manifested in the denial of the revolutionary role of the working class, which allegedly “integrated” into the capitalist system, and the non-recognition of the leading role of the party, whose function “transmitted” the bourgeois intelligentsia, youth. Understanding the danger of genuine Marxism, the bourgeois propaganda deftly picked up the outwardly revolutionary, but the philistine philosophy of Marcuse.

The philosopher J. Elul, the author of the well -known work of “propaganda”, also played an objectively useful role for the bourgeoisie.  In the critical part of his study, he exposes the mechanism of exposure to bourgeois propaganda, based on two main components of philistinism - its individualism and herd: "... propaganda is addressed to the individual but affects the masses."

According to Ellum, stereotypes and myths distributed by bourgeois propaganda are aimed at standardizing all spheres of society, as well as people themselves, “unify their behavior in accordance with a specific model, spread their lifestyle”, and “spontaneously affects not only means in a single direction Mass media, but also advertising, cinema, school education and social services. ” Ellul sees salvation from the influence of propaganda and general standardization in escapism, alienation from politics and public life. Thus, he essentially acts with the preaching of philistinism with his apolitism, indifference to social problems and objectively “pours water into the mill” of the same propaganda.

A special place among the studies of modern philistinism is occupied by the book of the social psychologist T. Adorno, written in collaboration with his colleagues, "The Authoritarian Personality", which examines the psychology of the modern philistine from the point of view of the possibility of his perception of fascist ideology. In the critical part of the work, T. Adorno acts as an exposer of philistinism, at the same time, the way out that he offers - the development of a "psychological technique for changing personality" - makes it, on the whole, a typical manifestation of philistinism.

Objectively, Marcuse, Ellul and Adorno, despite the sharp-critical attitude of their works, uphold the foundations of bourgeois society. Under the conditions of an ever-increasing crisis, it is becoming more and more difficult for the propaganda of the capitalist countries to impose on the masses ideas that are beneficial to the ruling class. She skillfully and promptly uses the latest bourgeois concepts to form a petty-bourgeois worldview and a petty-bourgeois way of life. The danger of these conceptions lies in the fact that the desire to preserve the bourgeois system is disguised in them by false-critical pathos or ostentatious revolutionary spirit, which, as a rule, does not really go beyond the framework of bourgeois liberalism.

Bourgeois propaganda carefully hides the true meaning of the values ​​and value orientations it has developed, which are components of the philistinism it is introducing. The mass media cultivate individualism and conformism under the guise of "personal freedom", propagate the petty-bourgeois-consumer complex, inciting self-interest, and a thirst for money in people under the pretext of caring for material well-being.

In an effort to distract the masses from the vital problems of life, they subject their consciousness to constant bombardment, imposing apoliticalism, indifference to social problems, dragging them into an illusory world, planting anti-intellectualism, and arousing prejudices. Playing on the low sides of human nature, bourgeois propaganda, with the help of petty-bourgeois theories, levels the spiritual life of people, standardizes their views, tastes, and creative aspirations.

Since the acquisitiveness, hoarding, individualism, conformism of the mass media has outgrown the traditional framework of philistinism in our time and special sections are devoted to them in the book, the main attention in this chapter will be focused on such important attributes of this phenomenon as apolitism, anti-intellectualism and standardization.

Private property, which is the soil on which philistinism is formed, turns the spiritual life of a person into a sphere of application of money capital, the purpose of which, as K. Marx wrote, is to awaken “a new need ... Therefore, along with the growth of the mass of objects, the kingdom of alien entities grows, under the yoke which a person is located ... At the same time, a person is becoming poorer as a person ... ".

In our days, the “realm of alien entities” has reached truly gigantic proportions through the efforts of the bourgeois media. Advertising plays a leading role in this. But print, radio, television are not limited to direct advertising when this or that product literally screams: “Buy!” While preaching philistinism, they resort to camouflage.

The press uses special sections and sections to disguise it, submits articles on various topics in a solid package of supposedly scientific materials, overloaded with documentary and statistical data. And how many details, hints of an advertising sense are interspersed in the texts of essays, reports, works of art that seem to have nothing to do with advertising!

Advertising in bourgeois society is assigned a social role, it actively operates in more than one sphere of consumption, it also breaks into the spiritual life of people, gradually instilling traditional petty-bourgeois apoliticality and ignorance, provoking individualism, and conformism, standardizing the whole system of people's lives.

The mass media plant philistinism purposefully and systematically, not only through overt and covert advertising, but also through the whole complex of published and transmitted materials.

They developed standards and stereotypes based on the traditional properties of the petty-bourgeois nature - indifference to public life, ignorance and often militant hatred of education II enlightenment, individualism and commitment to the herd, intolerance to the new, rejection of everything that differs from the generally accepted.

The essence of these standards is carefully veiled, and it is far from easy to detect. As a rule, the “petty-bourgeois background” consists of various kinds of specific images, analogies, details, hints, dissolved in the general fabric of the narrative, sometimes it can be hidden in the subtext. As a model of a citizen, the mass media slips the “muzzle” of a tradesman, hidden under the husk of external respectability, but in fact worshiping one God - his own well-being.

In introducing petty-bourgeois standards, bourgeois journalism strictly takes into account the level of material security, education, and upbringing of various sections of society, as well as the traditions existing among them, real and imaginary values. Proceeding from the duality and inconsistency of the philistine’s soul, it subtly regulates the moods of both the “drowning”, in the terminology of A. V. Lunacharsky, “and the philistines who dream of“ exaltation ”.

The imposed standards and patterns are built in such a way that, on the one hand, they prevent potential protest and direct the discontent of the "drowning" into a sphere safe for social foundations, on the other hand, playing on the sensitive strings of the soul of the philistines, rushing to illusory world of dreams and fabulous luxury. In quantitative terms, materials of both tonalities, as a rule, are balanced not only on the scale of all mass media, but also sometimes within the limits of one issue of a magazine, one television or radio program.

Marx's "man becomes poorer as a man" takes on a special meaning in the age of universal standardization. Philistine standards penetrate into all spheres of human existence. They prescribe to people what to wear, what to eat and drink, regulate their spiritual food, invade literature and art. Templated products of petty-bourgeois creativity, in turn, influence the formation of the corresponding worldview and tastes of people.

Unlike documentary stories about real people, artistic and semi-artistic genres have great potential for treating the reader and viewer in a philistine spirit.

In them, the petty-bourgeois way of life appears as a kind of ideal existence; speculating on a sense of prestige, he arouses in the layman a desire to imitate.

In essays and stereotyped stories, a specific "image" of the petty-bourgeois hero and his lifestyle is created. As a rule, such “works” are based on the cult of the family as part of bourgeois individualism, the glorification of outstanding individual qualities and personal initiative as a kind of refraction of the traditional myth of a society of supposedly equal opportunities, the exaltation of material success that invariably accompanies achievements in one area or another, admiration for luxury and wealth.

The stamp of philistinism is also reflected in the unification of the form of these genres: the author's techniques, the system of visual means, and the manner of presentation are standardized accordingly.

Influencing the worldview, psychology and emotions of people, bourgeois propaganda at the present stage demonstrates an ever more perfect skill and variety of methods in planting philistinism, among which is pseudo-science, masking the philistine essence of most materials under statistical data and scientific conclusions; apoliticalism, behind the facade of which a sharp political orientation is carefully hidden; widespread and consistent introduction of prejudices, superstitions into the minds of people, moreover, also educated and politically oriented.

The standardization and commercialization of spiritual life, like many other processes of capitalist society, manifested itself most acutely in the United States, where philistinism is an integral part of the so-called American way of life, widely promoted in the modern bourgeois world.

In the United States of America, the “middle class” corresponding to the philistine class is the majority of the population, which is associated with the historical conditions of the country's formation. At one time, A. I. Herzen drew attention to this: “Meshcankie, the last word of civilization based on the unconditional autocracy of property, -democratization of the aristocracy, aristocratization of democracy.

The American States represent one middle state, which has nothing below and nothing above, but petty-bourgeois customs remain. The "middle classes" are the most fertile ground for the perception of petty-bourgeois ideology. In the US, advertising, press, radio, television, film, and education work in the same direction. They are not limited to the dissemination of petty-bourgeois standards in the political and cultural sphere, they introduce them into the individual life of each person.

In this regard, the most effective are magazine and television genres of an artistic and semi-artistic nature, in which petty-bourgeois stereotypes and standards are presented gradually, unobtrusively, as a kind of model, the hidden purpose of which is to arouse a desire to imitate. Biographical and family essays, stories, specific family TV series are the most developed and effective in their desire to regulate the views and tastes of people, to organize their lives in a certain way.

So, when studying typical journal publications of these genres and corresponding television works, one can find a stereotyped scheme with the obligatory presence of traditional philistine components: 

One of the standards, where the heroes are rich or powerful people, famous or famous personalities	Another standard whose heroes are ordinary people, typical "average Americans"
Description of appearance, details of clothing, often with advertising subtext

 

Highlighting the personal qualities of heroes who have achieved fame and material success as part of the traditional myth of equal opportunities in bourgeois society

The connection of the career of characters with material success

The family as part of bourgeois individualism

petty-bourgeois attributes: detailed description of houses, hotels, weddings, banquets, travels

Emphasizing the difficulties of a material nature in the lives of people holding important government positions

Never any financial problems and material difficulties

Description of fabulous luxury in celebrity life

Materials corresponding to the first or second standard can be found in any issue of bourgeois journals, both in the USA and in other countries. Tribute to these genres is given by McCalls, Quick, Parimatch, Parade, Women's Day, Family Weekly, Ladies Home Journal and many other publications.

(…)

Inspecting the reader that success depends on personal skill, the magazine aims him to concentrate on his personal, to be distracted from general problems. His goal is to convince the “drowning” tradesman that he himself is to blame for his failures, because he does not have qualities that bring success.

In the subtext, you can notice an anti -intellectual orientation. There is no open propaganda of ignorance, but the features of the characters, served as the key to success in life, are usually not related to education and high intelligence.

Inspiring the reader that success depends on personal skill, the magazine aims him to focus on the personal, to distract from common problems. His goal is to convince the "drowning" tradesman that he himself is to blame for his failures, since he does not have the qualities that bring success.

In the subtext, one can also notice an anti-intellectual orientation. There is no open propaganda of ignorance, but the traits of characters presented as a guarantee of success in life are usually not associated with education and high intelligence.

An important part of the bourgeois standard is (at first glance, also not so significant) the enumeration of the details of Redford's clothing (green turtleneck, brown trousers with an Indian belt, cowboy boots, which the author saw on him back in 1971); it is specifically emphasized that he is at least six feet tall and that he does not dye his hair (gossip refutation). Barbara's appearance is described in typical American spirit - translated into dollars: in a 20-dollar dress she looks like a million dollars, but she prefers expensive outfits - better than those of J. Onassis, in which she poses for Hollywood designers. The advertising implication of such valuable information, presented to the reader as a role model, is an illustration of one of the methods of the mass media that standardize the life of all sections of bourgeois society at an appropriate level.

(…)

Modern bourgeoisness is the same “autocratic crowd of cohesive mediocrity” with the only difference being that the efforts of the bourgeois media that have developed cunning techniques for the masking of its true essence, it appears to society as a kind of “ideal” that we must strive for, and the standardized super -laughter Submitted as a sample of a genuine citizen.

Systematically planted by bourgeois propaganda, consumerism, and accumulation, apolitism and anti -intellectualism, individualism and herd, standardization and mediocrity find their completion in fear of a new, different from the usual, in adaptability and conformism.

The militant conformism, based on commitment to their own well-being and aversion to social struggle, acquires social significance in fulfilling the ultimate goal of philistinism - to preserve the existing capitalist system.

A. M. Gorky deeply entered the essence of this phenomenon: “Petty Bourgeois would want to live calmly and beautifully, without taking active participation in this struggle, his favorite position is a peaceful life in the rear of the most powerful army.” The commitment to the "peaceful life" and the union with the "most powerful party" makes philistinism the support of the "Establishment".

In crisis situations, as evidenced by historical experience, philistinism, as a rule, provides support for reactionary forces and often becomes susceptible to the ideology of the extreme right, that is, potentially dangerous for democracy and progress.