Hacker News Reader

Comment by Demiurge | Hacker News Reader

>you can't understand it with intellect and can only believe in it (which is a classic bit of Russian poetry internalized by pretty much everyone)

It's not poetry, it's a self critical fable. It's so obvious too, "you can't understand it" because it's not logical. This is in line with everyone being proud of how Russian roads are the worst in the world. This particular attitude of being exceptional, regardless if it's exceptionally corrupt or drunk, is perpendicular to the concept of exceptionalism by the virtue of being chosen by God as special people. The concept of American self-righteousness does not exist in Russia the way it does in US.

>Putin has the knack for coming off as fairly reasonable to the western audience, but to someone who was born and raised in the former Soviet Union this reads like something from the Onion.

I'm curious, were you born and raised in the former Soviet Union?

View on HN

I was born in the former Soviet Union, and I get what you're saying. But you can't seriously say that Russian exceptionalism isn't used in service of rationalizing the belief that the Russians are better people than the rest of the world. Consider the popularity of Zadornov's humor -- the gist of almost every joke is that foreigners are dumber than the Russians.

Also this might be nitpicking, but Americans don't typically believe that they were chosen by god as special people. They typically believe that they're special people because they themselves made it happen (which IMO is largely true).

Of course nationalism exists and is used in Russia. This is true for every country, but I honestly think, having experience with English, American and Spanish cultures, through their media and people as friends, that Russian exceptionism is the most self-denigrating I have ever experienced. On and on people go on how everything is better everywhere else, how everything is shit here in Russia and needs to be copied from some Western example.

Jon Stewart, arguably a much better and more intelligent comedian than Zadornov, makes much more ignorant jokes (vodka/bears/Putin) about Russia than Zadornov, whos jokes in part play on the fact that Westerners simply don't have to be smart about some things because they don't deal with 3rd world problems. A lot of people who like Zadornov know this and are crying through tears.

> On and on people go on how everything is better everywhere else, how everything is shit here in Russia and needs to be copied from some Western example.

It's a bit complicated. Both Russian disgust towards ethnitities they consider inferior, and their bloated exceptionalism are manifestations of massive national inferiority complex that nearly everyone there suffers from.

Americans too have Zadornov type comedians http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_the_Cable_Guy for example.

>but Americans don't typically believe that they were chosen by god as special people.

very funny. That's what American Exceptionalism is pretty much about if you listen to the right of the political spectrum.

Russian superiority views are a relic of the empirical past. Every empire-forming nation has that same trait - us versus barbarians.

UK has this trait also and it is well illustrated in "Great Britain".

Russia might have been a great place to live, if it weren't for rampant corruption. It's sad, but on a personal level, I just can't take the risk of raising a family there or trying to do business. In US, entrepreneurship carriers financial and psychological risks, but in Russia it carriers very real physical harm risks, in addition to vastly greater financial risks.

It isn't relic. Just like coffeemug I was born and raised in the Soviet Union.

It's not openly taught in schools but most ethnic Russians consider themselves higher race and everyone else is intellectually inferior.

This is even taught by Russian Orthodox Church. I graduated from high school after Soviet Union collapsed. We had this course called Christian Morality. In the class room I learned curious thing. It turned out that Jews drank blood of innocent Christian infants during their religious rituals. I am not kidding you.

Russian exceptionalism is outright nationalism and borderline nazism. My own father is openly hostile Ukrainians and Pols (other Slavic people). Why? Well, because they are Ukrainians and Pols and are not Russian. Therefore, it makes them half-human.

Soviet and Russian empires are long gone. But Putin and many Russians still dream to restore it.

"Christian morality" in shools is something introduced very recently which means whatever you actually got before that is unsolicited and random. No need to project that on the whole society. Same regarding your father - you can find people like that everywhere.

"most ethnic Russians consider themselves higher race and everyone else is intellectually inferior" Do you have any proof for that except for what your father thinks? Like sociologic studies or something?

> UK has this trait also and it is well illustrated in "Great Britain".

This is a common misconception. The "Great" part it not meant in the sense of it being important or excellent. Rather, it refers to the size of the island.

The name "Great Britain" has been around since the UK was a wet and rainy corner of the Roman Empire - in a sense, it is a relic of an empirical past... just not the British Empire.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com