Chauvinism

 

Chauvinism in psychology is an idea based on the belief of the superiority of one's group over all others, which, according to the chauvinist, gives him the right to discriminate, humiliate and destroy all those who are not part of his community. The foundation of this ideology is hatred and contempt for minorities, outsiders, dissidents and non-believers.

It was chauvinism that became the basis of Nazism in Nazi Germany. Endowing their nation with special value and significance, the Nazis showed xenophobia towards Jews, and then through propaganda they designated communism as an enemy and utopian regime dangerous to the world order. As a result, the "right to violence against lower groups of people" made it possible to justify the atrocities committed on the territory of other States. The term comes from the name of a soldier in Napoleon's army. It is not known for certain whether he actually existed, but legend has it that a certain Nicolas Chauvin was an ardent admirer of Napoleon's imperial thinking and supported all his ideas. He allegedly expressed a desire to fight with the whole world for his emperor, while he himself was extremely poor, incompetent, disabled and insulted. Thus, the ideology of conformism formed the basis of chauvinism, when a weak, involuntary and unable to achieve person joins a strong group, feeding on its successes. In return, I am ready to follow the "emperor" into fire and water, and to get at least some success, an enemy is required. Preferably a small number, unable to fight back, in order to rise above at least someone through humiliation and submission. What is chauvinism?

From all of the above, it becomes clear that it does not matter at all to a chauvinist what sign to use to classify himself as a strong group and realize hatred against other communities. Most often, they act on national, gender, or religious grounds. National chauvinism

National chauvinism is the path that Hitler chose to mobilize society. The wounded and exhausted people, who received a dose of humiliation as a result of the First World War and poverty, were looking for a way to get rid of the emotions of anger. Adolf turned out to be the man who made it possible to feel great at the expense of humiliating and suppressing everyone else. So the talk about the superiority of the Aryan race turned out to be very useful. And the contempt and ridicule of the Jewish people, who became the absolute enemy of every fascist, helped to pour out all the anger. Thus, a critical drop in self-esteem, combined with emotional and physical discomfort, has become an excellent springboard for generating chauvinism. The victory over the "weak" was supposed to increase Hitler's authority, and the people simply no longer felt inferior. But, as you know, nothing good came of this idea. Male chauvinism

Male chauvinism is more often used in psychology. The above applies more to political science and history, but here we see a completely absurd train of thought. A person suffering from the same "diseases" in the form of critically low self-esteem and feelings of insult decides not to look for difficult ways and seeks his superiority in the most accessible, namely that he is a man. Anger and rage are directed at members of another group, that is, women. Male chauvinism is a form of misogyny that is based on the contempt of the fairer sex. An idea arises to ban, restrict, subjugate, humiliate, and insult people around you based on their gender. A woman has no right, she is obliged to meet expectations, to be submissive.

Female chauvinism

Many psychologists are still afraid to openly talk about the existence of female chauvinism, and this is primarily due to the active resistance of feminists. It is important to understand that the struggle for women's rights is a good thing, but it often leads to a violation of the personal boundaries of the stronger sex. For example, Betty Friedan, who is also a feminist, spoke negatively about the topic of female superiority in anything. Trying to find the facts that a representative of the fairer sex is much better than any man is obvious chauvinism. Therefore, misandry is also an unhealthy way to protect your rights. As the experience of psychologists shows, most of the problems of girls are not that men are dangerous and good for nothing, but that they deliberately associate with "bad guys" to compensate for their complexes. And not wanting to treat their psyche, they simply blame their partner for all the troubles. And when a series of failures drives the mind to despair, revanchist moods set in, the desire to take revenge and succeed in order to save their self-esteem. The victims of anger emotions are men who want to restrict their rights, subjugate, devalue, humiliate, ridicule. The mechanism of chauvinism from its origin to its realization

Chauvinism is not a self-sufficient structure, it is always based on other reactions and fears. Simply put, low self-esteem and lack of real success become the foundation, then fear and emotional discomfort arise, a state of frustration that generates emotions of anger, and only then the search for a strong group, hatred of dissenters and outsiders. In the end, we see real actions, which is a big problem for society and in particular for representatives of a small group of people, the very victims of chauvinism. Now about everything in a little more detail. A critical drop in self-esteem

Hate, as a feeling, is not available to a self-sufficient and happy person. To understand this process, it is enough to study the work of the psyche at the freshman level. The emotion of anger arises as a result of discomfort, which in turn appears as a result of negative external and internal signals. These may be destructive beliefs, such as those imposed by parents in childhood (it's not for you, you're stupid, you can't do it, you can't do it, all children are like children, and you're a jerk), or there may be actual failures. I can't earn money, beautiful girls don't give me a bad back, I can't get treatment, the apartment is small, the roads are broken, there's garbage outside the window, there's smoke in the entrance, I couldn't cope with the tasks, I didn't make any progress in my career.. From whom, we only record a clear negative signal for the psyche from the outside world. When there are too many such signals, internal or external, and sometimes both at once, self-esteem cannot withstand the pressure and collapses like a house of cards. This is a person who subconsciously perceives himself as a loser and can no longer defend himself from the pressure of his own emotions. He's looking for salvation in something.

Crowd attraction

What happens when a person no longer sees the resources inside himself? That's right, he starts looking for them in the outside world. A girl wants to get married successfully, a man joins an organized crime group or agrees to marry a businessman's daughter. Not being able to find a job and self-actualize, there is a desire to become a state employee, because the state always has money. There are a lot of examples here, but the meaning is always the same - against the background of a critical drop in self-esteem, an individual is drawn to a strong group. At this stage, he is a ready conformist. And there's still nothing wrong with that, maybe you'll join a team of successful entrepreneurs or find yourself surrounded by active people. Then, at their expense, it will be possible to push off from the bottom, feel support and support, take a break and relax, so that very soon, in a state of calmness, you can find your talents and skills, and then apply them for personal growth. But more often things happen differently.. Hypercompensation at the expense of the group

Once in a society that is strong, in a person's opinion, he immediately begins to increase his self-esteem using its resources. And here there is a cognitive distortion called "egoistic error." An individual loudly proclaims his greatness, compensates for his low self-esteem with successes, but since there are still no friends, he brags about others. Those achieved by his group. It is right to be proud of your compatriots, it is important to remember their victories, and it is quite reasonable to use their achievements in everyday life. Well, how can you give up Pushkin's fairy tales? Is it really possible to devalue the works of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy? Will it be possible to erase Yuri Gagarin's flight into space from memory? It would be a mistake to turn the page and classify it as insignificant. But it is important not to start telling the whole world that the novel "War and Peace" was written by us, and some abstract US flew off the planet Earth on a rocket. Chauvinists make this mistake and, having joined the crowd, elevate their personality to the status of the great. Men are foaming at the mouth to prove to women that all the best is created by the hands of the stronger sex, and the ladies are so, a free application. The girls themselves find their heroines and, on this basis, begin to devalue men. The American considers himself a representative of a great nation, remembering the victory in the Second World War. The Russians are joining the conflict to prove that the Red Army put an end to Hitler. The German is proud that after going through fascism and suffering, the nation has recovered and achieved the highest standard of living. And behind all this pathos, we forget about honoring the real heroes, those who wrote great works, reached outer space, and stopped evil by destroying the fascists. The result is a rather absurd situation where two people are vying to shout "it's us" in a dispute, although neither one has anything to do with the subject of the dispute. Respecting other people's achievements and being proud of the fact that a successful person lived in your country, was a representative of the same nation, the same gender or religion is healthy and useful. But as soon as you start saying "we", the door to chauvinism opens in front of you. And you probably won't even notice the next step. Little victories of little people

This is how a chauvinist goes a long way in trying to get rid of the feeling of inferiority. He has already covered it with other people's successes, has joined a strong crowd, but "you can't win the war with past victories," you need to do something to strengthen your community and recognition from others. Everyone should know that you are great, not just because you belong to a certain category, but also because you are a very influential person in your own right. A typical conformist society is unable to compete with a group of strong, self-sufficient and successful people. There are no resources for this. All they have is the determination to follow their leader to the end, and he is obliged to bring victories. And he does this, only defeating, as a rule, the weak, the small, the lonely, the representatives of minorities. Or even "sells" past achievements. Artificially created enemies are sought among those who are unable to fight back. This is how the "witch hunt" begins.

The tragedy of the chauvinist is that a strong group turns out to be an illusion. Those whom he considers his companions and those whose successes he has put on himself tend to turn away with disgust. And the defeated, though defeated, remain self-sufficient and free people. As a result, one day the leader will not be able to bring another "Victoria", the chauvinist himself will have to step in. But he's incapable of that. A particular man who considers himself worthy of respect and honor just because he is a man will not hide from reality, in which he cannot do anything that other representatives of the stronger sex have done. Proudly exclaiming "we" at the mention of Yuri Gagarin will not be able to repeat the success and shamefully lose all the achievements of Soviet cosmonautics. After 200 years, the heirs of great poets will continue to mention Pushkin and Tolstoy, simply because they will not be able to offer anything new to world literature. And so that one day you don't have to say, "excuse us, Yuri, Lev Nikolaevich and Alexander Sergeevich, we're all about...Lee: "it is necessary to get rid of chauvinism, stop looking for enemies, vilify minorities and humiliate dissidents. For a healthy person, there is a point of growth in all this; for a chauvinist, it is only a tool to save oneself from one's own inferiority.