The mass consciousness should not be particularly concerned with the search for the true truth, if only because information flows today have become larger and faster, so it is more difficult for the population to process them in the search for truth. The mass consciousness is more likely to believe the truth that is closer to it. It even lives in the “world” of its own truth, which there is no one especially to check for authenticity.

“Truth” is a word that reflects not reality, but the reality that someone needs. This reality is created “to order” on purpose. This is how political strategists prepare elections for the right candidate, advertisers sell their goods, PR people promote a fragment of reality needed for a particular task. Exaggerating, we can say that reality is often created to match the “truth” promoted by someone. After all, all revolutions are built on the conflict of truths: the government and the people...

The world is, in principle, controlled by changing “stories and pictures” about it, promoted into mass consciousness. Education and big media do this for the powerful picture of the world. Education is for new generations, media is for older people. At the same time, they must be synchronized: the picture of the world of the younger generation cannot contradict the picture of the world of the older generation. Then the arguments in the apartment would not cease.

In principle, the world is often woven not from the truth that we see with our own eyes, but from the truth that is told or shown to us... The pros and cons of both are clear. But even the truth before your eyes can be reality, or it can turn out to be a dramatization. Someone else's “truth” is always considered fiction if it contradicts mine.

There are many truths today, which is why it is so difficult to figure out what is real among them. The USSR published the newspaper "Pravda" (there was also "Komsomolskaya Pravda"), but everyone understood that they were reading the official truth, which may not always coincide with reality.

The Internet has dealt a strong blow to the truth, as the number of sources claiming that only they have the truth has sharply increased. Social media is also more likely to be more reliable than official media. The newspaper "Pravda" was an organ of the Central Committee, that is, official, and some website is the organ of just a person, which, of course, brings him closer to the audience. He will always be closer to the interests of his reader.

The Pravda newspaper saw the world in such a way that everyone else could not contradict it; their opinions inevitably became fictions. The truth of the Pravda newspaper was protected by the authorities. This is a very important function, since there is no one to answer for the truth of social media.

If some “gun” shoots better than others, it always ends up in the hands of the authorities. For this reason, power immediately began to seize the Internet, bringing it under its banner. The history of the origin of the “love” of the Internet and power in the case of Russia today is becoming an object of study.

Recently, by the way, Russia arrested one of the creators of the Russian Internet, Alexei Soldatov. 1990 is the time of that first sign: “The first connection of the USSR to the Internet occurred on August 28, 1990, when Relcom programmers exchanged emails with the University of Helsinki in Finland. The isolated Soviet Union, thanks to Relcom, was now connected to the global Internet. Network " Relkom quickly expanded, and many began to use the word "Relkom" as a replacement for the words "Internet" or "e-mail". It was a very anti-Soviet idea - to connect people both within the country and with the outside world - without any authorization from above the Soviet Union. was a country where hierarchy was everything and where any action required mandatory prior permission. The first political test for Relkom was the coup organized by the KGB in August 1991. The KGB blocked and banned traditional media, but allowed the nascent Internet to pass. , in Vladikavkaz, but when he called his people at the Kurchatov Computer Center, he talked about only one thing: keep the line open" [1].

And from here follows a simple conclusion: the Internet had its own role in the counter-coup. The new structure (the Internet) turned out to be able to interfere with the old one (the KGB).

Internet sites and newspapers, as a younger version of the media, on the one hand, are less censored while the authorities are just getting used to them. For this reason, it is more interesting for people to read it. Television has long been mastered by the authorities; there can be nothing accidental in it, which is often of interest to the reader/viewer due to less censorship.

In Russia it was a period of thought that was created by Surkov and Pavlovsky. But thoughts are difficult to censor as they begin to “multiply.” Today's television does not need this kind of thinking.

A. Loshak, for example, recalls the past like this: “Gleb Pavlovsky was a court political strategist for a long time, subjected to ridicule by the liberal media, until the presidential administration broke his contract. After his dismissal, Pavlovsky went into opposition. The niche of the main propagandist on the RuNet was taken by Konstantin Rykov. Pavlovsky [says]: “Kostya Rykov proposed all the time some projects, but they were not interesting to me, because they were propaganda. Demonstrative, with tricolor flags, “Russia, forward”, “roar the thunder of victory” - this style was introduced by Kostya. And then [this style] developed so much that they no longer needed Kostya, now everyone can do it. Fortunately, I left the administration in April 2011, I no longer had anything to do with the future" [2].

The Internet essentially undermined the harmonious model of proper communications. Relatively speaking, if instead of one “truth” many appear, then the mass consciousness is at a loss. It is accustomed to the fact that others always make this choice for it. And apostates from the “party line” are generally branded. And what to do when there are more such apostates than the lone line of the party, that is, the authorities?..

The Internet, like any other media, eventually also began to help the authorities, since it is they who turn out to be the main one in the market of communication technologies. The main "control" lies not in who speaks, but in who transmits, since the transmission process can be controlled by promoting the right speakers, as well as by controlling the distribution. The national mentality says that the boss is always right. Let us also remember the social truth: he who is right is not right. and the one who has more rights.

Reality is woven from many individual fictions, that is, from the “quanta” of an individual vision of the situation. At the same time, we call these fictions, since everyone sees something different, as in the parable of the blind men who, leaning against some part of the elephant, tried to describe it. And all their descriptions were different. The authorities can emphasize one of them, convincing everyone that this is the truth, and the opposition another.

The truth is always dangerous for power. The advent of the Internet as the emergence of at least partially independent media constantly proves this. Television is such a comfortable “info-prison” where nothing can happen that is not permitted in advance. The Internet tries to live its own life, which sometimes it succeeds.

Power and censorship are twin brothers. And this is understandable, since the one who pays calls the tune... And censorship is the tool that always fits into the model of power.

Money is the quietest tool, but very effective. For a Russian example: “In the mid-2000s, the Kremlin’s money poured into online media and blogs: the authorities realized the potential of the Internet. One of the first who managed to sell the Kremlin the idea that the network could be used for state propaganda was Konstantin Rykov - a young Internet punk, who launched the “countercultural” site “Fak.ru”, where users joked and masterfully swore at each other in deliberately distorted Russian (this was called “Albanian”, and the users themselves were called “bastards” About the Internet in those years). they joked that he worked on the principle of “two girls per hour”: in order to load a page with erotic photographs on a porn site, he had to sit in front of the screen for an eternity. Several sites with erotica and dating belonged to Konstantin Rykov. This dirty traffic he, according to the recollection of his ex. colleagues, came up with the idea to redirect it to the news media he created - and offered this resource to the Kremlin. This is how the publication “Dni.ru” appeared. In 2004, Maxim Kononenko became its main one" [3].

Counter-propaganda does not have to be a deception; it is enough for it to demonstrate the other side of a phenomenon or simply criticize other people’s sources of information... And the mass consciousness will automatically begin to turn away from this latest “fiction.” We were gradually taught that everything could turn out to be untrue, and this was especially intensified during the war.

Untruths have become truths on the Internet because it seems to us that they can be less controlled by the state. However, the state can control not only networks, but also people. And he has not only the negative tools of the ban, but also the positive tools in the form of financing. And the old truth says that he who pays calls the tune...

A person actively surrounds himself with fictions. Fictions can be very rich in various symbolism. Behind them there is always a reference to something larger, examples of which can be either a pioneer tie or an order. Fictions are tied to a certain system of domination. Great battles are fought under the banners of fiction. Let us recall the problem from fiction that divided the country: which side should an egg be broken on? This is an exaggerated situation. But in essence, we are always looking for advice... From basic ones, like how to store or prepare something, to complex ones: who will we vote for...

Fiction is convenient; it is a practical substitute for any value. Fiction is dangerous because it carries away the masses, being a bright “trick” for mass consciousness. A person attacks another person in a struggle for virtual values. That is, virtuality defeats reality.

Communicative space is a way of modeling the world using elements to which language has given designations. A new world can only begin with a new language. By the way, any changes and renamings are characteristic of every change in the political system. The list of heroes and enemies immediately becomes different. Past enemies can be declared heroes, and heroes - enemies. Streets and squares change their names, monuments are toppled from their pedestals. I remember one sculptor wrote that monuments should be made with unscrewing heads, so that they don’t have to be torn down and new ones erected. The toppling of monuments always marks a new era.

A person is such a weakly organized organism in which everything: there is action and inaction, right and wrong steps. But at the same time, the right ones can turn out to be dangerous, and the wrong ones - not dangerous, as a result of which the chaotic component of our existence is constantly growing.

The 1937 version pulled out not the worst, but the best from history. It is propaganda that makes heroes out of ordinary people, and gods out of heroes.

At a new stage - information - we are returning to the tools of propaganda, since this is a more powerful type of influence. A strong player, and the state by definition is one, can easily convey its point of view to millions. And right away. Moreover, the advent of artificial intelligence has brought new opportunities for this. It's like a power versus truth equation, and in most cases it is resolved in favor of power. It just easily fakes the truth.

Today, an individual can bring his own truth to the masses, one example of which is Arestovich. His essentially individual media has become mass media. But he is a living person with his own prejudices; in that old time, past media were still collective, that is, more controlled with their bosses and censorship.

Traditional television is a more conservative communication channel. It is collective and hierarchical. Being more financially costly, it always “migrates” under the wing of the authorities. We are talking about current information, but TV shapes the way we think, our cognitive mechanisms are created by it. This information flow creates our thinking patterns, new research shows. Therefore, people formed by Soviet television continue to watch, relatively speaking, the “anti-Soviet” television of today.

Our current discourse is not particularly related to strategic objectives. Only those who prepare in advance, who have specific goals in their heads set by higher structures or “bosses” have them. We "shoot" at random. The institution of “authorities”, and they are people whom we are ready to believe in advance, can make fictions reality.

Communication always exaggerates, keeping attention on one object; telecommunication does this doubly, since it acts as a “collective organizer.” A fiction known to everyone becomes reality. It materializes in our heads.

A. Malgin writes: “Propaganda has become a weapon of mass destruction. And it is not necessarily aimed at the enemy. Both one’s own population and world public opinion are being processed with propaganda. The enemy is persuaded to stop resistance and surrender; for one’s own population and one’s army, the enemy is dehumanized; they are trying to persuade the international audience on their side. No one will ever call themselves a “victim of propaganda.” Everyone is sure that they came to their conclusions on sensitive issues on their own. But in fact, all of us, without exception, are targets for sophisticated specialists in processing public opinion. are often formed as a result of manipulation. After all, you can manipulate not only lies, but also truthful information, and the most effective move is a skillful mixture of truth and lies" [4].

Humanity has always lived in a system of collective truths. Education and media work for this. Education does this in the minds of the young, the media does this in the minds of those who are older. The official return of ideology in Russia led to the rewriting of school textbooks. Those who speak different truths are immediately included in the list of “foreign agents”, and if earlier for this it was necessary to receive, for example, foreign grants, now they are recognized as simply being under foreign influence, which can be attributed to anyone...

Ideology has returned, but Soviet ideology was built more as a goal, still unattainable, and the current one justifies the present. These are, as it were, two ideologies - one is the ideology of the future, and the second is the present.

The USSR has always paid great attention to mass consciousness. Everything and everyone had to be directed towards a single goal set by the party. This was a separate production. So ideology also became a productive force.

Stalin said at a meeting with writers: “All the country’s production is connected with your production. A person is processed in life itself. But you will also help remake his soul. This important production is the souls of people. And you are the engineers of human souls. As Comrade Olesha aptly put it... That’s why we’ll drink to the writers!” [5].

Individual writing should have been made collective. In principle, this was the idea of ​​the Writers' Union. Everyone must work as a team. The team must be responsible for the individual worker. This is the idea of ​​the manager Stalin...

Accounting and control had to penetrate into individual work. Otherwise it becomes less manageable.

“The expression was remembered and began to appear often in newspaper articles about Soviet writers. Having migrated into oral speech. However, in the creative environment, engineers of human souls were pronounced with some irony. In all likelihood, these words impressed Stalin, as a former seminary student. Reminiscent of a quote from the Bible. When Jesus, passing by the Lake of Galilee, saw the fishermen Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets. Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will teach you how to become fishers of men.”[6]

The world of a manager is different from the world of a worker. The manager wants to strengthen his control, from which the employee leaves. Each of them considers himself to be the main one in this chain.

The same situation is present in the “control” of the masses: “The main paradox of the “engineering of the soul” is that it combines the complete alienation of the “author’s work” with an orientation towards absolute non-alienation, towards the complete “mastery” of the totality that tunes and processes the subject. If the modernist author is looking for in the depths of his own soul, what he could give his soul to is the immanent transcendental, then the Soviet, transferring his soul to external control, at the same time moves in a spiral of “increasing mastery and assimilation” of the force that initially sets the pattern of his movement. Problem in. the fact that such a tautology does not allow us to verify the completeness and finality of the subject’s coincidence with this force; any approach to completeness may turn out to be a type of deviation that is subject to complete processing here, the destruction of subjectivity is carried out through the hyperbolization of the subject who has overcome individualism" [7].

Putin is a manager, so he is also obsessed with control. And therefore he should be concerned not only with what is today, but also with what will happen tomorrow. Even when he leaves. This is a painful topic for him. But she is present. After all, war is also a view of the world in the situation after Putin, who wants to become “the builder of the Russian land.” Analysts are also concerned about this:

"The question of Putinism after Putin has become much more relevant. The chances that this political structure will survive Putin are now higher than before. This is due to sanctions and adaptation to them. When such a regime adapts to sanctions, it is preserved, and this conservation can lead to long-term, extended Putinism. Elites are formed, they are bound by this war, by the bonuses that this war gave them; it raised them to the upper floors of the elite ladder. They do not see the possibility of any compromise with the West, because the West does not. will accept them as a party to this compromise" [8].

The war has changed so many hierarchies - both within the country and outside it - that building a new world order is quite possible. K. Rogov thinks about the future in this way: “as a basic one, at the moment, it makes sense to consider the inertial scenario, in which the regime is able to cope with imbalances, experience even a significant deterioration in the economic situation compared to today, and effectively manage repression and political risks. For The regime lacks critical threats both from the front and from the economy and social situation inside Russia. In the inertial scenario, this is a long military Putinism, the end of which is not visible from today. That is, repression, economic bravado, hysterical turbo-patriotism, endless national projects, Solovyov. -Simonyan, gray schemes, military cemeteries, import substitution, banned performances and books, conversations about important things and the murder of drinking buddies by the “heroes of the Northern Military District” due to suddenly flared up hostility [9].

Structures and people cope with difficulties differently. Structures want to keep their status quo unchanged, but people understand that this is impossible. Every difficult trial brings change as a result.

However, Chinese wisdom says: God forbid you live in times of change... (Confucius)

Literature

1. Soldatov A. et al. The Kremlin imprisoned the father of the Russian Internet: the regime punishes those who built modern Russia https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/07/25/kreml-posadil-v-tyurmu-ottsa- rossiiskogo-interneta-rezhim-nakazivaet-teh-kto-postroil-sovremennuyu-rossiyu-a137769

2. Loshak A. History of the Runet. Beginning: from two girls per hour to Putin https://www.svoboda.org/a/30204033.html

3. The official jester is me https://holod.media/2024/06/26/maksim-kononenko/

4. Malgin A. Flags on the towers https://www.svoboda.org/a/flagi-na-bashnyah-andrey-maljgin-ob-informatsionnoy-voyne/33041949.html

5. “The human soul is an interesting commodity”: how Stalin instructed Soviet writers https://tass.ru/obschestvo/4676408

6. Engineers of human souls - history of expression https://dzen.ru/a/YERl6Z6aVzXB9mVP

7. Faybyshenko V. From engineer of the soul to engineers of souls: the history of one production // New literary review. No. 152 https://www.nlobooks.ru/magazines/novoe_literaturnoe_obozrenie/152/article/20026/

8. Medvedev S. Kirill Rogov: “The chances are high that Putinism will outlive Putin.” Interview https://www.svoboda.org/a/kirill-rogov-vysoki-shansy-chto-putinizm-perezhivet-putina-/33043242.html

9. Rogov K. Long military Putinism: how long will it last and how will it end. Realities and projections https://re-russia.net/expertise/0161/