Ways to solve the degradation of mass culture. Specifics of individual crops

This is music flowing from popular radio stations; these are books by modern authors; These are the clothes of fashion designers. The list, of course, is far from complete.

If we give definitions, then mass culture is a culture generated by technical progress at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, oriented towards the so-called mass society - a society whose individual elements have almost lost their individuality, including in the choice of consumer products (cultural, social, economic). This concept is characterized by averageness, which applies both to objects and phenomena of a given and to the people for whom they are intended.

Mass culture: pros and cons

So let's start with the positives.

One of the advantages of mass culture is its accessibility. There are many sources of information: from magazines to the Internet - just choose.

Active development of technology and introduction of new technologies.

And, of course, mass culture is a significant reduction or complete absence of censorship in the media, and therefore problems occurring in the world and society can be accessible to a wide audience.

Unfortunately, there are more disadvantages.

Availability has become the reason for the so-called “sexual dominance”. Children under 10 already know sex. Among middle school students, interest often turns into active actions, which contributes to the spread of cases of early pregnancy, as well as pedophilia.

The cultural degradation of society is obvious. For example, young people absolutely do not recognize classical works - musical, literary, artistic. The formation of their worldview is influenced by conveyor belt Hollywood films, rap, glossy magazines and low-grade romance novels and detective stories. It is clear that such products of mass culture determine the consumer’s attitude to life. A social group called “majors” has gained popularity among young people. As a rule, these are pupils and students who spend their parents’ money on various types of entertainment (like expensive cars or nightclubs).

In addition to widespread consumerism, people are becoming incapable of simple analytical activities. They turn into a gray and faceless mass that believes what they are told by TV presenters, politicians, salesmen, etc.

The dominance of the Internet reduces the importance of live communication. And if the mass one still presupposed direct human interaction, then today, in the 21st century, various social networks have become the main habitat of a large number of people. Yes, only the number of “likes” and positive comments under photos has become important. At the same time, the level of literacy in these very comments leaves much to be desired.

In general, of course, it is obvious that popular culture carries more negativity than positivity. On the other hand, I would like to remember those pearls of Soviet and European cinema that Chaplin, Hitchcock, Ryazanov gave us), many talented writers (Grossman, Bulgakov, Platonov), magnificent composers (Tariverdiev, Pakhmutova, Gliere). Therefore, mass culture is not always bad, you just need to be able to find truly good and worthy things in a sea of ​​husk.

Dmitry Novikov, Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation

For two decades now, in Russia, amid empty talk about freedom of creativity, the authorities have been pursuing a policy of cultural degradation.
The state’s attitude towards culture can easily be seen by how it is financed. In the 1990s, failure to implement the state budget became common practice. This affected the cultural sphere first of all. Thus, in 1997, it was only 32% funded. But it didn’t get any better when the “dashing 90s” were left behind.
If you look at the current state budget of the Russian Federation, then much becomes clear in the policies of the current authorities. In 2010, the government removed only 0.73% of all expenses from the “master’s table” for the “Culture and Cinematography” section. And the authorities do not intend to change this approach. When implementing the budget for 2011-2013, culture will receive from 0.77% to 0.62% of its expenditure.

As a percentage of GDP, the Russian government plans to reduce costs in this area from 0.17% in 2010 to 0.12% in 2013. Further cultural degradation in our country is guaranteed. This is the budget policy of the ruling circles. But after twenty years of a monstrous pogrom, our culture needs not just support, but downright restoration. This cannot be achieved without a radical increase in funding.
Objects of historical and cultural heritage are the embodied connection of times. There are about 140 thousand of them in Russia. 25 thousand of them are historical and cultural monuments of federal significance. Regional and municipal authorities are responsible for the rest. Even according to official data, half of them are in unsatisfactory condition, a significant part is ruined. At the same time, the 2000s turned out to be no less “dashing” for our culture than the 90s.
During the first decade of the new century, more than 2.5 thousand historical and cultural monuments were lost. Culture, unlike other areas, practically did not experience even a temporary positive effect from the rise in oil prices in the 2000s. Moreover, the rise of the construction industry in a number of places, especially Moscow, has caused irreparable damage to cultural heritage sites. And this trend continues. While the “party in power” hopes for private capital, practice has proven: a private investor in a capitalist system is almost always an enemy of cultural and historical heritage. The investor is only interested in the return in banknotes as quickly as possible.

According to the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, up to three cultural and historical monuments disappear every day in the country. According to various estimates, from 700 to 1000 historical buildings have been destroyed in Moscow alone since the beginning of the 90s. The situation in Moscow is by no means an exception. In Perm, for example, 45% of historical buildings with the status of valuable environmental objects have been lost. In Samara, 40% of historical monuments were missing. In their place are newly built shopping complexes, business centers, parking lots and luxury housing.
We are no longer talking about the destruction of individual monuments, but about the total destruction of the cultural environment. The loss of material cultural objects is associated with the creeping cultural degradation of the population.
But where, strictly speaking, does the cultural upsurge come from? In the United States, 68% of citizens are enrolled in libraries. And in modern Russia - only every fourth resident of the country. Our opportunities for self-education are constantly shrinking. The number of public libraries in Russia has been steadily declining over the past 20 years. In 1990 there were 63 thousand, and now there are just over 49 thousand. Library collections are rapidly deteriorating. Despite talk about modernization, reading rooms are slow to adopt new technologies: only about 20% of libraries have access to the Internet.

Year after year, the gap between citizens in access to cultural goods increases. The blatant wealth stratification is having a painful effect. The situation is worsening most quickly for residents of small towns and villages. Even in megacities, the financial capabilities of many do not allow them to regularly visit theaters, cinemas, and exhibitions. A so-called elite culture is being formed, to which only the wealthiest have access. According to VTsIOM polls, 25% of Russians have never been to the theater, and 49% “remember that they once went.”
A separate topic is the financial situation of those who work in the cultural sector. Of all categories of public sector employees, the salaries of employees of institutions in this industry are the lowest.
The coming to power of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation will mean the creation of favorable conditions for the preservation and development of the culture of the Russian and all peoples of Russia. The state’s cultural policy will correspond to their fundamental values, including respect for work and knowledge, conscientiousness and self-esteem, protection of the weak, care for children and the elderly. Television and cinema will once again become a source of education for basic moral values, a sense of patriotism and civic responsibility. The development of society will be based on the restoration of free and high-quality education, on ensuring wide access to cultural values ​​for citizens.
Within the first three years of the country’s leadership, the Government of People’s Trust will double spending on the cultural sector and ensure an increase in the salaries of its workers.

Based on materials from the newspaper "Pravda"

Annotation: The article reveals one of the reasons for the degradation of a person’s cultural level. Over time, the decline of mass culture is increasingly felt. Modern society is no longer interested in spiritual self-development; it is more interested in what is happening with famous bloggers and stars.

Throughout the history of the world, man has followed the path of evolution. Having started from primitive primates, we turned into Homo-sapiens. Along with evolution came the development of scientific progress. At first, the first people brandished clubs and spears, and now they wielded machine guns and pistols. But the speed of human development, as well as scientific progress, was not constant. It increased progressively: if the time of transition from the Copper Age to the Iron Age took us thousands of years, then the time of transition from manual labor to machine labor, which is estimated to be no less important, and maybe even more than the first case, took us a couple of hundred years. Thus we see a clear phenomenon of progression.

One of the engines of scientific progress is human laziness. Thanks to the fact that a person throughout his life wants to work less and rest more, almost all devices were invented and almost all laws were discovered. For example, a microwave oven is the result of the work of dozens of scientists. The principles of its operation are based on the use of a large number of physical, chemical and biological laws. And all this just for the sake of warming up a regular lunch. The man didn’t like eating cold food and didn’t want to heat it on the stove, for this reason he thought about how to simplify this process and using the latest developments he invented this device.

But scientific progress gained great momentum, which played a cruel joke. In a short time we have made many great leaps in science, which gave us: computers, the Internet, social networks, etc.

All this has simplified our life beyond belief. Now, to keep abreast of the latest news, you don’t need to go and buy newspapers and magazines; to be fashionable, you don’t need to go to other cities such as Milan, Paris, which were once world centers of fashion. Also, with the development of the Internet, working on the Internet became possible and urgently necessary, which made it possible not to leave home even longer than before. Shopping for goods and food has also become different. Previously, we went to stores and shaved everything on the spot, but now you can just go to the website and buy the product you like in five minutes. Also, due to the rapid development of the Internet, a huge, unprotected flow of information poured in from all sources. In the twenty-first century there is a large overabundance of information that surrounds us. because of this, we no longer needed to obtain information. But as quantity increases, quality suffers. Most of the information that we see is a lie, a canard, skillfully spread by the media, bloggers or ordinary people who wanted fame and glory.

Previously, people used to go to the movies, to the skating rink, or just walk down the street in the evenings; now the average person comes home, lies down on the sofa, and all that interests him is the TV or the phone from his computer to access the Internet.

All this has led to the degradation of society that is now observed. Modern people are no longer interested in poets, writers, composers of bygone eras. They sympathize with modern rappers, bloggers and writers that instead of really well-researched and thoughtful novels that have been written for years, they release modern bestsellers almost every year, dictated by the requirements of the modern era, but the problem is that by releasing such second-rate content on the World Wide Web, they thereby contributing to an even greater decline in the level of development of society, which again lowers the cultural level.

Children now want to become bloggers and rappers, and do everything for a moment of fame, violate criminal and moral laws, voluntarily committing a crime or posting something frank, personal, secret for the public to see. They look at what they like, they subscribe to those they like, and large companies notice this, whose policy is written only to get more profit. They invest in advertising, development and promotion of content that will be popular, which also leads to the cultural degradation of society.

The solution to this problem has long been known, but will people agree to make concessions and self-deprivations to correct this situation? This is one of the eternal questions that is as old as time, but a solution must be found soon, otherwise it will be too late to fix something.

Bibliography

1. Introduction to the course of philosophy: Textbook / Ed. acad. Faizullina F.S. - Ufa: UGATU, 1996. - 239 p.
2. Garanina O. D. History and philosophy of science. Part II.: Study guide. – M.: MGTUGA, 2008. – 136 p.
3. Golubintsev V. O., Dantsev A. A. Lyubchenko V. S. Philosophy for technical universities / ed. V. V. Ilyin. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, - 2001. - 510 p.

Personality and society.

Workshop 2

Society as a sociocultural system. (question from Seminar topic 1)

1 Social interaction: concept, typology of social interaction in areas (economic, political, professional, etc.).

Theories of social interaction

Social exchange theory (D. Homans)

Symbolic INTERACTIONISM(D. Mead, G. Bloomer)

Impression management (E. Goffman)

Psychoanalysis (S. Freud)

PERSONALITY AS A SYSTEM. PROCESS OF SOCIALIZATION OF PERSONALITY.

Practical tasks:

How do the concepts of “personality,” “individual,” and “person” relate?

Give a definition of the concept “personality”.

What is the mechanism of influence of society on the individual and individuals on society? Give a brief description of the views of M. Weber, E. Durkheim, K. Marx on this problem.

Explain J. Mead's theory of personality formation.

Tell us about the theory of the “mirror self” by C. Cooley.

How did S. Freud imagine the personality structure?

What personality types do modern sociologists identify?

What is the “basis of personality”? How does this concept differ from the concept of “basic personality”?

Describe personality structure as the interaction of the biophysiological self and the psychosocial self.

What social mechanisms contribute to the formation of personality?

What is "social control"?

Give a definition of the concept “social status”.

What is a “social role”?

What types of social statuses do you know?

What is a “status set”?

What is a "role set"?

In your opinion, do role expectations and role performance always coincide?

What factors predetermine an individual's performance of a social role?

When does role conflict occur? What is the way out of the conflict?

What is personality socialization? Describe this process.

What forms of socialization do you know?

What is resocialization?

Name the elements of socialization.

What factors of socialization can you name?

Tell us about agents of socialization

List and characterize the periods and stages of socialization

Name the means of socialization.

Creative task:

1.

2. Prepare a round table discussion on the topic Take into account the fact that the socialization of adults often involves clarification, revision and even abandonment of those attitudes that were formed in previous years. In this case, it is customary to talk about resocialization. Resocialization can cover entire sections of society.

Topics for messages and reports:

Sociocultural orientations of modern youth.

Sociological concepts of personality. Cooley, Erikson, Piaget. Mead

The variety of social roles of the individual.

Inequality in society and socialization.

Socialization of personality.

6. What is the essence of E. Durheim’s theory of anomie?

Creative task:

1. Prepare and explain a logic diagram for the topic:

“Factors of socialization of youth”.

2. Prepare a speech on the topic: “The rights and responsibilities of the individual as factors in the relationship between the individual and the social environment.”

3. Socialization of adults often involves clarification, revision and even abandonment of those attitudes that were formed in previous years. In this case, it is customary to talk about resocialization. Resocialization can cover entire sections of society.

Prepare a discussion on the topic "Resocialization of some social groups of modern Belarusian society."

Additional question for discussion (“brainstorming”):

Do all individuals have individuality or is this a characteristic of only talented people?

1. Beketov, N.V. Analysis of the processes of socialization of youth as a factor in the development of modern society / N.V. Beketov // Social problems of modern youth: collection of materials from the international scientific and practical conference (December 3-4, 2008) / Ed. F. Mustaeva. – Magnitogorsk: MaSU, 2008. – 476 p.

2. Anurin, V.F., Kravchenko, A.I. Sociology / V.F. Anurin, A.I. Kravchenko. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2004, p. 222 – 229.

SOCIAL CONTROL

Practical tasks:

Define the concept of “social control”.

List the sanctions of social control

What forms of control does R. Park identify?

List the methods of social control identified by T. Parsons.

What is deviant behavior?

Name the reasons for deviant and delinquent behavior among young people.

What is the difference between deviant and delinquent behavior?

How to distinguish delinquent behavior from criminal behavior?

Can the quirks of some brilliant people be called deviations? Why?

Topics for messages and reports (optional):

1. Value as an element of the mechanism of social regulation.

2. Deviant behavior as a violation of social norms.

3. “Anomie” in society. (based on the work of R. Merton “Social Structure and Anomie”).

Creative task:

1. Describe P. Berger's concept of social control.

2. Prepare a topic for discussion: "The media as tools of indirect soft control."

1. Tikhonova, E.N. Bureaucracy: part of society or its counterparty? / E.N. Tikhonova // Sociological studies. – 2006. – No. 3. – P. 4 – 8.

2. Petukhova, V.V. Bureaucracy and power / V.V. Petukhova // Sociological studies. – 2006. – No. 3. – P. 9 – 15.

3. Dobrenkov, V.I., Kravchenko, A.I. Sociology in 3 volumes. T.3. Social institutions and processes / V.I. Dobrenkov, A.I. Kravchenko - Moscow: INFRA-M, 2000. - 520 p. (The concept of social control by P. Berger on pp. 186 – 192; deviant behavior on pp. 447 – 469).

4. Babosov, E.M. Sociology of personality, stratification and management / E.M. Babosov – Minsk: Bel. Science, 2006. – 591 p.

5. Babosov, E.M. Sociology of management / E.M. Babosov. – Mn.: “TetraSystems”, 2002. – 288 p.

CULTURE AS A SYSTEM OF VALUES AND NORMS.

Practical tasks:

Which sociologist studied culture?

Define the term “culture”.

What are “cultural universals”? Which scientist developed this concept?

State the reasons for the existence of cultural universals and the reasons for differences between cultures.

Give a definition of the concept “civilization”. What interpretations of this concept are offered by various scientists.

List the functions of culture. Explain them.

What two opposing trends do sociologists note in the sociocultural process?

What are ethnocentrism and cultural relativism? Give historical examples of these phenomena.

Name the main structural elements of culture. Tell us about language as an element of culture.

What determines the specificity of individual cultures? What is mentality? What is national character?

Define the terms “cultural progress” and “cultural regression”.

What is “cultural evolution” and “cultural revolution”?

Give specific historical examples of cultural degradation and lag.

Creative tasks:

1. Present your answer to the following question in table form.

Much has been written about sociocultural degradation in the post-Soviet period; it has been studied in sufficient detail; the main drawback of the works is the excessive complexity of the, as they say, “abstruse” presentation. There is a lack of a clear and precise, literally in one phrase, diagnosis of the sociocultural degradation of man and society, obvious to everyone in practice, but not yet clearly explained by theorists. This small article is a feasible contribution to the formulation of the causes of sociocultural degradation.

The main initial reason for the socio-cultural degradation of man and society is the following:

Due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, life begins to be perceived by a person as a given, and not as the current result of a complex process.

As soon as a person begins to perceive his life in this way, the connection between culture, sociality, knowledge and direct, immediate survival disappears.

To the man of the Brezhnev era, and especially the Gorbachev era, it began to seem that no one and nothing OBJECTED to his earthly existence, and if he himself did not offend anyone, then no one would offend him either. This is such a naive Brezhnev principle of “smile symmetry”, which even ended up in children's cartoons.

In fact, of course, the entire material world has taken up arms against man due to the fact of his existence, starting with the simplest, viruses and bacteria, and ending with similarities. There is no “smile symmetry” in the world, but there exists, starting with the simplest, continuing with mammalian predators and ending with governments - the principle “it’s your fault that I want to eat!”

A person does not live simply because he lives. He lives only because someone, even before his birth, prevented Hitler’s invasion, and before that, stood on the Kulikovo Field. Someone created conditions for survival for his parents, someone persuaded or forbade his mother to have an abortion, etc. That is, life is the current (changeable) result of a complex and ambiguous, let’s say, multidirectional process. The main problem for children who grew up, like me, under Brezhnev, was that the CPSU instilled in them the idea of ​​life as a given, life as a constant.

As a result, the type of social degenerate grew up, placing his survival on external forces, wanting to enjoy what he himself, personally, did not conquer and defend. When this type appeared, the greatest catastrophe of the twentieth century became inevitable...

What does cultural degradation have to do with it? I explain through the law of universal interconnection...

+++
Human thought and memory are designed in such a way that they get rid of what is not in demand. What is unnecessary is cleared out.

Otherwise, having cluttered the “attic” with unnecessary things, we will not find a place for what we need. Few humanists remember school lessons in chemistry or trigonometry, although at one time they may have had excellent grades in them. But as the years go by, unclaimed knowledge is pushed aside due to the law of economical thinking.

It cannot be otherwise. Indeed, is it really good to get bogged down in mind, divorced from life, in some inanimate abstractions, in long discussions about nothing that have nothing to do with you? That’s why we forget phone numbers that we haven’t called for a long time, we forget languages ​​that we don’t speak, etc.

Thinkers have long noticed this feature and the necessity of human thinking. The basis of medieval OKCAMISM is the so-called. Occam's Razor, a methodological principle that states:

“You should not attract new entities unless absolutely necessary.”

Ockham himself wrote: “What can be done from a smaller number should not be done from a larger one” and “Variety should not be unnecessarily assumed.” Well, really, think about it: why drive ten tractors to a place where one is enough? Why put an entire division near the warehouse - if one sentry is enough? After all, you can’t supply enough divisions for every warehouse!

Ockhamism played a fatal role in the history of Europe and the world. He split the European consciousness between himself and Catholicism-Thomism. It formed the basis for the “de-Christianization” of European civilization, which is especially noticeable today. That is, he gave birth (probably without wanting it) to an internal killer for European civilization.

But Occamism could not do this if it were not based on highly convincing inferences.

It is impossible to argue with the basic principle of Occamism - the multiplication of entities in the head will lead to both a technical and a qualitative catastrophe: after all, if a person is constantly immersed in thoughts about the unnecessary and superfluous, then, to put it simply, he is crazy...

Therefore, Occamism further formed the basis of new European post-Christian methodological reductionism, also called the principle of frugality, or the law of economy (Latin lex parsimoniae). In economics, this is the liberal market principle of universal self-sufficiency and profitability. Everything is very simple: what is not needed, we delete. Ockham himself wrote that it is wasteful to hire 10 workers for a job that can be easily done by one worker...

But understand the dialectic inherent in Occam's razor: don't multiply unnecessarily! And if necessary, where to go? That is, the non-multiplying of entities is only true if there is no need multiplication.

Now let’s combine the principle of economy of thinking, the principle of getting rid of unnecessary gibberish, with the idea of ​​life as a given, which ignores the complexity of survival processes. What will we get?

You look at the modern liberal degenerate and you will see! Since he takes life for granted, he doesn’t need ANYTHING!

A person wants “EVERYTHING TO BE SIMPLE”, therefore, in his rush to maximum simplicity, he does not want to study, think, or listen. Vegetative existence with a bottle of beer on the sofa does not require even animal mental abilities, not to mention human ones: the reflexes inherent in plants are enough...

But in this comfort of deadly simplicity lies the great deception of “consumerism”: who and why would brew beer for a “vegetable”, pour it into bottles and put it in the hand? Why won’t he be thrown out of the sofa, and thrown out from where the sofa is located - this is, at a minimum, a room, and the cheapest room in Russian cities costs at least a million rubles!

You see, a room, a sofa, and a bottle of beer are all facets of LIVING SPACE, which is essentially a very expensive thing. Think about how many people, starting with the village hop growers, had to work to make your beer?

Therefore, in a normal sociocultural environment, both a sofa and beer are This is not the start of a career, but the end of it. This is the final victorious result of very, very complex processes of self-affirmation of an individual in life, defending one’s rights in the world.

And among degenerates, it’s as if it’s taken for granted, as if no one and nothing wants to take it away...

Well, we get privatization following the results of Brezhnev’s “feast times” and millions of corpses in hastily abandoned graves...

A person surviving in the struggle feels the need for both culture and social knowledge - like a weapon. He needs them in war, and therefore cannot be discarded according to the law of economy of thinking. What is really superfluous, crazy, delusional, absurd, extravagant is separated from them and thrown away.

The process of separating nonsense and nonsense from the necessary knowledge is a complex analytical process, it requires a well-developed and trained consciousness.

The mind of a fighting man is in constant spasm, he is in constant search, As for “relaxation”, it is used rarely, therapeutically, mainly in the evenings before bedtime: lie on the couch, drink alcohol, have a tasty snack, allow yourself the LUXURY of not thinking about anything for an hour or two...

For what? To get up in the morning with new strength and start thinking hard again and absorb useful knowledge!

A person quite justifiably does not want to engage in pretentious, abstruse nonsense, divorced from life - but for an adequate person, culture and social knowledge are not empty speculations divorced from life.

They are the art of confronting a world that kills people, accumulated by generations of ancestors, requiring flexibility and a huge amount of intelligence.

The fact is that every large community of people, be it a state, a nation, a collective or a party, is insidious.

On the one hand, they are necessary for a person (without them, one cannot survive alone) - on the other hand, they do not want to serve you personally. They always strive to USE you as a consumable, to PRIVATIZE the energy of society for someone’s personal selfish purposes, robbing its naive members.

The same can be said about a person. Entering into an insidious community, he himself is insidious: he, too, would like to use the opportunities of society, and not serve it as a consumable.

To prevent a person from being deceived, you need to know everything. For this purpose, humanity created all the humanitarian (and technical too) knowledge - so that a KNOWING person could intercept in time a forgery, manipulation of consciousness, a setup, a trap, a trap...

There is nothing given in life, these are fairy tales of grandfather Brezhnev and the decrepit, weak-minded CPSU in old age. No one will snatch life from the world for you; everyone who leaves brings relief to those who remain: there are fewer contenders for the benefits!

The dead are forgotten the next day, and history stores barely a million percent of the names of people who once lived, existed, and for the most part - not the best representatives of the human race (those who committed some kind of unimaginable atrocity, even by earthly standards).

We are doomed to fight as part of one super-large community against another super-large community, and at the same time remember that our community is by no means a reliable rear for us, that there are fermenting Masonic processes of local conspiracies going on inside (like the enemy), etc.

In order to keep in mind the entire dialectic of human relations, you need to keep in mind the entire world culture, understand and accept all its lessons and observations, take into account all its memorizations.

The sociocultural degros for whom “EVERYTHING IS SIMPLE” does not understand any of this. Of course, if you don’t intend to live and continue the family line, everything is really simple, who would argue?

It’s easy to die and everyone around you will help, because they need your space of benefits and resources... To the dying person, all are friends: they forget the grievances, since “that’s it,” and they hope for a share in the will, and take a warm place when they are free...

But as soon as a dying person recovers (Russia after the 90s), protuberances of rage, hatred, greedy predation, showdowns and litigation, struggle and setups immediately swirl around...

A bid for life is a serious bid. The sociocultural degenerates that our youth are made of will not be accepted...

Khoruzhaya S.V. diagnoses this in a serious scientific work: “The concept of “sociocultural degradation” covers two sides of a single process, when the destruction, entropy of the “social” is accompanied by primitivization, the destruction of the “cultural.” A decrease in the level of complexity, development, system-hierarchical structuring, multifunctionality of any socio-cultural system as a whole, its individual elements or subsystems can be complete or partial. Thus, there is hidden degradation when a stably (in the economic and political spheres) developing society contains a culturally integrative “core” (a strictly structured, hierarchized system of value orientations, forms and norms of sociocultural organization and regulation, recognized by the overwhelming majority of the population), which, however , in its qualitative parameters does not correspond to the true nature of man, the fundamental principles of humanism.

2. Degradation occurs both at the level of lowering the objective status of a person, his place in the system of social connections, and at the level of his spirit, culture, loss of moral foundations and norms learned in the process of primary socialization of values, meanings, meanings of his own existence. These processes are inextricably linked with each other and actually constitute two sides of a single process, mutually conditioning and reinforcing each other.

At the level of society, degradation manifests itself as stagnation of economic, political, spiritual life, stagnation, moral decay, societal crisis, etc.

Degradation is associated primarily with the growing processes of marginalization of the population, the erosion of dominant cultural attitudes, the decline in the authority of leading sociocultural institutions, the narrowing of the scope of historically established and socially acceptable patterns of behavior enshrined in the cultural tradition and institutional standards, and the expansion of the influence of marginal forms of culture.

If a certain phenomenon can be solved in two ways: for example, the first - through the involvement of A, B and C, or the second - through A, B, C and D, and both methods give an identical result, then the first solution should be considered correct. Entity D in this example is superfluous: and its involvement is redundant.