The Russians Are Not Citizens, But Slaves: Trapped in Learned Helplessness Syndrome

Russians are not citizens, but slaves, suffering from a syndrome of learned helplessness, compensating for their civic degradation with aggression and "proud patriotism."

They don't vote. "They'll decide for us anyway!" They don't protest. "They'll disperse us anyway!" They don't fight for their rights. "At least we are alive." 140 million people are in a state of somnambulism, on the verge of losing their survival instinct.

They hate power but are pathologically afraid of change. They perceive injustice and uncertainty, yet despise civil rights activists. They hate bureaucrats and the government, but support total state interference in all areas of life. They fear the police but want more police control in the country. They feel betrayed but trust television.

They chant the mantra "As long as there's no war," but secretly rejoice in war. They are victims with a sense of general superiority, unwilling and unable to change anything.

For those ashamed of the present and fearful of the future, the past is all that remains to boast about. If people have no reason to love their country, at least they hate others. If they can't change their own lives, they destroy the lives of others.

After more than a century of annihilating intelligence, murdering it, and driving it out of the country, the majority of Russian society today consists of an imperial mob, and that won’t disappear even if the strongmen decide to remove Putin and replace him with another "tsar."

Russia would remain a bloodthirsty monster, and the "deep people" would support its atrocities. When their miserable lives mean nothing, they at least want to feel part of a great nation, of powerful, feared Russia – and that’s enough to make them happy.