The «elite–mass» dichotomy in the ideology of the non-systemic opposition of modern Russia

Philosophy

Abstract

The article aims to identify the features of the social opposition between the population and the nonsystemic opposition based on an analysis of the ideology of the latter. The methodological basis of the work was the proposition that a certain social position corresponds to certain points of view and type of thinking (total ideology). Therefore, similar ideological intentions of various groups of non-systemic opposition in relation to the described dichotomy leads to the idea that their social position is also similar. Apparently, these are groups of professional politicians seeking to occupy higher social positions or return to the ones they previously occupied. These groups can also be characterizsed by a high level of qualification resources, which makes it possible to formulate certain ideological constructs, a relatively high level of economic resource, which excludes from their discourse the problem of scarcity of material means of subsistence, inherent in the majority of the population of modern Russia, as well as social isolation, which does not allow them to articulate the interests of other groups to which they do not belong. This leads to the conclusion that the non-systemic opposition represents people from the urban intelligentsia, including the near-elitist intelligentsia, with inflated expectations of their social status. From «to have or to be» they choose the former. Despite their being in opposition, these groups do not seek to blow up or substantially reconstruct the existing social order. Their ideologies cannot be classified as utopias, and the limit of the aspirations of the non-systemic opposition is its own upward vertical social mobility.