Ukrainian professor, political scientist, adviser to four presidents of Ukraine Dmitry Vydrin called Russia and the United States different planets and expressed his opinion about why Russians and Americans will never understand each other.
“The American way of thinking is deeply empirical. Americans believe in the eyes and hands more than logic and sophistry,” Vydrin said in an interview with Ukraine.ru, adding that this explains that the United States does not have a strong philosophical tradition.
According to the professor, that is why it is enough for American politicians to show a bottle of “white powder” to send troops into Iraq.
At the same time, the Russians, as Vydrin said, are civilizationally closer to deductive thinking, that is, from the general to the particular. “The Russian most often tries to understand the essence of things, starting from an idea, concept, theory. Even his religion is essentially a theory of the common good,” the political scientist explained, noting that an American will always rely on personal, practical and specific experience, so their religion is a religion of personal success.
The professor gave another example at the everyday level. According to him, Russians avoid platitudes and if they want to joke, the name has to be witty and paradoxical. Therefore, Russian comedies are a play of meanings. And for Americans, to joke, it is enough to just tickle someone, so their comedies are a game of the simplest motor skills.