In 1974, an outstanding Soviet mathematician and psychologist Vladimir Lefebvre emigrated to the United States. There, he modified and reinforced the practice of his theory about the existence of two ethical systems, each of which defines the Western and non-Western society.
What the differences between these systems? In the first (Western) ethical system, a compromise between good and evil is evil, and confrontation is good. In the second (Eastern) system, a compromise of good and evil is good, and confrontation is evil.
Paradoxically, that the representatives of the Western ethical systems tend to reach a compromise with the rival, and the representatives of the Eastern come into on a principal conflict. The first (Western) system is based on the formal prohibition of evil (the sample is a biblical commandment), at that time, as the second system (Soviet) is based on an informal Declaration of good (such as Lefebvre - "The Moral code of the Builder of communism"). In the 1st ethical system, the purpose does not prove the means, and in the 2nd - justifies. In the 1st system, there are rules, in the 2nd - the purpose and meaning.
In order to show the differences in the behavior of members of different ethical systems, we can refer to data received by Lefebvre working with the Americans and the immigrants from the USSR in 1982:
- With the statement "A Doctor should hide from a patient that he has cancer, to relieve his suffering" agreed 8% of Americans and 89% of the Soviet.
- With the statement "The bully can be punished more severely than the law requires if it will serve to deter others" agreed to 11.5% of Americans and 84.5% of the Soviet.
- With the statement "It is Possible to give false testimony in court to help an innocent to avoid jail time" agreed 20% of Americans and 65% of the Soviet.
- With the statement "It is possible to send a cheat sheet to help a close friend in a competitive examination" agreed 8% of Americans and 62% of the Soviet.
(We can see, that Americans prefer to rely on formal rules, and the Soviet people think particularly taking into account the context).
Lefevre made a great contribution to the destruction of the USSR. After several attempts to contact Ronald Reagan, he found his special assistant Jack Matlock and told to the American President advisers' about his discovery: the Soviet leaders belong to a different ethical system, and for the United States success need to refuse the conclusion of formal agreements. Instead, with the Soviet (Russian) senior officials, it is necessary to negotiate on the merits and to help them "cheat the people", giving concessions (trade-offs) for their foreign policy victory. Based on Lefebvre's recommendations, in the 1980s the Americans rebuilt the strategy of negotiations with the Kremlin. By the way, our former compatriot Vladimir Lefebvre coined the term "Empire of evil", which began to use Ronald Reagan.
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