{"id":200,"date":"2018-02-25T17:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-02-25T22:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/?p=200"},"modified":"2018-02-25T17:33:06","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T22:33:06","slug":"criticism-of-masha-gessens-the-dying-russians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/uncategorized\/criticism-of-masha-gessens-the-dying-russians\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticism of Masha Gessen’s “The Dying Russians”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The claim Masha Gessen makes in The Dying Russians <\/em>\u2013 that Russia is experiencing a depopulation crisis due to the people\u2019s loss of hope \u2013 is questionable at best, and nearly impossible to believe at worst. While I\u2019m not fundamentally opposed to the notion that something like a loss of hope can lead to a less healthy population with a consequently higher mortality rate, Gessen doesn\u2019t really manage to convince me that this is what has been happening in Russia.<\/p>\n

Gessen starts off on the right foot by citing anthropological works like Michelle Parson\u2019s Dying Unneeded<\/em> and describing her research. Regrettably, she soon seemingly tries to support her claim by ruling out other potential causes (drinking, smoking, etc. ) of the mortality crisis based on statistical data. I see this as an improper method that has harmed the credibility of her paper. Statistical data alone is arguably insufficient evidence to rule out a cause of Russia\u2019s high mortality Also, any kind of \u201cruling out\u201d methodology for research requires a much more expansive scope than what Gessen allows. Even if we ignore the faults in her methodology, such a claim will always seem doubtful to many.<\/p>\n

If we accept Gessen\u2019s conclusion as correct, then the mortality crisis starts to sound a lot like the protests talked about in texts like Lisa Wedeen\u2019s Acting \u2018As If\u2019: Symbolic Politics and Social Control in Syria <\/em>and James C. Scott\u2019s Normal Exploitation, Normal Resistance<\/em>. In this case, the Russian population protests a government that gives them nothing with shocking fertility and mortality rates. A notable difference between these protests and those described in the aforementioned texts, however, is that these protests seem to be subconscious \u2013 it\u2019s not like Russians are knowingly choosing to get heart attacks. This was a major point of interest in the paper for me, as it got me thinking about how (or if) subconscious protest even exists.<\/p>\n

Depopulation won\u2019t please the government, but how can an action be considered rebellious if it is not even executed consciously? My opinion is that it can\u2019t be \u2013 protest requires a mindful decision to defy your oppressor in some way or form. In fact, I think that this decision is the greatest qualifier for protest. Therefore, I can\u2019t interpret the depopulation crisis as some kind of rebellious action or display against the Russian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The claim Masha Gessen makes in The Dying Russians \u2013 that Russia is experiencing a depopulation crisis due to the people\u2019s loss of hope \u2013 is questionable at best, and nearly impossible to believe at worst. While I\u2019m not fundamentally … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1685,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}