By Sam Vaknin
Author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited"
In the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, maps lied. Whole
towns were placed incorrectly, omitted altogether, minimized,
exaggerated, or distorted. The confluence of rivers, the forking of
roads, the damp darkness of tunnels were all subjected to the
vagaries of official paranoia. No two maps were alike. Biblically,
the mountains were made to dance. Moscow's maps were the most
fictional, leading the innocents abroad down the garden paths to
blind alleys and dead ends. Such maps were intended to misdirect
foreigners and citizens alike and had a most Kafkaesque effect on
daily life.
This was but a small part of "Maskirovka" - an open and authorized
policy, a conscious decision to subvert language itself, to divert
topology, to disinform, to transform reality into an inane hall of
mirrors. It was part of the pathologizing process
called "Communism" - and it did not stop at maps. Everything was
falsified: production figures were inflated, dates were altered, old
photographs retouched, alliances and enmities swapped. It fostered a
nightmarish state of mind replete with seemingly capricious twists
and turns and "Alice in Wonderland" (lack of) logic. With all
meaning usurped, language lost both its function and its structure.
It metastasized.
The incubus of Communism may have died but it left its demon seeds
cocooned in the brains of its unfortunate vassals. The "Maskirovka"
is alive and well. All inflows and outflows of information in most
countries in transition are considered dangerous. Governments, firms
and individuals do their best to conceal and, where they fail, to
misinform. Statistics has been elevated above damned lies to a
delirious state of Pavolvian mendaciousness. Everything, all over
Central and Eastern Europe, is falsely reported - from GDP to the
number of workers in the state administration. The IMF, the World
Bank, the EBRD and a host of other sanctuaries of smug mediocrity
turn a blind eye to what they know to be brobdingnagian acts of
skulduggery and forgery of data committed by government officials.
Hidden reserves, off budget income, debts ignored - all serve to
distort the picture to the common satisfaction of benefactor and
beneficiary.
The government, in turn, directs its attentions away from the shoddy
accounting practices of the shady businesses that pass for the
private sector in most countries in this never-ending (and
convenient) period of transition. Business in these shell, mob
infested and corrupt countries is engaged more in evading taxes and
cooking books - then in pursuing profits and clientele. Parallel,
underground systems of production and accounting divert resources
from the official universe into the Hades of the black and criminal
economy. Money laundering, outright theft, thuggery and mafia-like
codes of conduct typify these "enterprises". It is "Maskirovka"
embodied at the level of the firm, the hellish manifestation of
years of sabotage and hostility towards the state and its avaricious
officers.
And then there are the individuals. Lying was often a survival
tactic, dissembling - a mechanism of successful adaptation. In the
simulacrum that passed for polity, deforming oneself was the only
method of staying in shape. To be a denizen of Communism was a
profession, not an affiliation. Profitable habits die hard. To this
very day, people of all ranks steal from their workplace, falsify
their expense accounts, cheat each other with "carpe diem" abandon
and, occasionally, with glee. They think nothing of ignoring
promises, forgetting their commitments, or violating contracts. They
are in a state of war, subject to un-natural selection.
This obscene traffic in lack of probity is amplified when dealing
with foreigners.
I have often been accused of spying and resorted to the classical
defence of having displayed no interest in matters military. Until I
finally understood that reporting what one saw and believed to be
the truth is considered an act of treason. Informing the world about
the true state of affairs in Russia, Kosovo, or Macedonia was, to
Russians, Kosovars, or Macedonians, a deplorable act of surrendering
official secrets. This was so even if one's reports dealt with the
dairy industry, the state of the telecommunications infrastructure
or the relationship between the genders. The "outside" needs to be
kept in the dark. CEE and Balkan societies engage in gigantic,
informal conspiracies against the "outsiders". An elaborate Potemkin
reality is manufactured and laboriously staged to fool each visitor
or short term do-gooder. Foreigners who stay longer are expected to
conform and assume this bond of silence. Violating it is invenial.
The false maps of the "Maskirovka" adversely effected the efficiency
of Soviet produce distribution systems. Likewise, trafficking in
wrong data causes misallocation of economic resources and the
erosion of that indispensable social glue - trust. Decision making
is based on make belief, steps taken backfire, listless inaction
beckons. From the kikcshaw economies of Central Europe to the
chintzy mob operations that pass for states in the Balkan -
innovation, trading, value and capital formation, long term
planning, education, infrastructure are all crippled by the off-
spring of the "Maskirovka". Without a handle on reality, it is a
world devoid of orientation, a path without direction, thaumaturgy
gone berserk.
Perhaps this is the ultimate victory of "Maskirovka" - the
confabulated political entities that mushroomed after its official
banishment. To say one thing and do another - its surest legacy -
has become the cornerstone of these post Communist lucifugous
beings. To present facades devoid of depth or content - its basic
tenet - is adopted with alacrity by both its former adherents and by
its detractors in the West. To lie, to falsify, to cheat, to steal -
its four commandments - are observed with vehemence all over the
vast area it always ruled. Thus, metamorphosed, "Maskirovka" is
back. Its vocabulary updated, clad in the new garbs of Capitalism,
its new-found ideology, travelling more comfortably in Mercedeses
and more speedily through the proliferating and venal media - it
suppresses its schadenfreude smirk. It won.
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AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)
Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant
Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West
Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Central Europe Review,
PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International
(UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health
and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and
Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government
of Macedonia.
Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com