On the essential differences between a people, population and nation

Too often a people, population and nation are presented as one and the same, especially since ethnos and nation in translation mean people, and, indeed, the explanation of the differences between these concepts is too general and does not reveal the essence of these concepts, although, actually, each of them has its own basis, not intersecting with the others, which will be discussed below.

Keywords: person, people, population, nation, consciousness, self-consciousness, philistines, elite, opposition, creative persons.

A people are defined as a historical social community of people by common language, territory, culture, way of life, historical development [1].
Along with that, same time, a people is defined as a nation in the case when it historically acquires not only ethno-cultural but also political weight [ibid.].
A people, which in scientific works is called an ethnos, which is the same thing translated from Greek, differs from the population of a particular region in that it constitutes a historically formed community that was formed over a long period of time, as a rule, on the basis of the unification of tribes in a certain territory with close communication activity (language), similar way of life, customs and traditions, as a rule, associated with religion, a special culture associated with the origin and specifics of the life of the peoples of the community, as well as with the assimilation of the culture of previous communities and neighboring communities.
However, all these features that characterize any people (ethnos) are obviously covered by something that determines the level of development of this ethnic group. A high level of this factor puts this ethnic group among the leading ones, a low level leaves it in subordination or even exploitation by other peoples.
The essence of this dominant factor is the awareness not only of the leaders of this people of its condition, role, advantages and features, but also the involvement of at any rate a significant part of the community in understanding all this, consisting in an active response to external and internal influences, in the development of their own culture and technologies, at least in order not to yield to rivals.
This kind of collectivist self-consciousness is the determining factor in the development of this community, allowing it to exist within the framework of a stable and developing entity, unlike all other features of this people, which are subordinate to it. The self-consciousness of the community as a whole is reflected for the most part in the ideas, values and actions of the intellectual-elite layer, continuously fed by the rest of the population, which selects from among itself the most prepared representatives for management and creative activity as leaders of the community.
Unlike a people, the population of a state can be either a homogeneous ethnic group or a collection of ethnic groups united in one way or another, an example of which can be Russia, but at the same time often competing with each other - a typical historical example of this is Europe.
The population can speak different languages, profess a religion of one kind or another, have different customs and traditions, but still, within the framework of a single state, follow the decisions made by the leaders of this state.
Despite such different characteristics of the people and the population, they are often confused, taking the population for the people, with all the negative consequences that follow from the fact that, as a rule, a heterogeneous population behaves completely differently than a more united people, although a people themselves within a state are in many ways diverse and contradictory.
In the era of the collapse of feudalism, instead of subjects, citizens appear, the totality of which in the state is called a nation [2].
It is believed that the national identity of citizens of a particular country means correlation with their country, thereby legitimizing nationalism.
Thus, it is considered that the ethnos basically bears the landscape-biological nature of the development of united tribes; the population is a collection of individuals who have spread across a certain territory for its exploitation; the nation already looks like a unity of the population of a separate country within the framework of legalized rights and freedoms.
In fact, the known scientific definitions of people and nation are superficial and one-sided.
They do not note the most important thing characteristic of the population of any country in the modern world, namely: the automatic division of the population into several leading strata that determine the development of society in each state.
These strata of the so-called people and nation, and, in fact, - the population within a specific state, are represented by a ruling elite with the corresponding by force and legal application; an informal opposition to it; creative individuals in the field of technology, science, art and management; ordinary people (philistines), the spectrum of which is very wide - from the intelligentsia dependent on those in power, to workers in the sphere of production of goods, traders, service workers, small entrepreneurs, pensioners, housewives and other clerks, concerned, as a rule, only with their own well-being.
Thus, the bulk of the population of any country is represented by the ordinary people, or philistines.
The philistine are guided mainly by their own reason and experience: preoccupied with themselves and their own well-being, they do not strive for either "high" or "low" goals, limiting themselves to the desire for a trouble-free and well-fed life in which it is desirable to see troubles only on the monitor screen. The philistine do not feel the desire for new things at the expense of their own efforts, achieving a more comfortable state in life from the position of simply acquiring and consuming its benefits.
Therefore, this category of the population has such name, although some public figures call the philistines (inhabitants) a people, apparently because of their overwhelming number in the total population.
Such "plant" life, to which they quickly get used, partly resembles the existence of animals, which, as is known, are concerned only with the problems of nutrition, reproduction and achievement, preferably, of greater comfort.
Therefore, they resemble a herd of herbivores that grazes calmly, if it is not especially disturbed.
The lack of aspirations for a hectic life is due to the low level of quick-wittedness, unwillingness to use one’s mind, even if relatively good, weak sensitivity in relation to other people’s troubles and troubles, insufficient impressionability, determination, sociability, the ability to pry as well as curiosity, the low level of dominance, that is, the philistines have a kind of the low-grade individuality and the unremarkable personality.
Nevertheless, such traits of their personality and individuality for individuals as the quality of mind, curiosity, will, diligence-laziness, self-confidence-self-criticism, politeness-rudeness, responsibility-dishonesty, conviction-unscrupulousness, as well as quick-wittedness, sensitivity, impressionability, perseverance, decisiveness, one or another degree of sociability may experience significant fluctuations, due to which a relatively small - fluctuating - part of the inhabitants is able to supply products of these fluctuations to other strata of the population.
The conditions of existence, the low level of self-consciousness, and the limited interests do not contribute to the transformation of this entire mass of people into smart, educated, cultured, creative, energetic, and sociable individuals.
Similar people stand out only a few percent.
But it is in them this faceless mass of the population outwardly acquires development in the person of their representatives in power and in informal-intellectual opposition to power.
In particular, among the average inhabitants there are always subjects with a somewhat higher level of the lowest consciousness, which in this case can cause them to strive not only for full, quiet and safe life, but also for domination among their own kind.
Focusing themselves mainly on such properties of individuality as a sufficient share of quick-wittedness; sociability up to servility; a tendency to deception in the form of distortion of information and dexterity in its presentation; acquired professional skills; as well as on such personality traits as a sufficiently strong will; self-confidence; unscrupulousness, expressed in cunning and treachery, as well as a significant share of irresponsibility, expressed in experiments that seem beneficial to themselves, but clearly harmful to the population, these subjects gain an advantage over the rest — the more inert members of the community in the form of the philistines, highly moral intellectuals of any kind, and other members of the population who are sluggish or preoccupied with other matters, and who are not able to deftly push aside or slander their opponents, as well as really enjoy the humiliation of the lower ones, and at the same time endure mock from the side of own bosses.
Their personality is significantly reduced, since altruism, that is, kindness, friendliness, empathy, compassion, mercy, expressed in disinterested concern for others, is practically not characteristic of them.
They compensate a lack of mind by involvement of numerous advisers, but, because the decisions ultimately has to be made by them, so far as they, as true creators of own happiness, at first consider them from a position of the personal (corporate), but not the public good with a lurch towards retaining power, gaining a greater degree of their own domination and the acquisition of all sorts of benefits, littering, besides, the leadership of the various managing and economic structures with own mostly incompetent offspring.
The informal intellectuals have the hope of reorganizing society in the direction of harmony, that is, equality, fraternity and at the same time liberty, without understanding that liberty always resists to equality, justice, destroying any stability. But this hope for harmonious world order can never disappear in their blissful consciousness: they as true humanists, are not capable to believe that horrors of our world cannot turn into prosperity of each person and all mankind eventually.
The informally-oppositional part of intellectuals, to which various educated people from this or that generation can be attributed, are active, honest, sincerely wishing good to the people, that is, with the dominant higher consciousness, expressed in a high degree of altruism of their personalities, - have never joined and will not join to the hypocritical and self-interested governing elite of the state, especially since they are characterized by a sense of self-esteem that does not allow them to please their superiors.
In other words, the already achieved level of the highest consciousness, expressed in the altruism of their personality, does not allow them to commit mean deeds, putting material goods in the last place among the values of life. Therefore, they will always expose the unscrupulous, hypocritical and thieving powers that be, fight for the rights and civil liberties of workers, involving them in this struggle as widely as possible.
The struggle between them when the passive behavior the most part of the rest of the population occurs continuously with the dominance of a more energetic governing elite, which is provoking self-hatred from everyone else, and thus forming that antagonism that does not allow society to stop in developing.
In addition to fighters for power and fighters for the oppressed, in any state there are people who are most interested in discovering new things in different spheres of life - from the invention of various devices and devices to make this life easier to the discoverers of the laws that govern our world, and to the creators of copies of the beautiful that they discover in the world around them.
That is, one part of these creative people is most interested in the knowledge of the surrounding world, applying the knowledge gained both to expand the scope of knowledge and for applied purposes of changing the surrounding reality - these are scientists and inventors, whose activities lead to the development of technologies and, as a result, to the constant re-equipment of technical means of production, trade, arms and everyday life. Most effectively, such a transformation of the environment in which the rest of the natives are found is carried out by applying a creative approach to changing reality.
Therefore, along with the improvement of the social order, one way or another, at one speed or another, take place a change in the technological equipment of society and, consequently, its economy, including the growth of labor productivity as well as the emergence of its lighter forms.
Thus, the process of the technological development of civilization is provided by this group of personalities, and not by any other groups or relationships. Therefore, the creative people act as the mover of technology, but, again, their creative properties are based on the peculiarities of their consciousness, and not some other forces.
Any motion in society, including turns and upheavals in the social order, especially cardinal ones, occurs only at sufficiently high level of culture, if not of the entire population, then of its leading strata, the main contribution to the achievement of which is made by the third group of the creative intellectuals, manifesting itself in that sphere of development of society, which is closest to the inner world of a person, that is, to his self-consciousness.
This group of intellectuals, more interested in the inner world of man and his communities, tries to penetrate it in different ways, correlating some people with others, comparing man with nature and society, and also finding out the ability of man to reflect these relationships in artificial forms.
It is these creative people, to varying degrees, but still, that produce cultural values in various forms, and directly affect the minds and feelings of the population, touching the most sensitive strings of the self-consciousness of each person, due to which both individual and collective self-consciousness is gradually changing: mores are softened, the population's craving for knowledge is growing, the number of intellectually and emotionally developed people is increasing.
Such cultural development affects the growth of the altruistic component of the self-consciousness of the population, thereby expanding the layer of intellectual opposition to the authorities, who want to harmonize social relations.
The result of this cultural development of society, seemingly far from the political struggle, is, however, the growing confrontation of informal intellectual opposition to the ruling elite due to the spread of altruism among the masses. In addition, the growth of culture and education of the population makes it possible to increase the percentage of creative people who are, in fact, the only effective lever for accelerating the technological and cultural development of society.
Thereby, the actions of the intellectuals of the sphere of culture have a decisive influence on the growth of the altruistic component of the self-consciousness of the population, creating conditions for the development of the social way of life.
Therefore, cardinal revolutions in the life of society occur against this cultural and educational background in the case of dissatisfaction with a significant part of society with the existing system of life in the presence of a certain level of technological development that allows to change the economic management.
In other words, the creative people make the maximum contribution to the technological and cultural development of civilization.
They are characterized by such personal qualities as good mental abilities, curiosity, hard work, confidence in their abilities, conviction and a considerable amount of altruism, which ensure from the side of personal properties their creativity.
However, at the same time, such high-level individuality traits as the aspiration to pry, dominance, perseverance and decisiveness are still predominant for them, forcing the person to strive, in spite of everything, to achieve something new and unusual in order to stand out from the general mass of the population and improve their social status, that is, for the sake of dominating others in a certain respectbut with an understanding of the social benefits of his work due to the rather high level of altruism of own personality.
In other words, in society, due to the indicated combination of traits of individuality and personality, there are the persons who are always overwhelmed with a deep sense of dissatisfaction in relation to their environment, which comes to them from the animal (lower) consciousness in its desire to create greater conveniences for its own existence due to the initial egocentrism animal consciousness. However, this feeling is combined with the altruism of their self-consciousness, the dissatisfaction of which with insufficient social comfort, the development of science and culture, reaching a high degree, requires that the achievements of civilization and culture be extended to everyone.
But herewith, the properties of individuality dominate, determined by the animal form of the human consciousness, since the activity of these persons manifests itself mostly instinctively, without much thought, giving, nevertheless, the most creatively active person of all living.
That is, the marked combination of traits of individuality and personality of individual persons, regardless of the presence of talents or simply abilities, invariably attracts them to the creative activity, although it does not always give a positive result, that is leads to the development of new effective devices and systems, the discovery of new patterns, the invention of convenient life support systems and the creation of high standards of culture, but creative individuals are precisely that relatively small group of the population that ensures the accelerated development of technological civilization in conditions of private property relations.
As a result, it is creative individuals within the framework of the struggle of the ruling elites and the informal opposition to them, that is, in the conditions of an antagonistic society, that ensure the process of creation both in social relations and in technology and culture, significantly influencing each other so that when they intersect, turns can occur that replace one way of life of a community or state with another - more perfect and convenient for the population in its ever-increasing coverage, which, in fact, is the process of development of civilization within the framework of property relations - from the slave system to capitalism.
However, the struggle of the ruling elites and the informal opposition is replaced in the eyes of the public with the struggle or the interaction between the working people and exploiters, although in a number of countries it is already difficult to separate the working people and exploiters. In addition, if an exploited worker suddenly becomes rich or becomes an entrepreneur, he in the same way begins to take care of himself first of all, and not of the offended and oppressed, without experiencing strong moral problems. The explanation of this phenomenon is again in the sphere of consciousness, since the vast majority of the exploited and exploiters have quite low level of self-consciousness in its altruistic component, and the level of the animal consciousness with its egocentrism is high enough.
Therefore, the level of development of society in any state is determined not by the people as a whole, but, above all, by nothing more than the influence of the informal opposition on the power elite, that is, its strength, the number, and the effectiveness of the creative persons in the state, as well as the minimum number of philistines who are indifferent to everything except themselves.
In turn, the performance of this action is based on a high level of altruistic self-consciousness of the informal opposition, combined with a decline in the level of natural consciousness (weakness) of the power elites; a high degree of dissatisfaction of the natural consciousness and self-consciousness of the creative persons; a sufficient degree of involvement in the struggle for their rights of the ordinary people, which is largely influenced by the level of their education.

Bibliography

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2. В. А. Тишков. Большая российская энциклопедия. Электронный ресурс. 2023.