The Russian Character

Originally Posted by Eryk

Russians are in general much more comfortable with stereotypes and generalisations than is acceptable in the western world. Naturally they will accept the fact that not all members of a given group are automatically the same however that does not change the pragmatic utility of a line of reasoning that goes:

"Some snakes are poisonous. Most are not, but those that are can be lethally poisonous. If you are an expert on snakes then maybe it is OK to distinguish between them, but if you are not then the only rational course of action is to treat ALL snakes with extreme suspicion. The fact that this is 'unfair' to the majority of snake species is completely irrelevant."

If it is any consolation, it is not just Muslims who end up stereotyped in this way. Georgians (Christians) are almost universally assumed to be criminals and most people above the age of 60 retain profound suspicions about the Germans.

Eryk

Originally Posted by bingism

Eryk,
Yes... I agree and so does Janna...
Here's a link to a description of the Russian character which (whilst not everything is agreeable) does give a fairly good summary:
http://forum.farit.ru/showthread.php?t=56267
It's in Russian, but Janna has translated it, so we will post an English version shortly.

Actually, in hindsight, I've started a new thread:
http://russianmeetingplace.com/foru...ad.php?p=114330