The Psychology of Social Inertia

Abstract Restructuring is often compared with NEP. However, NEP called upon people to return to the system of motives and incentives with which they were familiar, and in which they had been raised and had lived for centuries. A psychological restructuring was not required of them. Today's policy, on the other hand, calls for the development of a new style of social conduct, in many respects contradicting the life experience and motives of activity of the two or even the three last generations. Are we capable of this, and how much time will be necessary for such a restructuring? To answer these questions we must rid ourselves of the idealized, resplendent image of the "new man" endowed solely with merits, and look at ourselves soberly and critically, devoting particular attention to the psychological mechanisms of social inertia that slow the pace of restructuring and are threatening its very existence.