0806 If I return to a color-coded Greimas square for Russian identity_3a (or reasoning_3a(1a)) during the Cold War Among Materialist Ideologies (1945-1989), then it becomes clear that the joke reveals that my official consciousness (B) and my private consciousness (D) are not contrasts, but are (weirdly) intrinsic to my Russian identity_3a (A) and my Russian will_1a (C), respectively.  They are intensions, according to the Soviet regime and the Marxist denkstyle, of what I am supposed to say_2a and what I am supposed to think_2a.

0807 Indeed, the dyad of {my voice_2aom [substantiating] my official consciousness_2af} (B) depicts the “mental geography of the Soviet regime”, that substantiates Soviet… er… Russian identity_3a (A) and Russian will_1a (C).  In effect, B is official Marxist imagery_2aom.

The following figure depicts the elements of the above Greimas square as a confounding.

It makes me wonder about the nature of the Greimas square.

0808 The essence should be substantiated official consciousness_2af.  But, since the Russian has both an identity_3a (A) and will_1a (C), and since identity_3a (A) associates to official consciousness_2af (B) and will_1a (C) associates to private consciousness_2af (D), then a freakish doubling of consciousness occurs when I think_2aem (D).

0809 Now, this type of dualism, as funny as it appears, my also have been at play… quite literally… in medieval diglossia.

Boris Uspenskij describes this phenomenon, where Church Slavonic language_2a (which would go with B) substantiates Russian literary language_bm (which would go with both A (Orthodox identity_3a) and C (Russian will_1a)) and entangles Russian wit_2aem (which goes with D).  If the literary text_2bf is synonymous with wit_2a (what I think_2aom D), then Russian civilization is much more… um… hilarious than western Europeans are willing to admit.

0810 The author provides several examples, one of which is the practical business-oriented Julian calendar (which appeals to official consciousness) and the somewhat off-kilter theology-oriented Gregorian calendar (which appeals to private consciousness), leading to questions about whether one can celebrate New Years if it comes before Christmas.