On the Question of the Youth Anti-Extremist Consciousness Formation

There is still a high level of young people involvement in extremist activities nowadays. Young people are still the main target audience of apologists for extremism, since, due to their age characteristics - the lack of critical thinking, the presence of protest moods, the desire for self-affirmation and liberation from the parents and teachers dictates - it turns out to be the most susceptible to all kinds of trends. The aim of the work is to study the possibilities of the young people anti-extremist consciousness formation as a factor acting in unity with activity and determining its motivation, regulating behavior, providing an appropriate result. The topicality of the article is due to the fact that the young people consciousness is increasingly becoming the subject of manipulation by extremist movements supporters, which use for this the temporary social and economic difficulties in the country, education and upbringing system disadvantages, spiritual poverty of young people and other negative factors that play into their hands. The need to analyze and search for possible ways to counter extremism remains. The article provides a general definition of the concept of «consciousness», examines its structure, in order to provide an understanding of what should be taken into account in the extremism preventing process. The object of the research is activities aimed at the anti-extremist consciousness formation among young people. The subject of the research is the analysis of the conditions and means of the youth anti-extremist consciousness formation. The authors point out that any activity (including the extremist one) is always associated with consciousness. Consciousness determines a person's views on the world, allowing him to rethink it and determining his main motives for action and his behavior. Understanding this requires the activities for the extremism prevention not become like symptomatic treatment; it is necessary to influence the sphere of young people consciousness, i.e. eliminate the cause of the «disease». In the conclusion, the authors emphasize that young people are the part of the population the future of the Russian state and society depends on. The lack of proper conditions for its development, personal growth and urgent needs satisfaction and the resulting frustration experiences inevitably push them to search for alternative opportunities to achieve their goals. Insufficiently developed critical thinking and the lack of internal censorship, solid knowledge and beliefs about universal human values make them easy prey for extremist activities representatives. Therefore, within the framework of preventive measures carried out in the country, it is necessary to pay attention to such an issue as the anti-extremist consciousness formation through systematic explanatory work among young people in order to improve the quality of their knowledge, moral values, thanks to which an attitude of destructive ideology rejection and condemnation could be formed in their minds.

extremism, youth, consciousness, structure of consciousness, anti-extremist consciousness, prevention of extremism