Today one person, Nora, posted a question which I think is so important that it deserves its separate post. Here is what she wrote:
Nora said:
Saker, I get where you’re coming from. I’m truly scared to ask this but you know I’ve got to: what recourse do we have here in the US? What can we do to stop what’s going on in our name and with our tax dollars, both here and everywhere else? I used to think I knew the answer(s). I don’t anymore.
My reply will be stunningly unoriginal and boring: “think globally act locally“. For one thing, there is really nothing you can do for the people in the Ukraine, at least not directly. And you have already done something crucial: you have identified with their struggle. That is extremely important because the 1%ers are trying to divide us and separate us along national, ethnic, racial, religious, educational, social, political and any other line they can think of. Our response should be, to paraphrase Marx, “99%ers of the world, unite!”.
The big mistake of the Marxists (well, one of them) was to think in big terms – stuff like “proletarians of the world”. What we need to do is think *small*. Here is the key thing: the struggle against evil happens one soul at a time, especially in the West, and especially in the USA where any organized struggle immediately gets discredited, infiltrated and eventually shut down (or even shot down). Stay small, take little steps.
The first thing that you need to see is whom to talk to. Christ gave us the perfect methodology. One one hand He said “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matt 7:6), but on the other hand He also said “what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” (Matt 7:9). In other words, do not waste your time on those who are not asking anything from you, but don’t deny your attention to those who are seeking the truth. Or even more basically – don’t waste your breath on zombified morons, but spare no effort towards those who seek to understand. For one thing, the zombies don’t doubt – they already know it all. But others do doubt, all they need is help to connect the dots. A holy man, a true saint, which I once met, told me “one human soul is more precious than the entire universe”, and that is quite true. So if all you do in your entire life is help to guide one single soul to the truth, you have had a great life! Just one. And it does not matter where this soul lives, in the USA, the Ukraine, Palau or Timbuktu. All souls, all humans, have the same value – its infinite.
Second, there is only one way to lead people – by example, by inspiration and not by instruction or by polemic. One of the greatest Russian saints, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, said “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved“. This thought if often paraphrased as “save yourself and thousands around you shall be saved”, which is a pretty good, if simplified, interpretation of his thought. Forget about acting on others, act on yourself. And then you will be able to act on others. This is paradoxical, I know, but most patristic thought is subtle and externally paradoxical. By the way, Christianity is not the only tradition which teaches that, this also what, I think, Mahatma Gandhi meant when he said “We must become the change we want to see in the world“.
In practical terms, this means that for your the highest priority must be pursue the truth in all its forms with passion and determination, just as Christ taught us when He said: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:for they shall be filled” (Matt 5:6) and “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Now, I have to apologize for brining up all these Scriptural quotes, especially if you are not religious and even more so if you live in the USA. I realize what a mockery the Bible-thumping crazies you can see on US TV or hear on the radio have made of Christianity and how sick and tired most people are of all kinds of preachers. I ask you to set aside any unpleasant and outright sickening associations you might have with anything coming from the Scripture, and just realize that before the crazies began interpreting it in any way they wanted, the Scripture was actually an immense source of true spirituality and, what is so important for all of us today, a practical survival manual for anybody living in a world gone crazy.
For example, what the quotes I gave you mean, among other things, is that you cannot be “sort of” “interested” in finding out the truth. “Hunger” and “thirst” are visceral, gut-level, feelings. When you really hunger and thirst you can think of nothing else but food or water. Same here, in order to find out the truth about the world you live in, you cannot just take a red pill like Neo in the Matrix – you have to be obsessed – full time 24/7 kind of obsessed – with finding out the truth. If you can do that – then there is good news: you will end up finding it (you will be “filled” and the truth shall “make you free”). That goes not only for religion, but also for all the other matters which those who rule over us are trying to hide from us.
Lastly, I would recommend you stick to the two following rules (which I developed for myself):
1) never go against your conscience
2) always do the right thing and don’t worry about outcomes or consequences
That’s it. That is my personal version of “survival in a crazy world 101”. And just to answer your question, don’t worry about what your tax dollars do in the Ukraine, worry about what they do were you live. Pay your taxes, don’t break the law, but stand up for justice and righteousness every time you can. Most importantly, show compassion and love to each suffering person near you. Modern liberals are so mistaken when they send money to the hungering kids in Africa yet have a total “compassion deficit disorder” towards their fellow Americans! Again, think globally – act locally. If God (or “destiny” if you prefer) wanted you to help in Africa or the Ukraine, He (it) would have put you there. But you are “here” (wherever that “here” is for you) so act “here”, just as Ukrainians and Africans will act in their own “here”, in the Ukraine and Africa.
In conclusion, let me refer to one of my favorite pieces from one of my favorite authors: Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Live not by lies” which I posted on this blog in 2007. Here is the introduction I wrote then:
“What can we do?”. This is an old question indeed. When a nation becomes enslaved by a government of thugs and terrorists one of the main goals of the rulers is to make their subjects believe that there is nothing they can do about it. Failing that, they want to push all the opposition into some activity which would justify the use of violence against them. So what are the options for those who oppose the rule of the current Empire?
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote an essay in 1974 which, I believe, still fully applies to today’s USA. Soon thereafter he was expelled from the USSR. From his exile he declared that he would live to see the Soviet rule collapse and would return to his country before his death. For these words he was ridiculed – at the time the Soviet Empire, protected as it was – not unlike Dubya’s Empire – by a huge military and secret police, looked invincible. Twenty years later, Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia were he still lives today.
Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn has passed away since (in 3 August 2008). He, the man who survived the three worst calamities of the 20th century – the war, the concentration camps and cancer – lived to the age of 89 and before his death he even met Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB officer, who expressed immense admiration for him. Look at this historical photo and see for yourself the immense personal victory of the man who said “live not by the lie!” (you can find the full text of his essay right under my intro and here).
Take a look at this short text and look at the examples Solzhenitsyn gives. You can do the same in your own daily life. Simple, doable and very effective!
All this is probably not the kind of reply you expected. There is a reason for that. I do not believe in the, shall we say, “resistance methodology” typically promoted by most organizations and people. And what brought me to that conclusion is that military analysis eventually made me look at the roots, rather then the effects, of evil, and I realized that all warfare is really spiritual warfare at its core. You cannot beat your opponent by playing by his rules, and you cannot outwit the devil. So to resist effectively, we need to struggle by a different set of rules, imposing your tactics on the enemy. And even though I had studied modern warfare, with a strong emphasis on, believe it or not, nuclear force planning, I ended up realizing that the most powerful weapon on the planet is a simple, basic, prayer rope.
Solzhenitsyn, him again, once made an amazing speech in the UK, when he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May of 1983 (you can find the full text of this speech here and here and, if you don’t know it, I urge you to read the full text). These are his concluding words:
With such global events looming over us like mountains, nay, like entire mountain ranges, it may seem incongruous and inappropriate to recall that the primary key to our being or non-being resides in each individual human heart, in the heart’s preference for specific good or evil. Yet this remains true even today, and it is, in fact, the most reliable key we have. The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset · by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today’s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose…
Our life consists not in the pursuit of material success but in the quest for worthy spiritual growth. Our entire earthly existence is but a transitional stage in the movement toward something higher, and we must not stumble and fall, nor must we linger fruitlessly on one rung of the ladder. Material laws alone do not explain our life or give it direction. The laws of physics and physiology will never reveal the indisputable manner in which the Creator constantly, day in and day out, participates in the life of each of us, unfailingly granting us the energy of existence; when this assistance leaves us, we die. And in the life of our entire planet, the Divine Spirit surely moves with no less force: this we must grasp in our dark and terrible hour.
To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned. Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate twentieth century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing.
Our five continents are caught in a whirlwind. But it is during trials such as these that the highest gifts of the human spirit are manifested. If we perish and lose this world, the fault will be ours alone.
Everything he said in 1983 is still true today, probably even more so.
I apologize for this weird answer and I realize that it looks like I did not answer your question at all. But I did. I gave you *my* best honest answer and I am sure that there are plenty who will think that this is all rubbish. Maybe they will even offer you their own answer. I would welcome and encourage that. I just stuck to my rule of “calling it as I see it” and doing what I believe was the right thing without worrying about the consequences. But, of course, another person would have answered differently and probably much better than I did.
All I have to offer on this blog is sincerity, even if it comes wrapped in a lot of errors and misguided beliefs. Oh, and I am an incurable idealist – no doubt about that.
Anyway, I hope that you will find something useful in the above. If not, I am really sorry for not being able to give a more satisfactory reply.
Kind regards,
The Saker
I find myself positively agreeing with the arguments here, except for the final Solzhenitsyn essay. When he talks about how WW1 could only have been caused by men forgetting God, I can’t help but think of the horrible Thirty Years War, started in very religious times, by religious men. It does not seem that keeping God in mind has anything to do with it, one way or the other.
Moreover, Solzhenitsyn said: “Today’s world has reached a stage which, if it had been described to preceding centuries, would have called forth the cry: “This is the Apocalypse!””
And yet in almost every measure, today’s world is better and more peaceful than it has ever been. Here’s a short clip from the BBC documentary “The Joy of Stats” that illustrates this well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
Interestingly, Russia is one of the most unusual countries in the data. While most (especially Western) countries show gradual increasing improvement in life expectancy, Russia jumps all over the place, and isn’t much better now than in the 1950s: http://www.gapminder.org/data/ (search for “life expectancy”, then click on “visualize”)
(…continued in next post)
(continued from previous post)
Nor can I agree with Solzhenitsyn when he says “In the East art has collapsed because it has been knocked down and trampled upon, but in the West the fall has been voluntary”. Solzhenitsyn perhaps couldn’t see that levers of censorship existed in the West as well – they were just not as overtly visible. Art in the USSR certainly had not collapsed at that time – it was just in those years that Norshteyn had made his “Tale of Tales”, and Tarkovsky was making his most famous films. The songs of the Soviet bards were everywhere sung, and folk music was becoming more authentic, led by the Pokrovsky Ensemble. More and more art at that time represented truth. What censorship pressures existed (and they certainly did), seem to have been, in balance, not as strong as the ones that existed in the West. The difference is that in the East artists were censored AFTER they’d made some film that was too hard for the censor to understand or hit too close to the truth, while in the West they weren’t allowed to start making such artistic films in the first place (because they wouldn’t sell) – the West’s system was less overtly visible and far more effective. Much like the Western propaganda method, which always comes from a “free press”!
For a first-hand account, see chapter 19 from Gene Deitch’s book “How To Succeed in Animation”:
http://www.awn.com/genedeitch/chapter-nineteen-why-prague-for-gods-sake
Quote: “Many of my American friends and colleagues certainly wondered what I was doing, working with a “communist” animation studio. They had no real information as to what such a studio was really like. When they eventually caught on to the real facts, they suddenly became envious. The fact was that the studio was not full of communists, but actually just full of animators. There were only a handful of communist party members in the 165-member staff of the Prague animation studio during the socialist era. A couple of them truly believed in socialism, but most hated it. Only the inserted studio manager was an actual “aperatchik.” There was a string of bureaucrat managers during my thirty years there during the communist regime, and not one of them had any real idea of what was going on in the studio. Zdenka, as a producer, made out all the budgets and production plans, and the managers just signed them. None of them had the faintest idea of how animation films were made. All they were interested in was an avoidance of problems.”
This was Czechoslovakia, but the situation was not so different in the Soviet Union, either.
The sad part of this whole story is that it is the actions of Solzhenitsyn and others like him that really DID cause the collapse of the East (including its art), from which it has still, on the whole, not recovered. The intelligentsia may have wanted only truth, but their ideals were used by more ruthless people, and it led directly to the destruction of much of what they hoped for.
And it is precisely this history that leads me to second-guess my inclination to agree with Solzhenitsyn’s strategy. Always a little voice in my head is saying “yes, strive for the truth, do not accept the hypocrisy of the powerful – and yet, be very careful about pressing too hard, because what comes after may be worse than what was there before”.
Agree with most of what you say. But I still admire those who do that extra.
1 scholars like you and Arundhati Roy fighting with ink
2 people who take the effort to protest even if it runs the risk of getting subverted
3 Shia fighters traveling to Syria to protect shrines there
4 the mothers in the south of Lebanon who are willing to give the second and third son after the first
5 those Iranians who walked on Saddams minefields and not those who sent them
6 your “polite men in green” (there is a caveat that they are only following orders)
7 American servicemen who come back and question what they did
8 Christians putting up a fight for Muslims, or Muslims putting up a fight for Christians. (very inspiring)
9 politicians like George Gallloway and Tony Benn who could have had a lot more if they towed the line
10 Israelis who go protest the fence
11 all those, who so far unlike me, take that extra step
Gandhi said ,’This is not my advice. Non-violence does not mean that you should bear injustice. Instead I would prefer violence. Act of cowardice is worse than violence.’
I know you are not advocating Pacifism or inaction or bearing injustice or cowardie. I just feel that those who set out, strive in God’s way, make an effort are far superior than the likes of me.
Mindfriedo
Your answer is as good as the originating question. Most of us ask about such thoughts. For me it is an age old balance between;
trust and betrial
lies and truth
weapon or words
search and found
…
“prayer rope”…
You should do a post or two on the Heyschasm which is what is missing in Catholicism and its derivatives, Protestantism and Evangelicalism.
Most people don’t understand the significance of Orthodoxy’s Heyschasm.
No, not a weird reply at all; far from it and one of your best.
I follow along as best I can with the limited time I have available, but often forward your comments to friends and family.
I, too, am American; descended from forebears who arrived here in the middle of the 17th century; grew up during the Cold War and for about a decade–from early teens to early twenties was a Goldwater Republican.
Unlike the Neocons and other Wing Nuts my age [early 60s] I grew up…thanks to two decades in Europe from 73-94… discarded the nationalist, exceptionalist brain fog for the BS it was.
I was in Germany when the Wall fell and fully expected in 1994 that within 20 years Russia would be an important part of NATO. Silly me.
At least I now know the answer to Shevardnadze’s question to a western journalist in 1989: “We do not want to be your enemy: we will will take your enemy away from you. What will you do then?”
First the Conservatives made Liberals and Democrats the enemy even though on a European scale they are mostly left wing Christian Democrats. Then when Putin began saving the Russians from the predations of Neoliberal economists, the ‘expert-idiots’ from Goldman-Sachs and the Harvard Business School and their buddies at the International Mischief Fund, it was time to make enemies of Russia again.
Shame. Disgust. Aside from following your advice which many of us have been doing over here for quite a while already there is nothing else to feel. I find I am beyond anger or rage and hope only that the insanity that has infected our national institutions does not somehow infect me. It is crazy-making to know that by the age of 12 in 1963 I knew more about the ethnic compositions of Ukraine and Russia and the events that brought them about than the Obama administration’s State Department and National Security Council does today. That is more frightening than Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and India playing Russian Roulette with A-bombs.
Excuse me: should it be American Roulette now?
One of the ancient Greeks is supposed to have said or written, “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
Keep up the good work. You’re a good educator! When my current project is finished I plan on buying the complete Rosetta Stone Russian set. Originally my intention was to read Bulgakov in the original; now it’s just as much to be able to find out what’s really going on in the world and to start communicating with Russians so that they’ll know we’re not all Neocon-Neolib zombies over here.
Live long, prosper.
Gordon
I’d suggest on the personal level reexamining the “American dream”, and consider who really benefits from this rhetoric. If everybody stopped feeding the big banks (i.e. taking out mortgages, creating any kinds of interest accounts, using credit cards, etc.) would go a long way towards undermining their influence both worldwide and locally. If you seek out other people who are not hell bent on consumption, and build links of mutual support (social and financial), you’ll at least partially disconnect from the system that reinforces global hegemony. I believe that just screwing with their model of a rational maximizing individual is a good start on a personal level. Any thoughts on these ideas?
Cheers from Ukraine. :)
Saker, there is no need to apologize for a “weird answer” … your post is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. Not a single word of what you wrote should be any different. You wrote exactly what needs to be said – and it cannot be said often enough.
I read the entire “Gulag” as it appeared in English during the early 1970’s. Solzhenitsyn changed my life at that time – and his “The Ascent” (from: IV; “The Soul and Barbed Wire”) remains an unparalleled inspiration for me. I continue to pass this chapter out to anyone who will read it (but sadly, these days many seem not able to spare the time and /or concentration for anything – let alone a writer such as Solzhenitsyn). Solzhenitsyn will never be a popular writer – but this only puts him in the company of other “greats” who voiced simple (but often uncomfortable truths). Many times “the truth” voiced by people such as Solzhenitsyn (and Camus, one of my other sources of inspiration) turns out to be too “simple” for many because the “many” take most of their cues from everything and everyone which relentlessly seeks to either contol them or monopolize their attention for their entire waking lives. We’re conditioned to believe that we must ACT, DO, ACCOMPLISH, AND ACHIEVE things in an exclusively material sense (well, this comes with the ideology of capitalism, but this is another theme…). The bottom line, however, is that this conditioning has destroyed our spiritual being from top to bottom and from beginning to end – “spiritual” not meant in an exclusively religious sense; but not excluding it either. (And we wonder why the world has become so “crazy”…) Finally, we can no longer see the obvious: that one of the greatest, most effective things to ACT UPON would be to take the person next to us as seriously as we take ourselves (along with ALL our concerns, large or small).
I can only say “bravo” to your response. Every word of it is true.
Excellent post Saker, ever since I found this blog, i got pretty much addicted to it. So thanks for your great work and keep it up!
Anyway would you mind giving me some more recommendation from Solzhenitsyn? Or it’s just pretty much all he wrote just gold?
Greetings from Czech Republic !
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2451252 (translated)
The President of Chech Republic Milosh Zeaman made a statement on a conference devoted to 10th anniversary of Chech Republic joining EU. He called NATO and EU to make a “preventive action” to stop Russia’s actions in Eastern Ukraine.
“I vote for an effective and very decisive preventive action. Because a prophylaxis is always cheaper than fire extinguishing,” – ITAR-TASS quiotes a Chech leader. The President declared his hope that EU and NATO “will find courage for acts of intimidation”.
God, why you deprived mind from these people?..
In the Holy Quran it says:
Satan plans and God plans. And, as usual the Quran asks the question and makes us think. It then asks, who is the best of the planner?
The question hits you on the Spiritual level. Who do you have you Faith and Trust in?
So keep up the Good Work and Be Thankful, as everything will turn out alright.
Amen Rabbi (My Nurturer, My Sustainer, My Nourisher, My Cherisher, My Lord)
A Shia Muslim.
Reply to E… said about the Thirty Years War that
‘started in very religious times, by religious men’
Any good history book will present you with irrefutable arguments that this European conflagration apparently so confessional-based (catholics vs. protestants) was in fact a classical clash of political interests between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons.
And by the way, i wouldn’t use BBC documentaries in support of my arguments. There are much better sources.
Cheers to Saker for a very good framing of Solzhenitsyn and the answer to Nora
aviewer
So true, Saker, so true.
Henk
to Олег Потапов
yea, that makes me sick to my stomach :P
Gordon, when Shevardnadze said that ‘We are taking away your enemy’, he plainly had no idea of what the ruling elites in the Zionosphere are really all about. These are people who regard everything and everybody ‘other’ to themselves as either an enemy, a potential victim for predation, or competition to be beaten by fair means or foul. And, in the end, they treat one another with the same hatred. Fear and hatred of the other may have been useful as psychological characteristics while sojourning on the African savannah, but their survival to the world of thermo-nuclear weapons and drone missile murder is definitely a severe obstacle to humanity moving forward to whatever noble thing our better angels might allow us to become. That Gorbachev et al ‘took the word’ of the USA that NATO would not be extended into the East was an act of criminal irresponsibility bordering on the insane. These are people who never keep their word because they have no honour and regard lying as a very useful technique. You know-psychopaths. Of course Gorbachev was surrounded by his own psychopaths, so perhaps he didn’t notice. I believe that the study of this type has been called political ponerology.
When the heart is calm and the mind is open we’ll awake to our real Self. Which will trancend our needs beyond any materialistic goal.
And indeed my direct neighbour is God’s gift to each of us to that Realm.
Я благодарю вас.
Hi Saker-
All your writings on what to do are wonderful- and I agree completely with what you are saying
“Second, there is only one way to lead people – by example, by inspiration and not by instruction or by polemic”
Often at my blog, and in real life I have suggested things along the same line
-be the change you want to see
-don’t wait for someone to save you- no one will- except you
-be the leader-don’t wait for one
– do everything you can to clog up the gears that grind us down
This is what I live by, in the real world.
And to make matters worse, for myself, I talk to everyone, everywhere I drop memes as much as possible mentioning all the inconvenient truths when ever I can fit them in
But what do I find most often?
Victims and excuse makers.
“When a nation becomes enslaved by a government of thugs and terrorists one of the main goals of the rulers is to make their subjects believe that there is nothing they can do about it”
Not just in the real world, but, also on line In the realm where people present themselves as ‘revolutionaries’ but they aren’t
Most are cowards hiding behind keyboards-same as in the real world
btw- If people want to perceive that as me being harsh or bitchy,(since I am a woman) then so be it.
It isn’t intended to be, it is just the way I see most people.
When I hear and read responses like
“oh that is too hard”
“that is so inconvenient”
“that would take too much time”
I can only conclude people are both lazy and crazy
Willing to be sacrificed and sacrifice themselves as long as they have to do nothing or think if they wait long enough someone will do to do it for them.
They will wait till they die.
Then there is the idealist side of me! Like you Saker, I remain an idealist- because there is that comment, response or look that tells me- someone is getting it- someone is willing to make a change -to make a difference.
That’s me being torn. The side that gets frustrated and the side that wants to keep pushing for change- That’s just being human I guess :)
That is why I keep the blog going.
Sure, sometimes it seems an exercise in futility?
But I can’t conceive of ending it because my unflinching idealism keeps me going.
And this crazy faith that within my fellow humans- not religious faith- just a kind of knowing – that my fellow human beings have that same drive and spark- and will at anytime become aware of that which needs to be done.
Before ending this way too lengthy response Saker – I am glad to read I am not the only one afflicted with the 24/7 knowledge hunger
you’re right- never go against your conscience (to tough to live with)
2)slightly changed- always do the right thing and you will never have to worry about outcomes or consequences
and lastly I always recommend tossing, or greatly reducing exposure to, the Tell-a-vision
It’s full of Programming.
For a reason!
sorry for the rant
your post just got a whole bunch of thoughts running through the brain
Not weird at all, Saker. I’m totally with you, and still believe idealism is what changes the world!
Want so much to make a contribution, but Paypal seems not to accept people outside the “Empire”… and I must admit I’m so dummy with technology!
Help!
Just thought I share a memory of my dad. At one time I could have arranged a meeting for him with Solzhenitzyn when he was in Vermont. I thought two old Zeks might enjoy a conversation. My dad just said to me:
“What’s there to talk about?”
Sad.
T1
Not weird at all, Saker. I’m totally with you, and still believe idealism is what changes the world!
Want so much to donate, but Paypal seems not to accept people outside the “Empire” :)
Help!
Dear Saker — There is a line to a Hymn (also a poem) that I learned as a child and say to myself each morning…”My prayer some daily good to do, to Thine, for Thee, an offering pure of love whereto God leadeth me..” We are lead by God to do those things which are our highest concept of “good”. And like Cyrus we are used by God to do “His will”. There is great comfort and security in being obedient to God. The beauty of it is that we can do it right where we are. That’s my takeaway from your spot-on post. Thank you for opening hearts and minds to Truth. Godspeed.
Saker, thank you so very, very much! Your words were insightful and practical and anything but weird. I’m still working on a response, but meanwhile, I cannot let E’s words go by.
E, “today’s world is better and more peaceful than it has ever been.”
You are kidding, aren’t you?
Also, the Thirty Years War was a direct result of dynastic concerns and the obvious frailties of the leaders involved. But religion sure was used in every way imagineable (and, frankly, unimagineable) for practical, political and personal ends. Again, susceptibility to manipulation of one’s angers and fears and acting really rather stupidly as a result seems to be a pretty strong human failing, to which both leaders and their followers clearly fell prey. As well, of course, as countless millions of other people just trying to lead their lives.
Oh, ok: “it is the actions of Solzhenitsyn and others like him that really DID cause the collapse of the East (including its art), from which it has still, on the whole, not recovered.”
You are either too stupid to be kidding, or an agent of disinformation trying to derail this thread.
Well, I’m still finding it hard to respond to this incredible post — it just summons up so many emotions, and I can tell from other responses here that I’m hardly alone in that. So, after thanking you again, Saker, and agreeing totally with everything you said and being deeply moved by the responses of so many others, I’m just going to throw a couple of (hard-learned) observations into the pot.
First off, to a certain, selective extent, “local” now also includes the Internet, this blog being perhaps the very best example. I don’t know how many comments Saker culls but I darned near always learn something from every single one I read. And unlike on many blogs, it’s not just “preaching to the converted” — we all come at this stuff from different viewpoints and experiences but tend to discuss the relevant stuff and not get distracted by endless arguments and deliberate disinformation. So, for those who wish to educate (which really means starting where the person is and then lead them, usually in very, very small steps, to a deeper, truer understanding), the “local” becomes anyone with whom you have contact, even if it’s “just” virtual.
Secondly, perhaps without knowing it, Saker referred to a second principle of true grass-roots organizing and that is, basically, triage. There’s no point whatever wasting your time and energy on people who are either adamantly opposed, or totally on your side: the ones you want to reach are those in the middle. In America today it’s kind of hard to find them but actually they’re there, and I’m guessing their greatest numbers are probably among the utterly disaffected. They’re disgusted for good reason, after all. But you’ll never convert them by a long spiel, first you have to find out what’s really important to them, and again, then lead them slowly, step by step, and this is probably best done by asking questions rather than providing too much information which is just likely to slide right off, or turn them off even more.
okay, it’s not my blog, I’ll shut up now! Thank you again, Saker, so very, very, very much!
Dear Saker!
I agree with most of your answers.
Spirituality is very important nowadays and like always. But never think please, that what God wants from you is a “prayer rope”.
Just imagine yourself in Gods position (because we are created on his image) that somebody would over and over again tell you a learned prayer over and over hundred times. I think you would take that rope and use it as Jesus did on the money changers!
But otherwise I like very much, what you are doing. You seem really interested in the truth and that truth sets us really free.
Robo_IC
Dear Saker,
thank you so much for this profoundly touching answer – it made me think very deeply about “What, after all, should I do with this life of mine? and it reminded me – shame for having “forgotten it”, once again – how simple the answers are (I am not saying EASY to act upon!).
I know now again where to go to…
thank you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful and touching words!
Thomas
Excellent article Saker.
Although your objective is noble but I must say there are some severe obstacles.
The “one percenters” or whatever you want to call them , are much better in manipulating people (and that includes pretty innocent people like us) without the people knowing about it.
This is their way of doing politics.
The art of dividing one against another is an art that they can play as usefully which no one in the past (that includes the papacy , Hitler and the Soviets combined) have been able to done.
Look at the current situation. The current system of governance in either US or EU throws up parties which are more or less same and they do produce policies which are also largely same.
This in turn ensures a gradual apathy and then ultimate disconnection from day-to-day life for the people in the West.
The electorate in either US or EU are getting more and more atomized and hardly 30 per cent of the people regularly vote in the elections as most are disillusioned.
Most of the people (tragically the youth have been manipulated to waste their energies away in social networks and so forth)are now atomized and just disillusioned.
Most of the people are just too disconnected from the realities.
To paraphrase Quran , this may well be the worst “jahaliya” or “the age of ignorance”.
This is a great success of they way the people are manipulated by the “one percenters” in the US or EU.
How do you counter that type of mind control ?
I do not know. Can any one of your here have an answer.
As someone who was a Christian for most of their life, but now just hovers tentatively around the edges of it – this post was a powerful blessing. Thank you.
Hi new to this blog (courtesy of posters at M of A thank you)… fantastic. Anyways, along this theme, just came across a new blog by Tony Cartalucci, ‘LocalOrg’, headlined “Pragmatic solutions to political problems” looks promising.
http://localorg.blogspot.jp/
From the ‘About Us’ section-
LocalOrg seeks to explore local solutions to global problems by empowering people locally with education and technology to not only survive, but to thrive. In the polarized world of politics where people are divided by anger, fear, and ignorance, there is common ground…
…clean air, clean water, healthy, accessible food, a pragmatic education, and the technical means to provide the best possible healthcare, income, and infrastructure to one’s self and their community…
LocalOrg attempts to set aside political paradigms and seeks pragmatic, technical, and permanent solutions:
Instead of arguing over “free markets” vs “wealth redistribution” – wealth redistribution through local entrepreneurship.
Instead of rationing healthcare or leaving it to the whims of private insurance companies – expand the number of doctors, nurses, biomedical designers and engineers through education and technology to reduce the disparity between supply and demand, thereby lowering costs.
Instead of food stamps vs. austerity – locally produced food that creates food security as well as jobs and abundance for all members of the community.
Instead of “sustainable living” and worries of “overpopulation” – leveraging technology to provide resource abundance.
Not all of the links on LocalOrgs will lead to apolitical, pragmatic solutions. Not all links are devoid of connections to the very corporate-financier interests driven to divide people politically – however all these links contain information that can be used to piecemeal create better, stronger, more advanced local communities, and eventually, drain the swamps of greed and power that have mired human progress for so long.
The first word in the prove you’re not a robot capture is currently Nonagreement, which about sums up my reaction to this religious post (and others like it).
Thank you for this wonderful essay, Saker – and for that photo of Solzenitsyn meeting Putin.
For me, reading GULAG when it came out changed my life forever. His words about the line between good and evil passing through every person heart is something I have never forgotten. It is something which has accompanied my life ever since.
Thank you.
@Nora, no I’m not kidding. Even with two huge world wars and innumerable smaller ones, the 20th century, on a per-capita basis, may be the most peaceful one on record (and about 16% more peaceful that the one that preceded it).
For example, in the book “The Better Angels of Our Nature”, Steven Pinker shows that the percentage of people killed in battle has dropped greatly over the centuries:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/22/world-less-violent-stats_n_1026723.html
You ever read the works of the Greek writers and notice how their society seemed rather more warlike than ours?
As for my comment about the merits of pre-collapse vs. post-collapse art, I call it as I see it. I don’t live in Russia, but I sometimes visit and keep tabs on the art scene there (particularly film and music). That the 1990s represented a huge degradation in which art became dominated by gangsterism and vulgarity is admitted by everyone – and yet there were little pockets that lasted for over a decade who continued to produce wonderful, deep works, although the general public knew nothing about them. In the past few years, many of these isolated and little-seen groups have finally gone away, and much of Russia’s culture is at its heart American, with a thin veneer of folkiness and patriotism on top. Russia is still afraid to go its own way, and prefers to fund second-rate imitations of American culture. For example, Aleksandr Petrov has been trying for years to get funds for his first feature film – and this is an Oscar-winner who uses a technique that no other place on earth can imitate. If Russia does not support its own talents, and distinguish itself from others, it’s no wonder that nearly 90% of its cinema market is foreign films. The Russian public prefers to see the source rather than the second-rate imitation, and rightly so.
@Anonymous, 06:26
Is it really necessary for me to mention all the wars and repressions in history which were justified for religious reasons? And if I do, are you going to try and prove how religion had nothing to do with it for every one of them? Is it not enough to simply acknowledge that people will fight each other if they belong to mutually incompatible, inflexible ideologies, whether they’re religions or not? (and discounting everything that appears on BBC is not wise, just as it is not wise for some Americans to discount everything on RT. Having said that, I’m not so sure I agree with the presenter’s optimism that the trends will continue to improve, because it’s pretty obvious that the world is running out of resources)
Blogger Debanjan said…
“The electorate in either US or EU are getting more and more atomized and hardly 30 per cent of the people regularly vote in the elections as most are disillusioned.”
It is complete disillusionment
You are so right!
This election charade is something I have given so much thought to
When I could first vote, at 18 years of age. I was thrilled….
And vote I did, year after year after year
As time went on Hubby and I gave money to political parties- on the self identified left
I volunteered my time to go door to door, made phone calls and at the polls counting votes
We strategically voted. The lesser of two evils. My hubby and I voted to cancel each others vote out
Like I said, we gave this much thought
That was then and this is now
I will not vote anymore Except at the city level.
No matter what party is in- the elites still win. And the people lose. I expressed these views loudly to the party I used to support when I denied them money
They never said no to a war
They pay lip service to the people
They passed budgets and bills that should never have been passed
And they do it all with intention and forethought
Therefore I am now of the mind, and tell everyone this too, that there is no use in voting, except at the local level
And the sooner everyone stops voting the better. At least in my opinion
I can see no better way to demonstrate the inherent fraud in the whole concept of electoral democracy then by denying the government that which they claim gives them legitimacy. The vote
How can they claim to act on behalf of the people when no one votes for them?
It is not the apathy of the voter- it is the corruption of the government and the institutions of government that is driving voters away
Therefore whenever I see or hear anyone talk about apathetic voters
I inform them it is not voter apathy it is institutionalized corruption.
Just to start things off, here’s where volunteers can translate this video:
http://amara.org/en/videos/H7OPMF8rZJQV/info/press-konferentsiia-apushkova/
(I unfortunately don’t have time to start the translation at the moment, but maybe someone else does?)
E, you do seem sincere, and genuinely interested. But in point of fact, the XX century was one of the bloodiest on record (ask any Russian if you don’t believe me), the Thirty Years War had to do with a group of power-hungry leaders who weren’t nearly as bright as they thought they were and the whole Calvinist vs. Lutheran vs. Catholic conflagration just fit right in, unfortunately. As I said, it’s always easy to split people along the lines of ginned-up hatreds and fears. As to Russian art in the 1990’s — do you have any idea what was done to that society, by US?? My husband and I gained a couple of marvelous grandchildren as a result of it, but I’ll never stop feeling guilty for what they, and the rest of the Russian population, endured as a result of our “democratization”. The survival of Russian art, like the survival of the Russian people, has to do with the very enduring strengths of the Russian people, and they are founded on their deep culture and sense of history and themselves as Russians. And I do believe both stem, ultimately, from their long, long history of faith which gave them values to live by even in the official absence of religious practice. You can see a similar phenomenon alive today in few Native Americans who actually survived their genocide and are now fighting the degradation of all of this once-beautiful land, whether by pipeline over the Oglala Aquifer or mining in the Upper Midwest or the Tar Sands horrors up in Alberta. They’ve been decimated by bullets and deliberate provision of alcohol and penned up in tiny prison camps (each has a number, btw, we just “call” them reservations so it’ll sound more picturesque), but they remember what’s important and are knowingly doing it for the earth, and all of us, not just themselves.
Congratulations! A very good answer.
It reminds me of an essay of Schuon from 1961 originally titled „No Activity without Truth“. It starts such: „In the face of perils of the modern world, we ask ourselves: What must we do? This is an empty question if it be not founded upon antecedent certainties, for action counts for nothing unless it be the expression of a knowing and also a manner of being. Before it is possible to envisage any kind of remedial activity, it is necessary to see things as they are, even if, as things turn out, it costs us much to do so; one must be conscious of those fundamental truths that reveal to us the values of proportions of things. If one’s aim is to save mankind, one must first know what it means to be a man; if one wishes to defend the spirit, one must know what is spirit.“ And proceeds from there. Remarking in passing: „ Outside tradition there can assuredly be found some relative truths or views of partial realities, but outside tradition there does not exist a doctrine that catalyses absolute truth and transmits liberating notions concerning total reality.“
And answering the question “What can we do” as follows: “To this it must be answered that an affirmation of the truth, or any effort on behalf of truth, is never in vain, even if we cannot from beforehand measure the value of the outcome of such an activity. Moreover we have no choice in the matter. Once we know the truth, we must live in it and fight for it; but what we must avoid at any price is to let ourselves bask in illusions. Even if, at this moment, the horizon seems as dark as possible, one must not forget that in a perhaps unavoidably distant future the victory is ours and cannot but be ours. Truth by its very nature conquers all obstacles: Vincit omnia veritas.”
http://www.sacredweb.com/articles/sw1_schuon.html
@E
“All the traditional doctrines agree in this: From a strictly spiritual point of view, though not necessarily from other much more relative and therefore less important points of view, mankind is becoming more and more corrupted; the ideas of “evolution,” or “progress,” and of a single “civilization” are in effect the most pernicious pseudo-dogmas the world has ever produced, for there is no newfound error that does not eagerly attach its own claims to the above beliefs. We say not that evolution is nonexistent, but that it has a partial and most often a quite external applicability; if there be evolution on the one hand, there are degenerations on the other, and it is in any case radically false to suppose that our ancestors were intellectually, spiritually, or morally our inferiors. To suppose this is the most childish of “optical delusions”; human weakness alters its style in the course of history, but not its nature.” From Schuon, same essay.
Penny, ‘democracy’ is simply impossible in any capitalist society. The money power trumps the ordinary individual every time. In capitalist economies (because, as Thatcher taught us, there is no such thing as society)the system may accurately be described as a plutocracy, because money power trumps all, a kleptocracy because as Balzac observed, behind every fortune lies a crime, a pathocracy, because capitalism was created by and empowers psychopaths and a kakistocracy, the Greek description for a society controlled by the worst individuals from the moral and spiritual point of view.
These groups are all over-lapping and constitute tiny, parasitic, insatiably greedy elites, and they control politics, business and the brainwashing systems of the MSM, advertising and ‘entertainment’ entirely, so they shape society and project their psychopathy onto all social relations.
‘Representative democracy’ is controlled by the political bribes or ‘contributions’ of the rich, including, crucially, the employment of politicians after their political service is ended. The voter patsies get a ‘choice’ between near identical parties, none of whom offer any real alternative, certainly not to capitalist rule, once every few years. The votes of fifty percent or so, even more in ‘first past the post’ systems like the UK, go straight down the toilet, and the winning party then governs with no (ie zero, zilch, nada etc) input from the plebs. Those selected as politicians by the rich are generally scum, if I might be blunt. Here in Australia, only a few decades ago, there were politicians of intellectual substance and moral authority, even on the Right. Today they are as I observed, vermin, time-servers, slaves to the Zionazi Lobby, groveling arse-lickers (or ‘brown-noses’ if you prefer)to our Masters in Mordor on the Potomac, morons, proud ignoramuses, and, comic relief, relentlessly egomaniacal. In short most are flagrant psychopaths. They are elected after campaigns of lies, false representation, character assassination of the opposition and appeals to every sort of hatred held by the electorate, their irrational fears and, of course, to their greed (these are the most blatant lies).
As the populace is clearly growing more stupid as the education system is turned into an apartheid style apparatus for ensuring elite control and rampant metabolic disease destroys the brains of a growing proportion of the population, the chances of any popular revolt against this horror are slight. The total control of the MSM by the Right, with the Murdoch monstrosity utterly dominant, and operating as a flagrant and hysterically bigoted brainwashing machine rounds out the catastrophe. The only level on which democracy can work, ie the local and in the realm of personal autonomy and empowerment, is out of the question as it would threaten elite control, so we actually live in a totalitarian dictatorship of the powerful, particularly the moneyed classes and tribes. Democracy is the utter antithesis of this dystopian catastrophe.
Welp Mulga, you sure described it — now I’ve got to go cut-and-paste yet again!
But now, pace Saker, it’s time to guide others. It’s pretty hard work, bc more than likely the only folks you’ll actually be able to reach are those who are totally turned off by this lovely little system of ours. Which of course is exactly what was intended. But people do know what they want, and it’s certainly not what we’ve got, so that’s a start. And the funny thing is, natural leaders emerge and a critical mass can happen almost lightning fast — and I’m not talking war and weapons here, at all, just change. It does take work though. And mainly just saying a little bit at a time, precisely aimed — which of course is precisely what I haven’t done here!
Dear Saker
So simple, so deeply true
File under “Best of Humankind”
Love to you all
M.
@But never think please, that what God wants from you is a “prayer rope”.
Robo_IC,
You may flatter yourself that you know better than God, but you just arrogantly flaunt your ignorance.
“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. Thessalonians 5,16-18
Luke 18:1 “And he spoke a parable to them to this end, that men ought always”
Luke 21:36 “Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy”
Romans 12:12 “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer”
Ephesians 6:18 “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”
Colossians 4:2 “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving”
1 Peter 4:7 “But the end of all things is at hand: be you therefore sober, and watchful in your prayers”
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
― Blaise Pascal, Pensées
In actual fact this is the meaning of “The Kingdom of God is within you”: (“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you”.(Luke 17:20-21)
“The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the evangelion” (Mark, 1,15)
The Kingdom of God, Basilea tou theou is the Spirit, is the Kingship of God to which we are invited to partake.
“My Kingdom is not of this world. If My Kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My Kingdom is not of this realm” (John 18, 36).
“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6,33)
WizOz
Saker – you are complete brainwashed idiot or provocator. Or you just post for donations? Your (and the rest of neocons) SOO beloved Solzenitsyn (wich means btw “so-liar” in Russian) is 1) LIAR; 2)LIAR FOR PROFIT; 3)very unprofessional in writing in Russian language… and so on… and so on… and so on…. I can prove all my stataments but not on YOUR request, but on request of any of your readers. You have to explain what is so “saint” or “spiritual” or whatever else you see in this poor excuse for man.
Saker – you are complete brainwashed idiot or provocator. Or you just post for donations? Your (and the rest of neocons) SOO beloved Solzenitsyn (wich means btw “so-liar” in Russian) is 1) LIAR; 2)LIAR FOR PROFIT; 3)very unprofessional in writing in Russian language… and so on… and so on… and so on…. I can prove all my stataments but not on YOUR request, but on request of any of your readers. You have to explain what is so “saint” or “spiritual” or whatever else you see in this poor excuse for man.
So you are REALLY just for money here, little “Suker”…
@WizOz: about prayer – you are absolutely correct, but I think that very few people in the West are even aware of the kind of prayer you are referring to. Orthodox prayer – especially in its Hesychast form – is much closer to prayer in certain branches of Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism then to what you can typically see today on TV or in most churches. Even in the more traditional denominations today the sermon and the “public participation” is far more important than asceticism, inner prayer of the heart or the mystical experience which Orthodox worship offers. So I would not be too harsh with those who think that prayer is essentially a glorified waste of time, considering what they typically have been exposed to, this is actually a pretty fair statement.
The West has always been scholastic, while the East is mystical, hence the very real difficulty is communication between these very different psychological, cultural and spiritual worlds. Of course, there has been real mysticism in the West for over 1000 years, and there are still some manifestations of it, but they are extremely rare, and yet some people still seek it and eventually find it. There still is real Christian love and immense faith in the West, I have seen it quite often. It’s the big picture which is sad and depressing, but as soon as you look at the micro-level, “under the rubble” (to use Solzhenitsyn’s expression), the picture changes and you see that there still is life amongst these ruins.
My personal experience is that the most rabid atheists also make the most pious and fervent believers once they are offered something worth being believed. But from a spiritual point of view those “hot” and those “cold” are the stuff from which greats saints are made. It’s the lukewarm which are hopeless as it says in the Book of Revelation “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”. But mostly the honest people just need to be pointed in the right direction, like Saint Paul who sincerely and honestly persecuted Christians before himself becoming one. He was “cold” and he became “hot”. It’s the lukewarm intellectuals like Ponce Pilate who are hopeless. They can actually ask “what is the truth” when the Truth Incarnate stands right before them.
Anyway, that is to say that I personally always have a lot of sympathy for those who are disgusted with religion and hate it for what they correctly see as its hypocrisy. All they need is to be shown that not all religions are fake that there is real spirituality out there, and they very happily change their point of view. At least that has been my personal experience.
Kind regards,
The Saker
The brother of one of Germany’s Ex-Presidents, in a moment of light-heartedness, put it blandly (and, oh Lord, so correctly), when, looking back on his life, he surmised :”The only moments in my life I regret were those when I was forced to be and stay in the presence of idiots, of which, alas, there are just too many around.”
Boy, did he hit the mark, Mr.Anonimous poster just before me…
yeah, alas…
@There still is real Christian love and immense faith in the West, I have seen it quite often.
Fortunately. Le Chemin de Saint Jacques is alive. Saint Jacques is one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration of our Lord, one of those to whom it was said: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom”, one who heard also the voice of the Father saying: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased” when he was with Him on the holy mountain.
Hopefully “the day will dawn and the morning star will rise in their hearts” for those who will take this road. Occitania was Apostolic ground. Somethig must have remained attached to it.
@So I would not be too harsh with those who think that prayer is essentially a glorified waste of time, considering what they typically have been exposed to, this is actually a pretty fair statement.
Neither would I, but that guy was too specifically refering to the “prayer rope”, i.e. to the hewsychast prayer in quite clear “anti-palamite” vein.
WizOz
@Nora, you say that the 20th century has had the most per-capita war on record, but I gave a link to empirical evidence showing the opposite, while you cited only anecdotal evidence. Sort of a “you know in your heart that this is true” thing. No scholar or scientist will accept such an argument, so I stick by my original statements unless you can find evidence showing otherwise. If you do, I will not be offended and will be open to changing my mind.
I don’t know about Russia specifically. It’s possible that for Russia this century has been worse than previous ones (although the Mongol invasion was pretty bad, wasn’t it?), but the link I gave was about the overall worldwide situation.
As for degrading spirituality: Every single older generation believes that the morals of the younger generation are degrading, and that the world is always getting worse. That is hardly new. Probably what’s really happening is that they’re getting older and the world is getting worse *for them*. I mean, even my dear grandmother talks about how the world is getting worse – and she lived through WW2! How is it possible for today to be worse than the horrible stories she tells me of those times? Thank goodness, we have no equivalents of Hitler or Stalin among today’s leaders.
I’m a bit like that as well – look at me reminisce about aspects of Soviet times, for heaven’s sake! Except in my case I do have a bit of hard data to back me up as well (things like average Russian life expectancy – still not back to the level of the 1980s).
E,
1. A 4-minute animation of the improvements in public health and increase in *average* global wealth is not empirical evidence. That term means data, lots of data, collected in lots of ways by lots of people. Here is the very first thing that came up on Google but you’re free to check out others: http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/massacre.html
2. C.V. Wedgwood “The Thirty Years War” sets the stage well at the beginning, traces all that went on diplomatically, militarily and in the lives of the millions affected and still remains one of the very best works on that entire horror. It’s a depressing but very good read.
3. Russian life expectancy now is a direct result of having every penny that wasn’t nailed down bled out of it thanks to Yeltsin giving American “democratizers” and Russian and Jewish oligarchs free rein. Amazing what that can do and if you don’t believe me, try Google.
I understand your passion for your field, but it helps, if you’re going to make blanket proclamations, to read some real history first.
I wholeheartedly agrre with your answer to Nora.
This is my stand though: religion is man made and is not the answer to human woes.
However God is Alive and the Scriptures are his major way of having communicated to us His guidance, for which we do not need an organised religion to follow.
If anything, prophets were sent to debunk and dismantle religions, which were used by leaders to subjugate man.
Freedom is in Belief in God, doing goodness, avoiding and fighting evil, and belief in a day of reckoning when we will meet God for real.
@Nora,
I am not disputing that most 20th century wars had by far more casualties than most past wars. However, the earth’s population was also much greater, so the per capita level of death due to war was significantly less than it was in the past.
What this means is that for the average person’s life, the world is more peaceful than it has ever been (on record), even though there is more war than there has ever been. I hope that’s clear now. Our ancestors were smaller in number and more violent than us.
My source for that assertion was not the 4-minute BBC video, but this book:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/22/world-less-violent-stats_n_1026723.html
@Nabil, I believe that everyone has slightly different natures, (some people’s natures are VERY different), and that they manifest themselves differently in different environments, and that for this reason “freedom” means a somewhat different thing for everyone. Different societies prefer different “freedoms” as well (which the Americans are very good at not understanding, I have to say). Unfortunately, what this means is that your notion of good and evil may not line up with that of others’ (which can be a shock if you’re only trying to do your best). If it’s very different, you may end up in jail, in an insane asylum, or killed in battle.
I try to make the world better when I can, because that’s what gives me peace, so that maybe my last moment before I cease to exist will not be full of regret. That’s about all I can hope for.
E,
I don’t know if you’re still here but I’ll continue the conversation a bit. Pinker is a cognitive psychologist, not by any means a historian, statistician, epidemiologist or public health type (yup, they all do this kind of work). He is also a Zionist and therefore very interested in defending the genocidal policies of Israel. He *might* have had one general statistics course in graduate school, but has no quantitative background w/which to interpret, or even grasp the strengths and weaknesses of any of the studies he cites. Nor, frankly, does he want to — he’s got other goals you might factor in when reading his work, which was referred to in The Guardian as “a comfort blanket for the smug”. So please consider the source.
Two further points: first, he believes, or at least he calls up, the rather-dated concept of Progress. The belief that we are ever-improving has been pretty well refuted by the work of people who really know what they’re doing. Change does not necessarily mean improvement. Yes, humans have evolved, particularly in the utilization of resources, but that doesn’t mean that our actual genetic wiring keeps changing to make us better and better, or even that our evolution is in a positive direction. In fact, we might be an evolutionary dead end; that happens too. For example, people in many primitive societies — and also chimpanzees — tend to do better than the average suburbanite when placed in new and challenging situations. So no, We. Are. Not. Necessarily. Improving. Progress — “humanity is improving and getting better and better, look at all this new stuff around us and soon we will all…” was a late-Victorian concept that should have been smashed by WWI, but certainly is nigh unto dead right now as our oligarchs take everything including the resources polities both religious and secular have always dedicated to the unfortunate. (Remember the OT prophets, or just think tithing; it was always important to take care of your own. Until now. That’s hardly progress.)
Secondly, I’m no military historian but I’ve read enough of it to understand quite clearly that a) soldiers used to fight soldiers (well, ok, they’d pillage and rape), but their actual battles tended to be in battlefields, away from civilian areas. Then came planes, and gas, and a rather substantial increase in civilian casualties. Then, speeding things up a bit, came asymmetric warfare (soldiers don’t go into formation to fight now; basically haven’t since WWII), “precision” bombing that is anything but, and now drones. So civilian casualties have actually increased substantially. Now I’m making no apologies for Genghis Khan, Tamerlane or whomever — I’m quite opposed to all war and very much in favor of people being able to choose their own form of government with no outside interference — but I really do suggest you consider the source (again, a statistical concept but just ask yourself when you read something: where is this person coming from, what are they trying to do, and why) and then read several different viewpoints on issues before making up your mind on them.
Ok, I’ll try to do that. Thanks for the response Nora.
@Saker: This is a remarkable article. May God bless you for taking the time to write it.
– Abraham
I’m an American Bible thumper and i liked your remarks. What i find offensive and probably true is that most Americans actively despise the Holy Bible and hate Christians and think we are stupid mindless zombies. I can’t understand – when did it become in America cool to hate Jesus?
This anti-Christian bias is absolutely to blame for the destruction of what was The United States if America. It was a nation founded in freedom by Christians, so they could worship God as they pleased.
And in two hundred years that goal is become so lost that there are now millions of Americans who have never read the Bible. And Thousands who hate Jesus Christ with all their heart.
How did we get here? I prayer and read my Bible each day to understand.
I was looking on the web for some real news and came upon your writing “Russia’s Intervention in Syria” and I recognized how much understanding was in it and I copied much of it. So then I came across Nora’s “Really important question” which also has been my question for a long time. I started to read your answer, but i will go back to it when I can and study it. I really do know it but you make it so clear, that will help me to remember it always.
What made me really happy was to see that picture of Solzhenitsyn with Putin.
Thank you very much. Astrid Watanabe