Photo: EPA-EFE/ETIENNE LAURENT
It appears that the era of “color-coded revolutions” is going out with a bang in a black and white revolt.
At first glance, the current social protest in the US was colored in racial undertones as if by chance. Tentatively speaking, let’s suppose it wasn’t a white policeman killing a black man but instead a white man, the head of a large family, who after being fired from his job set himself on fire in the middle of a public square. This might also have become a catalyst for “justified” wrath and rebellion. What’s odd though is that there are literally millions of people who have been fired from their jobs these days, who, as we can imagine, are suffering from utter despair. Yet, somehow a protest against slavery became a burning issue. Not necessarily the oppression of the poor by the rich but oppression according to race.
As it happens, by “some lucky chance,” the confrontation in the US plays directly into some people’s hands because today’s Republicans are the conservative citizens and the successors of the ideals of slave-owning Confederates, while today’s Democrats are the zealots of all freedoms imaginable. Therefore, they hold out the hope that by stirring up discontent among the masses of African Americans and their sympathizers, they will win voters from this numerous and poorly manageable electoral base. Unfortunately, they are spiritually blind and unable to foresee how their actions edge the country closer to a break up that has loomed over the US for quite some time. Moreover, a wave of equally “justice-seeking” protests corroding the very foundation of the Euro-Atlantic coalition managed to spread to other countries of the western world.
The enemy of mankind, with God’s allowance, acts, or so he thinks, in his own interests when he controls and manipulates the masses of people unguarded by God’s grace. For centuries the son of perdition convinced one group of men of their supremacy and the right to exploit the “inferior” human beings. But these days, he emboldens the descendants of those “lowest” among men and the “truth-seekers” among their sympathizers to begin a fierce battle against the “oppressors” in the name of the “triumph of justice.” Creating injustice, the devil equitably destroys everything that was created “unfairly.” In either case, there is only one goal: to shatter the Divine order in which, on the one hand, the rich and those endowed with authority were given the commandment to care for those who are weak and on the other hand, the weak are to meekly accept their sorrows and trials in hopes of a reward, if not in this age, then in the age to come. This is the worldview and system of values founded on principles of Christian faith. Without faith, the desire of the rich and powerful to bleed the poor pale for the sake of profit, and the wish of the oppressed to taste of the fullness of the life of the rich becomes the only fundamental bond of the system we know as capitalism, and which is seemingly approaching its end.
Let’s hypothesize that the blacks of today will be proclaimed all over the world as the hegemon of the universe so that all of us might wait in trepidation and fear to find out what they want, how they see the future, and what bright and happy life they want to create. This is where we are set up for a huge disappointment. It is one thing to live like a black man, unjustly exploited for a long time, and quite another to understand how to live justly; or even less so, how to build and maintain a new paradigm of life. So, what if the blacks become the new “privileged” class? It is quite plain to see how the whole idea of social advancement is false if taken by itself. A man’s skin does not make him privileged, but rather his personal qualities. If by “privileges” we understand the ability to live fully, contentedly and comfortably, doing everything to satiate all of our passions and desires, then nothing changes per se. Two extremes of the capitalist system just switch sides, and the oppressed become the oppressors, or vice versa. That’s about it if speaking of “justice.” It is nothing but a devilish mockery of man and mankind.
Two extremes of the capitalist system switch sides and the oppressed become the oppressors or vice versa. That’s about it if speaking of “justice.” It is nothing but a devilish mockery of man and mankind.
If we were to discuss the true privileges given to us by God, or the loftiness of man’s calling and social status in the world, the Lord said: But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (Matthew 20:26-27). This means that the true stature of man or his nothingness does not depend on his social position or social standing but is rooted in the state of his spirit, faith, and the existence or absence of sacrificial love. A society can be created truly Christian, and therefore, equitable (insofar as possible), provided it is grounded in the active learning and pursuit of Christ’s commandments. It becomes possible when instead of securing the external conditions of prosperity, society focuses on maintaining the moral and spiritual laws, while all other rules assist in their implementation.
In this regard, the question of spiritual and moral education and upbringing must play a pivotal role in our life. Unfortunately, Russia (as ultimately our focus [in Russia] is Russia and its future) is far from even considering this as an urgent matter. We still assume that a list of major problems includes such areas as economy, manufacturing, production of goods, consumption, and IT development and implementation. Modern education in Russia is less and less preoccupied with any moral and ethical evaluation of acquired wealth of information and gets seriously involved in the creation of a vast range of competencies. This concept of life is false since it becomes quite clear that today’s major focal point is man and his attitude to God, himself, and those around him, as well as how he manages the treasury of knowledge, skills, and experience accumulated by previous generations. These questions and answers are the major defining attributes of our times, recognized by the loss of purpose in life and a framework, required to build personal, married, and public life, that has been shattered.
Even if we understand all the above, it is not an easy task as it might appear to switch from today’s materialistic paradigm of life to a spiritual one. The understanding that faith, and true faith in particular, as a pre-requisite, as well as the need to live it out, is the only true and holy revolution of our times that we cannot put off any longer. Without it, the world will keep spiraling down the road to hell and the end of the history of mankind will come upon us soon enough. Please do not confuse the above with other anxiety-provoking news, as it is reality based on natural logic of events and prophetically described in the books of the Holy Scripture.
The idea that faith is a pre-requisite, as well as the need to live it out, is the only true and holy revolution of our times.
All the more so since there are some very active forces and mechanisms in the world that provide every kind of assistance to bring these prophecies to fulfillment quite soon. In particular, there are so-called “globalist power brokers” who expect to bring the current world order, weak and crippled yet based on Christian values, to its final and ultimate demise. These so-called elites anticipate how, after worldwide chaos and its destructive power is revealed to all mankind, they will be able to establish a new, “smart” model of the world order and global control over men.
In this respect, an age-old argument between Monk Varlaam and St. Gregory Palamas comes to mind about the ways to know God. In a nutshell, Varlaam taught that in order to know God perfectly, one needs to accumulate and increase one’s depth of knowledge, “so that later one can achieve a universal study of the nature of existence by way of generalization.” To counter this view, Holy Hierarch Gregory says that, “Grace and the energy of theosis are different from grace and wisdom.” This is where the major conflict lies between the Catholic (and post-Catholic) West and the Orthodox East, which determines two differing views on nature, man, his calling, and the ways to reach the ultimate goal of human life.
According to St. Gregory, when Western theological thought dismissed the teaching about uncreated energies, it “cut itself off from God” and lodged a “vast and impassable chasm” between God and man. What they were left with was a devilish cobweb of raw emotions and a mind devoid of grace, capable only of keeping man from decay and entropy in this paradigm. The result was that the West had placed the utmost importance on logic, rationalism, and intellect. Moreover, the idea of rationalism and its significance in the life of society reached the ultimate point of development in a modern idea of artificial intelligence that becomes, in the worst scenario, a new Baal, an antithesis to God Who is love.
Our “immersion into the abundance of knowledge” and earthly, sensual, and demonic wisdom (cf. Js. 3:15), that over time has cast off its mask of fake piety, has delivered mankind, or at least its Western part, to a dreadful realm of arrogance and pride.
By themselves, rationalism and the ability to analyze and think critically do not contradict faith but are an integral part of human identity. However, it is the love of God and man that truly inspires and gives true meaning to all human abilities. Whenever intellect is singled out as a category of its own developing, existing solely by itself, and taking a commanding position in the organization of civic life, it becomes another form of idolatry. Nothing good will come of it. Furthermore, St. Gregory compares the utmost fascination with the ideas of scientific progress with some other kinds of obsessive and spiritually destructive passions. It draws man further away from God and condemns him to suffer from emptiness and misery.
A principal error of the Western world lies in the “development” of material life and nature as its ultimate goal, all the while relying only on human resources. However, without “God-given grace,” natural man will never reach the perfect state to which he was called. Moreover, human pride, devoid of grace and disguised as “self-perfection,” would inevitably cause further confusion, and going ever more insane, will view this insanity as its refinement. We see today in the broadest scale and scope how chaos and anarchy have been, as if voluntarily, fueled by external parties who plan, as soon as the world reaches its boiling point, to offer a new set of “harmonious” and “ideal” solutions for building the world based on the finest “intellectual” principles. However, we must clearly understand that a mind deprived of God does not act on its own, and human pride is guided and managed by the power of evil. That is, the “perfect” mind devoid of grace is the principal tool of antichrist in the apocalyptic “post-Christian” world.
When all Americans, from senators to protesters, remove the Confederate portraits from the halls in the Capitol building or destroy monuments in their public places, they are, consciously or unwittingly, displacing the very foundation stones upon which their country was built. If the destruction does not stop anytime soon, the cataclysmic collapse of the building called the USA is a matter of the nearest future. Our nation [Russia] knows about this firsthand. Sooner or later, it happens to any society that has lost the fear of God.
To conclude, as we observe the events unfolding within the so-called “civilized world,” let us ponder upon a simple question: What is the will of God for our nation and us? Without a doubt, God wants us to remain the guardians and the apostles of the Orthodox faith. Anything facilitating this will attract the mercy of God, while anything that stands in the way will bring His wrath upon us. The earlier we grasp this simple truth, the sooner we will be able to create a truly godly life in our Motherland, and, God willing, increase the days of mankind on earth.
