12 May 2013. A Word on Certain Loud Republican Circles Amongst Us

Birds of a feather flock together… and they’re GOOD birds, not shitbirds.

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I say the following… so, don’t instigate a witch-hunt of those who hate the immoral and pernicious pabulum dispensed by the Republican Party. It’s time for Christ’s Church to disassociate itself publicly from the American Religious Right, the US Republican Party, and the so-called Pro-Life Movement (one can oppose abortion, yet, oppose this rightwing construct). After all, HH is/was friends with Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, Gennady Zyuganov, Pyotr Simonenko, and Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. Birds of a feather flock together! HH doesn’t associate with godless laissez-faire liberals such as Wet Willy Romney, Paul Ryan, the American Enterprise Institute, or Mikhail Prokhorov… he doesn’t hang around braying libertarian shitbirds.

The MP is well-aware of the vitriolic Whites (“nobility”) that dominate some parts of the ROCOR. Such people got the boot in Russia, but their Western sugar daddies protect them here in the diaspora (yet, such sorts caterwaul about their “traditional” stance and love of Russia). The MP is “fed up” (as one put it) with the boorish anti-Soviet rhetoric found in certain ROCOR circles. Of course, it respects valid criticism, but the slurs, defamation, and hatred deployed by well-known parties isn’t welcome, needed, or truthful (especially, as some of the loudest Whites are on the US government payroll). They’re tired of the Whites strutting about and bad-mouthing the USSR. After all, the USSR WAS Russia.

At present, loud Republicans have appointed themselves “commissars” of opinion in our Church. It’s time to oppose them! They’re not telling the truth. Christ’s Church doesn’t stand for raping the working folk to benefit the Affluent Effluent, and that’s that. HH believes that the “Free Market” is a fraud, and has said so explicitly. That tells you much about the ROCOR loudmouths in the District, doesn’t it? Do note that the Centre won’t take in James Paffhausen… by the way, it hasn’t been for the lack of trying on the part of the Republican faction in the ROCOR. Sanity still reigns at the Centre. We should get with the programme… but shall we? Time will tell us…

BMD

The Role of Traditional Values in Contemporary Society

Families, then (Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich loved his wife and kids, never cheated on her, routinely commuted virtually all death sentences to life imprisonment, and hid a bottle of brandy in his boot… what’s not to like?)…

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families, now…

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Recently, the role of moral values in society has taken centre-stage in public and political discourse. Increasingly, their status as “universal” is under question, and core fundamental concepts receive new, sometimes contradictory interpretations. We must draw a clear distinction between those indisputable values that guided mankind for centuries over its journey of self-development, and the ultraliberal {“liberal” in the European sense, that is, Anglosphere “conservatism”: editor} trends that flourished in the early 21st century.

The collapse of the USSR and the socialist bloc in the late 1980s took Western academe by surprise. It also led to the disappearance of the bipolar political and ideological structures that stabilised international relations throughout the 20th century, paving the way for the triumph of neoliberalism. This latter was the only game in town for some time, much as the “unipolar moment” had been. Some more idealistic researchers even started to talk about the “end of history,” meaning the end of the historic creativity of man and nations. In this regard, I can’t help but refer to the interpretation of the “end of history” by the Most Rev Rowan Williams in his book Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction (Making of the Christian Imagination). The euphoria in international relations was short-lived, because of the experience of the first decade of this century, and, then, the global financial and economic crisis. This suggests that talk of the “end of history” usually heralds serious upheavals.

Neoliberalism prompted a number of profound shifts in social development, largely endorsing principles such as political correctness, and the dictatorship of the minority. The “permissiveness” inherent in this trend led to some traditional values shared by an often acquiescent majority being squeezed out of public discourse. It’s worth noting that distinctive features of this particular “take” on liberalism included zero tolerance of dissent and radical approaches to imposing this view, often with the government’s active support. One can’t help but recall how nihilism, as it’s materialism taken to its absurd conclusion  locks human nature within a consumerist framework. George Orwell gave a convincing description of where this kind of social engineering can potentially lead.

I’d like to quote President Vladimir Putin’s address to the RF Federal Assembly. He said, “Attempts by the government to encroach on people’s beliefs and views are a manifestation of totalitarianism” and “law can’t instil morality“. Nevertheless, this is exactly what’s happening now, even though those involved formally deny it. As a result, the erosion of the cultural and moral social environment began with the replacement of its fundamental concepts. Moreover, all this is happening at a time when the role of religion has been on the rise world-wide, including in Islamic countries. At the heart of the issue lies a search for a common denominator between cultures and civilisations. This is essential for better mutual understanding in the modern world. As Madeleine Albright wrote in her book The Mighty and the Almighty (2006), all “should equally refer to such transcendental issues like history, identity, and faith”. Especially, this is so as “the three monotheistic religions provide a rich tradition of overlapping principles, ethics, and beliefs”. I believe that if we perceive society as a purely socio-mechanistic construct, if we ignore its more subtle moral and spiritual nature, it can have fatal consequences for that very society’s life, and, indeed, its future.

2 April 2013

Aleksandr Yakovenko

RIA-Novosti

http://en.ria.ru/alexander_yakovenko_blog/20130402/180394557/Ambassadors-Notebook-The-Role-of-Traditional-Values-in.html

Editor’s Note:

Many Americans, in particular, are “thrown” by the fact that Russians use English differently than Americans do. For Russians, “liberal” retains its original meaning… “the absence of state controls on private affairs”. That’s to say, the Free Market Nihilism of Anglosphere “conservatives”. The US Republican Party, the Canadian and British Conservative Parties, and the Australian Liberal Party all share this adoration of the Free Market and the concomitant worship of wealth and greed.

“Liberal” in Russia (and on the Continent, as well) does NOT mean “leftist” or “social democratic”. It means a soulless and corrosive nihilistic scrapping of all constructive government regulation, and the trashing of the rights of the non-wealthy. The political parties mentioned above DO believe in the “dictatorship of the minority”… they bow down before oligarchs, gun nutters, religious kooks, economic tinkerers, stock market manipulators, and media moguls. If “law can’t instil morality” (President Putin is right, here), then, we shouldn’t be waving placards in anti-abortion marches; we should be helping unwed mothers, seeing to it that larger families have the wherewithal to raise their kids (including help from the state, of course), and opposing oligarch-inspired cuts to social benefits and wages.

When viewed sanely, with a proper viewpoint, things aren’t quite what Fox News, Pat BuKKKanan, and Rod Dreher propagate. Anyone who opposes sane government regulation and intervention is a godless nihilist… never forget that (the worst of the lot are the Evangelical poseurs, with their smarmy pseudo-religion). Also, remember that “libertarian” is nothing but a euphemism for “wilful, spoilt childishness”. We have a job to do…

BMD 

20 June 2012. THIS is What I Honour… NOT Bankers… NOT “Investors”… NOT the Affluent Effluent… Courage… NOT Cupidity

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I’ve been dealing with some seriously disordered rightwingers lately. Truly, they believe that “money makes the world go around” and that “one must be hard in this world”, that those of us on the Left are people without honour, character, courage, or even worth (that’s why we should only receive the least amount that they can pay us, in their lights). I’ve come to the conclusion that ONE VOV vet is worth all the Libertarians, Free Marketers, Anti-Unionists, Rugged Individualists, and Money-Grubbers out there. On the one hand, you have real heroes who fought to put down one of the most evil systems that ever existed. On the other, you have people who defend their above-median incomes on the grounds that “they earned it” and the “race goes to the swiftest”. I seem to notice a difference. You can honour selflessness or you can worship Self. You can’t do both. If you agree with or vote for Willard Romney, you bow down before the Twin Gods of the Unbridled Self and Almighty Mammon.

I do not. You DO have a choice.

BMD

Patriarch Kirill is Against the Death Penalty under the Current Judicial System in Russia

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias thinks that the death penalty is acceptable in extraordinary cases, but it can’t be applied fairly using the current judicial system. He said on Monday in Chișinău in an interview with Moldovan and Romanian TV outlets and Россия-24 (Rossiya-24), “I’m opposed to the death penalty under current Russian conditions. Today, if you want to eliminate a competitor, you hire a killer. Under the present state of our courts, if we had the death penalty, some would use the law to ‘rub out’ people. That’s a terrible risk”. His Holiness went on to say that there’d already been some cases “when, suddenly, at the last moment, it became known that the suspect wasn’t guilty. Therefore, if we’re to talk about reintroducing the death penalty in some very specific cases, such as psychopaths, mass murderers, and terrorists… without a doubt, of course, it’s absolutely necessary to have clear evidence that the suspect really was involved, and that no one somehow arranged it so that the guilt fell on his head… we may be able to do this in future”.

Citing evidence that the vast majority of citizens of Moldova, Russia, and the Ukraine are in favour of the death penalty, the Patriarch pointed up that they had “to bring about effective changes in the judicial system in our countries. Courts must be incorruptible and trustworthy. If there’s to be a death penalty, investigators must be scrupulous in their work, so that the criminal justice system doesn’t end up murdering someone’s ‘undesirable’”. He reiterated that Church Tradition doesn’t condemn the death penalty, and Christ “was crucified, He suffered the death penalty, but He never said that you can’t execute criminals, and the Holy Fathers said the same thing. The anti-death penalty movement doesn’t come out of Christian Tradition, it’s a result of new Liberal {that is, “conservative” in US/British parlance, more precisely “Libertarian Nihilism“: editor} philosophical ideas originating in the Western European milieu”. Patriarch Kirill noted that the Church has never opposed the death penalty; it’s opposed the use of indiscriminate force. At one point, for a period of a century, there were only seven or eight cases of the death penalty in the Russian Empire. He stated that the Church took pity on criminals, “took them under its security, and asked the state not to use the death penalty”, so that it could try to bring the perp to repentance, “and, in most cases, this could be done”.

11 October 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42583

Editor’s Note:

Note well that His Holiness doesn’t take either EXTREME position. The Church does NOT deny that there are extreme cases such as Andrei Chikatilo. This human POS OFFED 53 KIDS. You heard me… 53 KIDS! I’d shoot this monstrosity without emotion, go eat a burger and drink a pivo, and sleep like a baby afterwards. There’s also Mikhail Saakashvili… the darling of the American rightwing. He ordered the Grad bombardment of sleeping civilians in Tskhinvali, killing scores in their beds. I’d put the noose around his neck, say a prayer, spring the trap, and watch him die with no emotion (and I’d see to it that the variable drop was used to minimise any suffering). There’s nothing WRONG intrinsically with the death penalty… it’s the punishment of UTTER LAST RESORT. It’s not for a criminal who whacked another criminal… that’s a 20-year sentence. It’s not for an enraged lover… it’s not for a single murder. It’s for repeated and contumacious offences against God and Man… and that’s RARE. Mostly, Imperial Russia reserved the death penalty for traitors, not common criminals (but I’d argue that the Chikatilo and his ilk were obvious exceptions).

Here’s your real-world choices… you can have the Orthodox Way, as was embodied by Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (he rarely used the gallows), or, you can have the Pseudo-Christian Way as is embodied by Rick Perry and the bogus “Manhattan Declaration” (and applauded by the Religious Right). His Holiness has chosen the former course, and I say “amen”… all those who support Rick Perry’s Bloody Assizes in Texas have denied Our Lord Christ and His Church, and that’s all that there’s to say on it.

BMD