The Russian Market: Satan Reigns There
Vasili Ostrovsky
2004
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Has His Holiness spoken on economics and politics? He has… let’s take a look:
On the one hand, material consumption is a natural human desire… if a man doesn’t care about it; he would die. This need is embedded in our instincts… we eat, drink, dress, and take care to propagate our race. We do this for human survival, and, in any case, the Church doesn’t take an aloof and moralistic stance, “Oh, don’t worry about this”. Today, this is especially true, when there are so many poor people in our societies, those who are malnourished, who don’t have enough money for most necessities of life. I’m not talking about education, health care, holidays, or a full cultural life, but the Church can’t say, “You know, it’s all bad”.
However, what has the Church stood against, what does it stand against, and what will it always stand against? It opposes what the Fathers called the “lust of the flesh”, when mankind is dominated by consumption. At that point, lust (and lust is a disease that’s a violation of internal balance) becomes dominant in a person. Such a person cares only about materialism; they have no spiritual dimension. It is important that people, especially today, remember the overwhelming words of Our Saviour, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?” We must write this in gold letters, and hang them in every room, especially the rooms of rich people. For what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world, but destroy his own soul? That is why the Church must set itself into people’s minds, and why it must say what it must naturally, with love, not stepping back, not looking down on those who live in poverty, but in solidarity with poor people, to proclaim moral values. Then, nobody would accuse the Church of sanctimonious hypocrisy, but would attend to the preaching of the Church. This exhortation is now crucial for the survival of our civilisation; the consumer psychology and the lust of the flesh are not viable… they destroy the spiritual dimension of life, and turn human beings into animals.
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The modern economy is built largely on fraud; it creates money out of thin air. [Money is] a token of human labour and of our God-given resources, such as coal, ore, and oil, along with our intelligence, physical labour, culture, and spirituality. [However,] every company produces its own money in the form of shares, which is passed onto the secondary market, becoming not just simple securities; they are traded and used as items of speculation. If these mere phantasms earn billions, not even backed by labour or real capital, then, how can such an economy exist? Who is going to pay for all of this? Why, the simple worker [is going to], who produces the value behind all of this bubble. [We need] a fair economic system where money and capital are equivalent and are the expression of real work.
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We do not confine ourselves to only working with individuals; we do not limit the Church’s preaching only to sermons on individual morality. Why? Experience shows us that if we work only with individuals, but do not address the social dimension, we lose sight of the focus of the pastoral mission, which exists so that the inner world of a man can realise itself in society. Of course, Scripture tells us that evil thoughts come from the heart. Greed, pride, anger, irritability, jealousy, and envy… just about any emotional problem… you can find them in the heart, but they spill out [and affect others].
We can observe them on a national scale, on the scale of society, as in, let us say, in the problems with the economy, when criminal impulses begin to break down, like a cancerous tumour, the healthy tissue of economic life, to destroy society. In politics, we see this when politicians don’t even try to unite people and serve them, when they divide people in the name of their narrow political interests. What’s the result? As a result, they rip apart national life and tear apart families… because when an acute political crisis occurs, politicians affect human destiny… Where did all of this come from? It came from the internal state [of a man]. A man brought up in responsibility before God will not be able to project inner evil into social, political, and economic life, or into the legislative area, after all, such things are closely linked with morality. That is why the Church goes around the world today, holding up the cross of the Lord. What’s the cross, anyway? It’s an intersection of vertical and horizontal dimensions. The vertical dimension is the internal relationship of man with God. Its horizontal dimension is mankind’s involvement in public life. Therefore, under no circumstances, can we focus on individualistic morals and say, “We aren’t concerned with anything concerning society; we only deal with individuals”.
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There one has it… His Holiness is OPPOSED to untrammelled, unregulated, and unbridled capitalism. The GOP/neocons/Tea Party are in favour of capitalism without bounds. The two positions are not compatible. The konvertsy confuse “conservative” politics as spouted by such phonies as Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck with Orthodox Truth. Nothing could be farther from the actuality… Limbaugh is nothing but a prescription pill abuser from the Upper West Side of Manhattan… Sarah Palin is a Pentecostalist Sectarian, that is, she’s an American Khlyst; ergo, she’s not related to anything truthful… Glenn Beck is an apostate, as he was once a Christian (Roman Catholic) who converted to the Mormon sect. His Nibs speaks the mind of the Church… certain clerical gentlemen who have links to Rush Limbaugh on their websites don’t have a clue as to what the Church actually teaches and preaches. In short, the Church can live with Red October, as the Reds are closer to Christ than unbridled capitalists are. The untrammelled Free Market is EVIL and all good Orthodox Christians should avoid those clergy who defend it. The modern economy is built largely on fraud; it creates money out of thin air. THAT’S what the Church teaches… get your mind right and get out of the Tea Party.
BMD
Voices from Russia 
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