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.No one should doubt that Russians, especially villagers, can make abeautiful fence: by necessity, most Russian men are good handymen.Yetthe fence is a horror to behold.And then, if your fence is ugly, you canalways dream of fixing it up one day, and then by never doing it, turnthis task into a lofty dream.Let us recap the reasons why the Russian fence is so badly made:I live no better than you do, so I am not to be envied.In fact, if pushcomes to shove, I am entitled to envy you, so beware and give me somerespect;I am a Russian Orthodox Christian: Jesus suffered, and Hebequeathed us to do likewise .You can see how I suffer;I am a poet, not a fence maker;This is not my house, this is just a temporary hut I have been livingin (all my life): I am about to start building a palace;I am building a better fence, but it takes time: once I am done with it,what am I going to do, what will be my future? (Indeed, God could havecreated a perfect man right from the start, but then He would have hadnothing to do for all these years.But since we are far from being perfect,we are giving God something to do.)We will discuss it later, but this idea is so important I will state ithere as well.It is not an accident at all that I chose fences for such adetailed discussion.A fence is extremely important as it symbolizes thelaw.Indeed, it separates my property from society at large, it protects myprivacy, my family, my land.The fence is also the face I show to theoutside world.And it is not surprising that Russian law has the exactsame characteristics as a typical Russian peasant fence.86 Russia As It Is: Transformation of a Lose/Lose SocietyFor a Protestant, a well-made product is like a prayer: Look what Ihave done working to the limit of my abilities .A German shows Godhis shiny Mercedes and says, This is the result of my lifelong labor, andthis is a perfect, expensive, well-respected car. A Russian crawls outfrom under his rusted out barely functioning Russian car to say, I amsuffering just like You did.Who else would buy this clunky piece ofjunk? I am surely putting spiritual values above material ones: it wouldbe hard to put this car of mine above anything that has any value. It is the absence (preferably, the total absence) of material things thatRussians have always considered a mark of spiritual strength, goodness,and, most importantly, freedom.In Russia, it was the man who hadnothing who was considered blessed.A Russian saint is always a single old man living by himself, faraway from other people.His dwelling is called a pustosh which meansan empty or deserted place.Indeed, if a man has nothing and is attachedto nothing and nobody, he would think only of God.This man neverworks, but lives on whatever the pilgrims who desire to witness hissaintliness or benefit from his advice bring.Again, Russians apply to people standards that can be applied only toGod.People need food and clothing, and hungry people will not think ofGod: they will think of stealing food from others, they will hate thosewho do have enough to eat.And yet, Russians believe that only the lackof property, lack of attachment, gives real freedom.Westerners thinkotherwise: their constant quest for material possessions is actually a questfor freedom.In Russia, the rich have always been seen as suspect; in theWest, the rich are respected as those who have achieved their dream offreedom.Moreover, it is not thinking of God that makes you a saint: not beingenvious or destructive towards other people is more like it.We see that it is hard to call Lenin and Stalin anti-religious in theRussian context: they confiscated everything and caused untoldsuffering, turning many Russians into the very kind of saints they hadvenerated for centuries turning them against their will, but this is evenbetter.The Russians had saints that starved, tortured their flesh, tiedthemselves with ropes, beat themselves with whips: Stalin did his best toimpose just that on millions of Russians.87 Matthew MalySeeing Russian youths giving the Nazi salute, commentators talkabout nostalgia for a strong hand in a country whose economy iscollapsing.But I think that unconsciously many Russians love Stalin andeven Hitler (!) because they made the Russians suffer, and suffering liftsyou up above it all.Today, many Moslems venerate those who killedthemselves while committing a horrible and senseless crime againstinnocent people.What is there to venerate, what was gained? Suffering iswhat was gained.Furthermore, this attitude provides an ideal cover-up for theoffspring of envy: general indiscriminate hatred of one's neighbors.If werecall our banana peel example, we could see that throwing a banana peelon the sidewalk "has a good side to it" as "it could give someone achance to suffer by slipping on it".What fertile ground Russia was for acruel dictatorship, and now it is just as fertile for a state run by criminals [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.No one should doubt that Russians, especially villagers, can make abeautiful fence: by necessity, most Russian men are good handymen.Yetthe fence is a horror to behold.And then, if your fence is ugly, you canalways dream of fixing it up one day, and then by never doing it, turnthis task into a lofty dream.Let us recap the reasons why the Russian fence is so badly made:I live no better than you do, so I am not to be envied.In fact, if pushcomes to shove, I am entitled to envy you, so beware and give me somerespect;I am a Russian Orthodox Christian: Jesus suffered, and Hebequeathed us to do likewise .You can see how I suffer;I am a poet, not a fence maker;This is not my house, this is just a temporary hut I have been livingin (all my life): I am about to start building a palace;I am building a better fence, but it takes time: once I am done with it,what am I going to do, what will be my future? (Indeed, God could havecreated a perfect man right from the start, but then He would have hadnothing to do for all these years.But since we are far from being perfect,we are giving God something to do.)We will discuss it later, but this idea is so important I will state ithere as well.It is not an accident at all that I chose fences for such adetailed discussion.A fence is extremely important as it symbolizes thelaw.Indeed, it separates my property from society at large, it protects myprivacy, my family, my land.The fence is also the face I show to theoutside world.And it is not surprising that Russian law has the exactsame characteristics as a typical Russian peasant fence.86 Russia As It Is: Transformation of a Lose/Lose SocietyFor a Protestant, a well-made product is like a prayer: Look what Ihave done working to the limit of my abilities .A German shows Godhis shiny Mercedes and says, This is the result of my lifelong labor, andthis is a perfect, expensive, well-respected car. A Russian crawls outfrom under his rusted out barely functioning Russian car to say, I amsuffering just like You did.Who else would buy this clunky piece ofjunk? I am surely putting spiritual values above material ones: it wouldbe hard to put this car of mine above anything that has any value. It is the absence (preferably, the total absence) of material things thatRussians have always considered a mark of spiritual strength, goodness,and, most importantly, freedom.In Russia, it was the man who hadnothing who was considered blessed.A Russian saint is always a single old man living by himself, faraway from other people.His dwelling is called a pustosh which meansan empty or deserted place.Indeed, if a man has nothing and is attachedto nothing and nobody, he would think only of God.This man neverworks, but lives on whatever the pilgrims who desire to witness hissaintliness or benefit from his advice bring.Again, Russians apply to people standards that can be applied only toGod.People need food and clothing, and hungry people will not think ofGod: they will think of stealing food from others, they will hate thosewho do have enough to eat.And yet, Russians believe that only the lackof property, lack of attachment, gives real freedom.Westerners thinkotherwise: their constant quest for material possessions is actually a questfor freedom.In Russia, the rich have always been seen as suspect; in theWest, the rich are respected as those who have achieved their dream offreedom.Moreover, it is not thinking of God that makes you a saint: not beingenvious or destructive towards other people is more like it.We see that it is hard to call Lenin and Stalin anti-religious in theRussian context: they confiscated everything and caused untoldsuffering, turning many Russians into the very kind of saints they hadvenerated for centuries turning them against their will, but this is evenbetter.The Russians had saints that starved, tortured their flesh, tiedthemselves with ropes, beat themselves with whips: Stalin did his best toimpose just that on millions of Russians.87 Matthew MalySeeing Russian youths giving the Nazi salute, commentators talkabout nostalgia for a strong hand in a country whose economy iscollapsing.But I think that unconsciously many Russians love Stalin andeven Hitler (!) because they made the Russians suffer, and suffering liftsyou up above it all.Today, many Moslems venerate those who killedthemselves while committing a horrible and senseless crime againstinnocent people.What is there to venerate, what was gained? Suffering iswhat was gained.Furthermore, this attitude provides an ideal cover-up for theoffspring of envy: general indiscriminate hatred of one's neighbors.If werecall our banana peel example, we could see that throwing a banana peelon the sidewalk "has a good side to it" as "it could give someone achance to suffer by slipping on it".What fertile ground Russia was for acruel dictatorship, and now it is just as fertile for a state run by criminals [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]