Past and future of Ukraine. Soviet paganism and European individualism

Inforesist.org ^ | June 11, 2014 | Olexiy Vasilchenko

[annalex]

Past and future of Ukraine. Soviet paganism and European individualism

11.06.2014 12:33

Some time ago, one of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church, executive editor of the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” Sergei Chapnin dared to question the validity of the dominant religion in Russia. He called the May 9 celebration a likeness of “civil religion”, the eternal flame – a pagan symbol that is the image of hell and the wrath of God, and the Victory Day – a dangerous basis for a new national mythology Russia.

In some ways related to this apt comparison there is a criterion that will distinguish the future-oriented modern worldview from the old Soviet consciousness, the conflict with which is now escalated. The Soviet conservative outlook is an ordinary pagan cult of ancestors (destroyers of fascism), anxious attitude to idols (Soviet-era monuments) and collective mysteries (like the May holidays).

What is the basic principle of the pagan worldview? From the point of view of scientific religion (Andrei Zubov) this is the lack of faith in the law of universal justice. Many representatives of the modern “illiterate” people believe that universal justice exists, but it is beyond our lives and does not correlate with the events in people’s lives.

Many primitive pagan communities, which have survived on Earth, have an important differences from normal (in the modern sense) human society: lack of traditional notions of morality. Once a person does not have the responsibility for fulfilling selfish purposes than to achieve the aim it is only necessary to appease the appropriate spirit (an official), and perform the appropriate ritual, for example, to make a sacrifice (a bribe). Apparently, it is the Soviet pagan worldview, which is the cause of our corruption, theft, lies and irresponsibility.

It is characteristic that a pagan is most afraid of change (the cult of stability), because he has no confidence in the future. The spirit (the official), which he coaxed today, tomorrow may well turn against him. And what a horror he experiences at the destruction of idols (monuments of the Soviet era) …

But what alternative can replace the outdated pagan worldview? Events of this winter and spring showed that in Ukraine it is primarily European individualism and responsibility of the individual. This principle gives a much more healthy understanding of morality than the Soviet collective religion as originally based on Christian values ​​(belief in the immortality of the individual soul).

The development of the personality, which is negatively perceived in the collectivist Soviet state, gives hope to build a civil society in Ukraine at the grassroots level, which will provide the foundation for the social institutions to monitor the activities of the state.

Olexiy Vasilchenko

[annalex]

(*) Zubov. See Interview: In Crimea, Putin Has 'Lost His Mind' for more.

[annalex]

If you want to be on this right wing, monarchy, paleolibertarianism and nationalism ping list, but are not, please let me know. If you are on it and want to be off, also let me know. This ping list is not used for Catholic-Protestant debates.

[annalex]

I wish the author wrote a heavier article. The central idea, that Sovietism is a form of paganism deserves plenty of attention; I think it is the proper platform to understand modern Russia and deal with it.

[theBuckwheat]

Believe it or not, Marxism is philosophically based on the ancient pagan religion of Gnosticism. Let me paste the explanation even though it will have a few formatting errors when it gets processed by the FR posting form:

Gnoticism teaches that human spirit was God, was cast to earth as a million points of light and is now trapped in the evil material. Only through the sufficient knowledge, can we return to be God. The process of being removed from God is called “alienation”, a theme that should be familiar to students of Marx, even as he put a secular interpretation on it. Humanity could return to God when it achieved the perfect socialist condition. The foundational ideas of Gnosticism go back to the time of Plato.

Here is a succinct explanation of this process from British philosopher R.T. Allen:

“To understand [alienation] we have to go back behind Hegel, the immediate source of Marx’s ideas, to Hegel’s own ultimate source: viz. Gnosticism. For alienation is the central theme of Gnosticism, along with the saving knowledge of how we became alienated, and from what, and of how we can escape from it. That theme is summarized in the Valentinian
formula:

‘What liberates is the knowledge of who we were, what we became; where we were, whereinto we came; what birth is and what rebirth.’ All the Gnostic texts, though they differ in details, declare that we are strangers, aliens, sparks of Light or Spirit trapped in evil matter. The recount the cosmic process whereby the circles of the world have been
created, by ignorant or evil creators and not by the Light, and whereby we have become entrapped in the midmost or deepest dungeon. Finally they impart the knowledge needed to escape back to the one Light whence we have come and which is our real home.

This is the pattern of thought that Hegel took over. But, rejecting all other-worldliness, he sought to reconcile men to this world, of nature and society, from which they had become estranged. We are the vehicles of a self-creating Geist which, in order to become and to know itself, has gone out into what is most alien to itself—the merely physical
world of Newtonian science—and is progressively coming thence to its full self-realization and self-knowledge in and through human life and history. With this knowledge, given by Hegel’s own philosophy, man’s alienation from the world is in principle, overcome although Geist has not yet fully realized itself in the world.

Marx took from Hegel two basic themes of Gnosticism, which Hegel had secularized, and re-interpreted them in his own way: viz. the cosmic drama of a fall into alienation from nature and one’s fellow men, and the saving knowledge, Marxism, which explains this and the way out of alienation back to an unalienated existence. But in one central
respect Marx did not fully learn the lesson that Hegel had to teach him about modifying ancient Gnosticism.

The Gnostic texts state that we are sparks of Light or fragments of Spirit (pneuma), and imply that we are distinct from each other and from the Light or Spirit only because of our fall or seduction into the circles of the world. As we fell through each circle, we were clothed with an outer covering. The return to the Light will be a reversal of that
process, so that, as we pass back through each circle we shall strip off each coating. Consequently, but this is never stated, as far as I know, at the end of that process each spark or fragment will cease to be distinct and will merge back into the One Light or Spirit. Hence the End will be the same as the Beginning.”

From Flew, Marx and Gnosticism, by R.T. Allen,
Philosophy Vol 68, No 263, (Jan, 1993),
pp. 94-98
The full article is available on Jstore and others behind a paywall.

(”Flew” is Antony Flew, 1923-2010, a British philosopher)

see also:

Marx as Millennial Communist by Murray N. Rothbard
http://mises.org/daily/3769
or
http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/R4_5.pdf

Early Secular Communism by Murray N. Rothbard
http://lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard294.html

(but note that Rothbard, who appears to be secular, does not know Gnosticism and instead calls it by its major point: reabsorbtion theology.)

[mac_truck]

European individualism

[elhombrelibre]

So you see one weirdo and you decide he is what Europe is. And you do this so you can continue to be a Putinista bootlicker.

[mac_truck]

Don’t you have a knob to polish over at the State Dept?

[annalex]

Yes, that matches Marxism. But what Ukraine is facing now is not Marxism but what I would call Sovietism: that is, a rotting remnant of tradition of oppression, collectivism and materialism, all permeated with the culture of fear. Marxism as such is very rare in Russia; but the quest for a tribal god is quite common. In fact, a resurgence of actual paganism, -- the worship of ancient Slav gods is happening also, but what the author is talking about is rather the social philosophy of collectivism and war mongering so well highlighted by their victory parades.

[annalex]

OK, and what? Which countries did the shemale invade?

[mac_truck]

Lol...Crimea was made safe from the homo-fascists and there isn’t a damn thing your lot is going to do about it.

Sikorski summed things up perfectly didn’t he?

[annalex]

Yeah right. Ukraine is all homofascists banderlogs and we all work for the State Department (with Kerry and Hillary). You sovs know your talking points.