Long before a society is seemingly swallowed by disorder, there begins a rebellion in the hearts of men. A course taken in the spiritual realm will eventually manifest itself externally in everyday life. The decadence, intellectual and otherwise, of the French aristocracy would lead to 1789, and the same process made St. Petersburg an easy target for mass uprisings and a Bolshevik coup. Fyodor Dostoevsky illustrated well how nihilism is a state of the soul, and the external chaos that rises in its wake is merely a contingent effect of the negation of Transcendence.
In The Possessed, Dostoevsky lets us in on a discussion between the provincial governor Von Lembke and the young revolutionary Peter Verkhovensky (owning only the Russian version, the translation is mine):
Von Lembke remembered his recent conversation with Peter Stepanovich. With the innocent goal of disarming him through liberalism, he showed him his own intimate collection of all possible proclamations, Russian and from abroad, which he had carefully gathered from 1859, not as an enthusiast, mind you, but just out of a useful curiosity. Peter Stepanovich, having guessed his intention, crudely expressed that in one line of such proclamations there was more reason than in any entire chancellery, “not excluding yours, by the way”…
“But it’s too early for Russia, too early,” he pronounced almost pleadingly, pointing to the manifestos.
“No, it’s not; so you’re afraid, then, that it’s not early.”
“But here, for example, a call for the destruction of churches.”
“And why not? After all, you’re an intelligent man, and of course you yourself don’t believe in God, but you understand all too well that faith is necessary to control the people. The truth is more honest than a lie.”
“Agreed, agreed, I agree with you completely, but it’s still too early for this country,” frowned Von Lembke.
When man closes his sight to Heaven, seeking paradise here and now, any means to achieve this end are acceptable. The French and Russian revolutions are obvious examples of this: the blood of the slain will fertilize the soil of the New Earth.
It is important to note, however, that the Anglo-Saxon dimension of the rebellion against traditional order cannot be diminished. It has been subtler, but nonetheless just as far-reaching. The dominant form of “conservatism”, derived from the thought of Edmund Burke, has actually allowed a relatively seamless passage to the highly unnatural state of affairs we observe today. Tradition, man’s relation to the Transcendent, is jettisoned in favor of mere hollow “custom”, which will then inevitably be employed as a tool of subversion.
Governor Von Lembke’s pathetic plea for additional time for Russia to reach a more enlightened state is met with derision by Verkhovensky. The younger man’s contempt is justified: having embraced the principles and worldview of the revolution, the learned men of officialdom are only calling for a slower and smoother descent into its madness. Dostoevsky’s passage describes the spiritual and cultural disposition of Russia’s governing class in the 1870s, but it applies just as well to the GOP and today’s allegedly conservative establishment.
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The Interior Revolution
Long before a society is seemingly swallowed by disorder, there begins a rebellion in the hearts of men. A course taken in the spiritual realm will eventually manifest itself externally in … [Read More]
Posted by Mark Hackard on October 02, 2009
The Usual Suspects