Friday, January 27, 2017

Your National Exceptionalism, or Mine?



It has begun.  The flood of tradition-obliterating ‘American exceptionalism’ is raging all across the [u]nited States.  Pres Trump’s proclamation of 20 Jan. 2017 as National Day of Patriotic Devotion has set the tone:

A new national pride stirs the American soul and inspires the American heart. We are one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose.

Freedom is the birthright of all Americans, and to preserve that freedom we must maintain faith in our sacred values and heritage.

Our Constitution is written on parchment, but it lives in the hearts of the American people. There is no freedom where the people do not believe in it; no law where the people do not follow it; and no peace where the people do not pray for it.

There are no greater people than the American citizenry, and as long as we believe in ourselves, and our country, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

 . . .


Typical of this sort of arrogant neo-Puritanism, nothing is now safe from the lust to ‘make America great again’ - to ‘create jobs’ and ‘achieve American energy independence’, etc. - not even a lake on Native American tribal lands or the farm fields of Nebraska, when unnecessary oil pipelines or other ‘infrastructure improvements’ must be built to enrich the transnational corporations Trump says he opposes:


One is justified in wondering what would happen if a large oil shale deposit were found beneath Gen Stonewall Jackson’s grave or underneath some other Confederate graveyard or monument; or even a non-Confederate historic site, like Washington’s home on Mt Vernon.  The invocation of eminent domain would probably not be slow in coming.  But would even something akin to this be enough to cause Southerners to wake up from their pro-American stooper?

What is America, after all?  ‘An idea’, her supporters will say.  And we quite agree.  And this is the essence of it, as stated by neo-con Michael Ledeen:

‘Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace … We must destroy them to advance our historic mission.’


Thankfully, there is another who claims for herself an ‘historic mission’, Holy Russia, and her ideals are quite the opposite of tradition-destroying America:

 . . .

Where is the subsidence? Where is the restriction? Are not Russians opened for the four winds? Are not they crucified in space, bleeding, suffering for others, taking on the burden and severity of the strange and terrible history of the world? Are not Russians universal? Do they not embody the whole grieving, suffering, outrageous, magnificent reality of the world? Is not the river their veins? And the hills – their bones? The mountains – their shoulders? The sun and the moon – their eyes? And the winds of the earth – their breathing? Are Russian people the only nation and that is all? No, it is not all, it is much, much more... They are the great Russians, more than just a Russian, more than just 'they'... They are happy and sad, they cross themselves, and bring to the priest a cherub baby, right to the bowl, directly to God, and God does not deny veneration and does not chase away a scared man, crooked man, miserable, crying man, a woman in a black shawl, who lost her daughter, or a beardless youth who find his love, confused man, who suddenly came in, and the habitually dressed servant – God unites all Russians, and Russians, in their turn, unite everyone, closely and appeasably, gently and persistently, and all other nations disappear in Russians and do not recognize themselves in a moment: there is no one, only Russians, and only the sun dancing over them, our Russian sun...

Dancing ... The Great Days are the Russian Days, the Bright Week is the Russian Week.

Delightful people, first and last, confused and precise, following a secret dream in the distant mountains, hiding in dark holes of the earth, unclear to anyone or anything, carefully looking for the unnamed and imperceptible, dying, faithful people, “in tombs” and rising again, again and again, always extending deep to underground paths and flying in clear cool red morning sky like a white dove ...

On Russian Easter, the nature of the world resurrects our nature, mother-desert, luxurious, like a lady, like a virgin, like a universally acute painful comfort. Suffer with us, die with us, kill with us, sing with us, come with us, disappear with us, unite with us, fast with us, cast down with us, vanish with us, love with us, hate with us, to rise with us again, to enter the Russian Easter, the Great Easter of Christ.

The fact that the Russians are the great people is an axiom, it cannot be proven, as it does not require it. This true greatness does not humiliate others, it does not make them smaller. As the resurrection does not kill, does not trample them, but saves them. The real greatness magnifies everything that it touches. There is no hatred, there is only delight, only happiness, joy and love. This is the dancing greatness.

 . . .

Source:  Alexander Dugin, http://4pt.su/en/content/russian-easter, opened 27 Jan. 2017


 . . . So also today ROCOR continues to proclaim outside Russia what the best of the rest of the Church proclaims inside Russia – the ideals of Holy Rus. What are these?

These ideals are Trinitarian, reflecting on earth the heavenly reality of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These Christian ideals can be expressed as: Faith, Throne and People, that is, the Orthodox Faith, the Christian Emperor, the Faithful. All three go together. If any one element is compromised, then all three are compromised. Thus, if we reject the Orthodox Faith, we do not build the Christian Empire among the People, as has happened in the Western world. If we reject the Incarnation of the Christian Empire, we fail to reflect the Faith in the Father and fail to preach the values of the Holy Spirit among the People, as has happened in disincarnate Parisian philosophy. And if the People lose the Orthodox Faith, there will be no Empire, as happened in 1917.

Just as we cannot have the Father without the Son and the Holy Spirit, so we confess all three of these ideals of Holy Rus together. This means that we are called on to proclaim the uncorrupted Orthodox Faith of the Church (the Father), the restoration of the Incarnate Christian Empire and Emperor (the Son) and that we call all the peoples of the world to join us (the Holy Spirit), as St Seraphim of Sarov prophesied nearly 200 years ago. These are the Trinitarian Orthodox Civilizational values of the Returning Christian Empire which is coming soon. Thus, we clergy and people of ROCOR are the free and conscious servants of the Faith and People of the Tsar-Martyr, called on to reverse the treason of 1917 and its disastrous worldwide consequences.


It is not for nothing that Holy Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (+1994) said of America and Western Europe,

I always say to young people who are going abroad to study, “Go if you want to, but be careful not to lose your faith; take only their expertise.  And most importantly, don’t forget to come home, to our Homeland.  Greece is waiting for you.  You owe her your help.  Stay close to the Greek people.  . . .  Be very careful not to let your hearts grow cold.  The Europeans are cold people.  And the United States is only for becoming wealthy in material goods and becoming spiritually bankrupt” (Spiritual Counsels, Volume I, 2011, p. 338).

What a mighty rebuke to Southerners!  Have we remembered our Homeland - Dixie?  Have we given her any help?  Have we stayed close to the Southern people?

May God forgive us, we have not done any of these things.  We have gone a-whoring after Babylon America’s material goods and become spiritually bankrupt. 

But with alluring visions of even greater material abundance before us, will Dixie be able to repent?

--

Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð!

Anathema to the Union!

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