The great Russian writer/prophet, Solzhenitsyn, has departed the Fallen Kingdom for only 2 weeks.........and Russia has already reverted to the Communism/Fascism trap that entangles all post-modern atheistic societies.

I want to put up a quote from the ending of one of his best short stories.......Matryona's Place....or Matryona's Dvor....circa 1963.

The short story is tremendously appreciated by traditional Russians.......but is obscure and unknown mostly today in the West.(It's message is extremely anti-materialist)

"She never tried to acquire things for herself. She wouldn't struggle to buy things whichn then mean more to her than life itself. All her life she never tried to dress smartly in the kind of clothes which embellish misfits or disguise evildoers.

She was misunderstood and abandoned by her husband, having buried six of his children. Her moral and ethical standards made her an eccentric. She was considered "odd" by her sisters and and sister-in-law........a laughingstock....because, as they said, she was stupid to work for others without pay.

She never accumulated property by the time of her death when her only possessions were a dirty white goat, a crippled cat, and rubber plants........

We lived beside her, and never understood that she was the righteous one without whom, according to the proverb, no village can stand.

Nor any city.

Nor the whole land.

Kinda like Nancy Pelosi or Hillary.

Dosvedanya AIS.

"The great Russian writer/prophet, Solzhenitsyn, has departed the Fallen Kingdom for only 2 weeks.........and Russia has already reverted to the Communism/Fascism trap that entangles all post-modern atheistic societies."

And this can be distinguished from the fascism trap that seems to come with all post-modern religious societies in what manner? I mean since there has been a huge resurgence of religion in Russia after all.

Uncle Spike.....do not forget the Communism pole of the continuum.

Totalitarians slide along the axis between the two.

I didn't forget, I think your statement that this happens in "all post-modern atheistic societies" however is a tad slanted is all so was trying to determine just how the atheist portion made it somehow different from the fascism resulting from theistic societies, or that which many in our own country seem only too happy to endorse?

Isn't it aweful how we judge and fear each other so. We are no better really, maybe we are worse in that we are greedy and want so badly to keep what we have, not share, like some children. It is the world rulers that are so horrid, playing their war games not the peoples of any land.

Uncle_Spike:

I didn't forget, I think your statement that this happens in "all post-modern atheistic societies" however is a tad slanted is all so was trying to determine just how the atheist portion made it somehow different from the fascism resulting from theistic societies, or that which many in our own country seem only too happy to endorse?

Uncle Spike.......I need to elaborate on that statement. It's not as anti-atheist as it sounds.

The idea of the Communism/Fascism conundrum is a somewhat complex idea that we occasionally have a go at her on FB.

The crux of the conundrum is.......that without a method of forgiveness for transgressions(not just for certain segments of society)..........mankind resorts to oppressor/victim cycles which result in greater oppression/victimhood over time.........because no one has the means to forgive.

In the West(until the last 100 years or so)........Jesus was generally regarded as the means to forgiveness.

But in a post-Christian West......this mentality is passe.......and oppressor/victim models shift over time.......but the cycle of grievance and revenge...or grievance and reparation without forgiveness persist ad infinitum.

And this is what creates the continuum.

Both Naziism and Communism were highly antagonistic to Christianity for this reason..........THEY wanted to be the mechanism of justice..... supplanting traditional religion in the people's minds.

Nietzsche, the great Anti-Christ himself, made a prediction that went basically like this.........."because you have killed God.........and the means to forgive along with Him.........the next century will see titanic wars and oceans of blood will flow."

He wrote that in the late 1890's...I believe.

This from the man who wrote........"God is dead.....and we have killed him."..........and the book....the "Anti-Christ".

It was a tremendous prediction.

PS.........Dostoyevsky, in his book...the Demons, describes two mentalities....one clearly a proto-Nazi(the Superman who transgresses....the other a Grand Collectivizer with an iron rod....clearly a proto-Communist)

To read this material today...written in 1871.... is truly astounding.

And Nietzsche and Dostoeyevsky....one an arch-atheist and the other a true believer, waged one of the great philosophical battles of history.

Nietzsche was extremely arrogant and tolerated no rival except Dostoyevsky. Amd FD was so arrogant ...he tolerated no rival period.

But they were both addressing this Communist/Fascist conundrum.

And the great Albert Camus also tried to address this from a non-believer point of view....which lead to his great essay........."Neither Victims nor Executioners."

Great minds think alike.

Not really on topic, but your header reminded me of this;

My Madonna

I haled me a woman from the street,
Shameless, but, oh, so fair!
I bade her sit in the model's seat
And I painted her sitting there.

I hid all trace of her heart unclean;
I painted a babe at her breast;
I painted her as she might have been
If the Worst had been the Best.

She laughed at my picture and went away.
Then came, with a knowing nod,
A connoisseur, and I heard him say;
"'Tis Mary, the Mother of God."

So I painted a halo round her hair,
And I sold her and took my fee,
And she hangs in the church of Saint Hillaire,
Where you and all may see.

-Robert Service

Matryona was not a prostitute.

But this is the Fray.....so I should expect this kind of thing.

I'm aware of that.

Excuse the hell out of me, I'll not bother you again.

So, just how do you and cid know anything about the woman? I think that the poem in your post raised a valid point. If the only view of an individual is through the vision of an artist (or writer...or poet), just what do we actually know about the actual life of the subject or even if the subject had an actual life?

BTW, I liked the poem very much.

Ah - Robert Service, the great poet of the North and a personal favorite of mine! Thanks for sharing, Boss.

Now, let's recite this one all together:

A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.

True enough, we don't, but I don't think it unreasonable to discuss 'subjects' based on the information we do have available, given our capacity for abstraction...

We do it in re:Jesus all the time.

I'm a fan of Robert Service, although some find him a bit too...earthy...

That's what I love about this place, there are exceedingly few topics one can present that somebody else doesn't have knowledge of...Keeps it interesting.

Russia has already reverted to the Communism/Fascism trap that entangles all post-modern atheistic societies.

Fascism was not an atheistic movement. It was a Christian movement. And communism is a religion in itself. In fact, it follows the Christian model.