THE PUSSY RIOT CASE, RUSSIA, AND THE USUAL CRAPOLA FROM WASHINGTON
By now you've doubtless heard about the Pussy Riot case in Russia, where members of a punk rock band were sentenced to prison for - in the Western media's view - violations of the "right of free speech" and for criticizing that dastardly neo-Stalinist, Vladimir Putin. A few years back, the American media - and particularly its home-grown-religion's media - was up in arms about Russian laws against evangelicals seeking to proselytize or "convert" people away from that nasty Catholic-looking Russian Orthodoxy stuff, to that "true bible-believing Christianity" that seems oddly compliant to the American oligarchy's geopolitical agendas. Russia's claims that it simply was trying to protect its national identity and culture - which is bound up with Orthodoxy no less than Spain's is bound up with Catholicism - fell on deaf ears.
Whether or not Russia's moves can be justified or not, the Pussy Riot case is an example, at least as far as I am concerned, of Western cultural (and other forms of) imperialism run amok. As Paul Craig Roberts points out in the following article, the performance that landed them in jail contained no criticism of Mr. Putin, and was deliberately performed in a cathedral and deliberately designed to provoke. One is reminded of a similar "performance" by radicalized blockheads in the gay community many years ago, where a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in new York City being celebrated by John Cardinal O'Connor was interrupted by nutcases throwing condoms at the cardinal.
(Paul Craig Roberts' comment on the Pussy Riot Incident is here):
The American Onslaught Against International Law
I would aver that freedom of speech can only exist in a culture of deep tolerance, and deep abiding suspicion of power. What Pussy Riot did may have effectively been an exercise of the latter, but it was certainly not an exercise of the former. Free speech is not anarchical speech, which term I use to designate behavior that is not cognizant of the cultural sensitivities and beliefs of "the other" and is indeed designed to be provocative or insulting to it.
But there is also in play here a geopolitical issue, and Roberts is right to point it out. In the wake of the West's power-crazed "resource grab" in the aftermath of 9/11, virtually every incident - whether it began that way or not - now has the potential of becoming a geopolitical football in the emerging contest between... between what exactly? We cannot say it is merely a contest between East and West, though it is that, since more often than not, China and Russia are on the same side of things. But, with India and Brazil and indeed, more and more of Latin America being drawn into that orbit (largely because of a history of heavy-handedness on the West's part in those countries), it can no longer be qualified as a "re-eruption" of the Cold War...there are alignments of nations now that simply would have been unthinkable thirty years ago. And there is something absolutely new on the scenes in the current situation: the growing disenchantment, and feeling of disenfranchisement, in the West, and particularly in America, itself. The fact that Roberts, a former member of the Reagan Administration, would be writing more and more in defense of Putin and Russia and less and less in defense of the madness "guiding" American foreign and domestic policy, is testimony enough to the trend, whether or not one agrees with it.
The Pussy Riot case, like that of Julian Assange, certainly did not begin as incidents of geopolitical import, but they have each become that in the highly charged atmosphere that has emerged in the wake of 9/11, and more importantly, that has emerged in the atmosphere of global reaction against the growing resort in American politics to militarism abroad and the vast potential for domestic repression at home, where drones are being requested, and sold, to local law enfarcement departments, where Social Security buys bullets...
The geopolitics of the age, however, will neither permit the encirclement, siege, and subjugation of Russia in the 21st century any more than it did of Germany in the 20th. Indeed, both those countries seemed to have learned their lessons about who put them in that situation rather well, and in Russia's case, the people who learned that lesson are in actual power, and populate its intelligence and military departments of government. It is the western oligarchs who are now viewed as behind the times, insane, and - in a paraphrase of Solzhenitsyn's remarks about the leaders of the Kremlin - insane enough to start a World War to maintain their own power and privilege.
As for free speech and Pussy Riot, I respectfully submit to the members of that group, that if they crash any group meeting for one of their "performances," it not be a Russian Orthodoxy Cathedral, but the next meeting of the Bilderberg Group... then we'll all be able to sit back and have a good laugh at how Washington and the western media will handle that expression of "free speech."
See you on the flip side.
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Courageous and smart. Yummy
Y- chromosome gurls
Joseph,
We do not have the right of the freedom of speech in order to engage in meaningful political and social dialogue (although we should!) and such rights are not contingent upon our speech, or motivations, being percieved of any intrinsic value, let alone congnizent to the very beliefs and sensitivities they aim to criticise. Anarchical speech IS free speech, the freedom of expression is not simply a means to an end, it is an end in and of itself.
A fundamental distinction of nature, and as such, just response, exists between: Speaking, Shouting, babbling unintelligably, and between: Tresspassing and acts of violence.
To re-catagorize speech one deems devoid of value as ‘behaviour’ thus, justification for the use of force, avoids the question ‘did my speech/antics/costume/farting etc. involve the use of force?’ the answer for which those advocating the rule of law have the burden of proof.
The rule of law is enforced by, and is in essesnce representative of : violence, only justified as a response in kind.
Legislating to protect ideas (national/cultural identity) is incompatible with ANY libertarian philosophy.
Ideas, must be countered with ideas, speech with speech, not violence. Boundaries for the freedom of expression must not be set by those that do not believe in it.
The treatment of Pussy Riot cannot be justified retroactivley in proportion to the wests hypocritical propaganda, yet this is the impression one gets from certain commentators. Those involved fall into the same trap, using the issue, for essentially their own political purposes, a criticism of elites vs elites, sadly the issue of free speech itself, is soon forgotten.
This is my philosophy regarding free expression, not necessarily a criticism of yours, the clarification of which is entirely your perogative.
With Regards,
Me, Myself, And i
P.S. in other news today, did you know Rudolf Hess was rumoured to have a dog called Nimrod, given to him while in Wales…
In connection with the Pussy Riot, Assange and world matters generally, I just listened to an excellent discussion with Putin on RT.
It sure puts our leaders to shame.
Putin: Assange case exposes UK double standards (Exclusive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB45clPRNoc
I wonder what the reaction would be if my band, The Goyim Liberation Front, crashed the local holocaust museum and did an uninvited gig singing one of our many lewd love songs to Ann Frank?
Regardless of the location the fundamental question is does the punishment fit the crime. The answer is no it is excessive and community service would have been sufficient penitence for their bad taste.
This hullabaloo is a political football in the western press, an opportunistic piece of propaganda and litmus test for public reaction but is anyone here really under the illusion that a thorn in the side to our government wouldn’t elicit a similar response on our side of the Atlantic? When a citizen overtly or covertly becomes an embarrassment to the state the response in both Russia and the U.S. /Britain is to get them off the streets. Consider the zeal with which the U.S. has been pursuing extradition proceedings against British citizen Gary McKinnon for his easy hack of our Pentagon’s files. Better make an example out of him and throw him in the slammer for decades. And if they become a major threat like the late Dr. David Kelly in the U.K. then remove them by any means necessary.
Absolutely agree, terminally skeptical!
terminally skeptical. The main case isn’t what Western or any other media claim about this whole case or hоw do the media is outplaying the situation with the Pussy Riot. Disregarding the resonance it caused overseas the significance of this event is of prime importance mostly for Russian domestic affairs and is the product of objective nature that exists despite the Western media praises or slams it.
“When a citizen overtly or covertly becomes an embarrassment to the state the response in both Russia and the U.S. /Britain is to get them off the streets” Agree. But as I noted here earlier the whole problem IS NOT ABOUT embarassment and public order, but about serious law violetions made by state bodies and a repressive character of punishment that as you correctly noticed ” is excessive”. It appears that really seriuos crimes which that paragraph is designed to apply to is equalized to the ordibary chuliganism that is punished by 15 days imprisonment or so.
“Consider the zeal with which the U.S. has been pursuing extradition proceedings against British citizen Gary McKinnon for his easy hack of our Pentagon’s files. Better make an example out of him and throw him in the slammer for decades. And if they become a major threat like the late Dr. David Kelly in the U.K. then remove them by any means necessary.” – As far as I have clue of, the Pussy Riot haven’t hacked any classified files nor they were “serious threat” unless that threat was of OTHER kind than you mean – ideological? Such inadequate sentence speaks in favor of that since there’s one more level and it doesn’t belong to the juridical viewpoint. That act of protest though provoking was in fact expression of feelings of part of Russian society, of growing middle class, younger generations, the feelings that had being accumulating for a long time, and entered into conflict with the remnants of retrogradic old Soviet remnants of thinking in all the spheres of life inside Russia. So, as I said, I still look guardedly to their performance but at the same time I don’t condemn them and tend to agree with them philosophically becuase this philosophy is the resulti of practical needs of ordinary people in Russia. That’s the fact to which neither the Western nor any other media has nothing to do with. While you seating here in warm armchairs before your computers in safety and discussing about decency and compliance of legal norms there happens completely different life outside your cozy comfortable world. It’s not a big merit to be civilized in such a world. Just try to obtain that civility in more severe public climate that is inside Russia and then we’ll talk.
ILYA . . .
. . . for starters please do not be taken aback if I misunderstand some of what you have written. I have nothing but admiration for those whose first language wasn’t/isn’t English and can only wish that I was as conversant in your language as you are in mine.
However having reread your missive twice you appear a bit like Don Quixote waving his sword at the windmill.
You have somehow convulted my simple remark (summarily when one steps on the toes of the state, wherever that may be, there is often a price to pay) and turned it into a disdainful diatribe. For brevity sake I used the word embarrassment but with you in mind let me then substitute persona non grata instead.
Tell me more about my cozy and comfortable world. Haves and have-nots exist in all parts of the world and that includes America and Russia. Your presumptious depiction of me lounging in my armed chaired comfort is simply wrong and belongs to that of the priviledged class. We have an eroding middle class (to which I belong, economically speaking) here in the U.S. Can the same be said for Russia or is the quality of living improving there? Just asking.
Instead of splitting hairs over the type of threat be it “national security”-e.g. Gary McKinnon, potential exposure of government operative subterfuge e.g., Dr David Kelly, or affronting the church/state e.g.Pussy Riot, stay with the broader theme instead of lecturing me on superfluous minuta.
Respectfully,
t.s.
If an organized group had gone into a Jewish Temple, a Mosque, or a Buddhist or Hindu Temple and defiled it, the people that control the western media, would be screaming “racism”.
Yet a White Christian Church is targeted, nothing is said against this defilement and they take the side of the attackers and claim “defilement is free speech”.
Worse, in some European countries, if a Jewish Temple, a Mosque, or a Buddhist or Hindu Temple was defiled in this way, it would be declared a “hate crime” and the perpetrators would be given triple sentences.
Everyone is starting to understand the people that control the western media, our media, are blatantly anti-white and they grow more bold and brazen, in their incitements against white people every day. You can’t miss what they are doing.
“Everyone is starting to understand the people that control the western media, our media, are blatantly anti-white and they grow more bold and brazen, in their incitements against white people every day” – Ridge, that’s called “political correctness”. Would like “congratulate” you with this present from the Western modern political culture” 😀
The US Congress, the leading corporations and their lobbyists, nearly every major university, the wealthiest families, and whatever other powerful and influencial groups are obvious examples. Oh, wait. They’re ALL white. Never mind.
Do we revive the old paper bag test such that anything close to those tones isn’t white, even if their ancestors are Celtic or Teutonic? A lot of those southern Europeans are suspect as well.
While we’re at it, how about IQ tests, background assessments, and achievement records? Just because someone is white doesn’t mean their particular lineage ever contributed anything to western civilization.
The economic and social class inferiors need to the kept in their place. As has been the case historically for most of western European and American history. Except for that unfortunate period from the 1930s until the 1980s when working people seemed to have the mistaken notion they were entitled to a place in the economic system.
“The US Congress, the leading corporations and their lobbyists, nearly every major university, the wealthiest families, and whatever other powerful and influencial groups are obvious examples. Oh, wait. They’re ALL white. Never mind.”
They are white anti-whites, just like you are anti-white. Whats the matter? You never heard of self haters and traitors before?
White anti-whites think their white skin, gives them the right to create a Blood Libel targeting white children (White Guilt). White anti-whites think their white skin gives them the right to incite against their fellow whites. They also believe their white skin gives them magical protection, from a charge of genocide.
As for your ranting about “skin tone”, you anti-whites have defined who is “white”, by whom you have selected for genocide.
If you want to argue this, I suggest you key in White Genocide and argue it elsewhere on the internet, because this is not the place for it. Fair warning, you will lose.
ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
I can hear my wise old great-grandmother tsk-tsking gently while offering a plate of freshly made oatmeal cookies. Seems I’ve failed to follow her sage advice. Something she made sure that all of us kids learned by heart.
My family was from the forests of the Pacific NW. Loggers, mostly. A few were fishermen or small merchants. Later of course the odd nuclear physicist or theologian. G-granny was the family center. Christmas, Thanksgiving for those living further away. But those of us living closer could walk from where the boat dock was through the woods to her house. It was a rite of passage to be allowed to do that without an adult with us.
Just before the path turned toward her place was a small bridge over the creek. Maybe something built in the 1930s by the CCC; it looked similar to that type of construction. We’d run over the bridge on the way to her house, excited to get to whatever yummy thing she’d prepared for us. But on the return, we were not in much of a hurry. Plus we were usually carrying food, stuff from the beach, whatever. Made us more apt to dawdle while crossing.
Having raised kids, then caring for their kids, and the next set, my g-g knew a thing or two about the habits of children. And she knew how to make sure that when she wanted one of us to listen and learn, we did. Especially about how to pass safely through dark places. Her advice?
Never, ever feed the trolls.
It’s called “reverse discrimination.”
No one remembers “Bakke V the Supreme Court” (?)
Did I misspell the name?
I’m suppose to be perfect……………
……perfectly human, that is !
[whatever that is………..]
Hal838
I remember the case vaguely. I had gone back to school to work on a LLM-Master of Laws to eventually LLD. I think Bakke was Jewish if memory serves. It was split and was a narrow holding. Race could only be one factor among a number of factors when considering admission to college. At that time the country was going through a severe case of “white guilt”. Not me. One side of my family fought for the North and the other side didn’t even come over until the 1920s.
db
I believe he was [jewish] so that it was clearly
a case of re-reverse discrimination.
btw Don
The ‘Supremes’ always ‘chat’ among themselves
before declaring a vote…………………………
don’t want to piss-off the MONEY, you know (?)
oops
I’m not suppose to pass along ANY
knowledge or learning…………..
…yes, I am still POed at the alias “DaphneO”
[Daffy Duck (?) ]
alias (?)
who seemed to grovel at the feet of
our blog owner, and [politely]
told me to get lost etc.,
and then promptly did so she/he/it self, twice………….
[I smell nanite totbots…
everyone is infestated…not everyone obeys {them} ]
“infestated” (?)
is that like ironical ?
OR
inflamable / flamable………
their little reminders to tell us how DUMB
they have made us?
As an amateur scientist, my pet peeve is “nukular.”
Hal838,
Yes, the old supremos vote before telling their slave clerks to come up with something in writing to match their vote. Big insurance wrote the bill and will make billions so they expected Roberts to come through, to go along with the apparatchik/Bolsheviks on the Demo side. I thought more republicans would side with big insurance since they have never seen a corporation they didn’t like or a police state they didn’t like.
db
Thank you, Don, for your reply.
Looks like I still won’t be doing much reading,
until AFTER sept 11…………
Greetings Dr. Farrell,
I have to be honest with you I know Vladamir Putin is an Authoritarian. But, so far he is the only guy I’ve seen out there that I can respect. He has the Spine and Nads to stand up to our corrupt government. And if things got bad enough here I might consider fleeing to Russia. And I am gobsmacked at this I would’nt have dared to even entertain such a thought like this when I was younger. Back in the day only evil Liberals and America haters went there. Well, at least they have a large WWI, WWII Reenactment community out there with a lot of neat toys to play with over there. It seems to me that the Russians still have and show love for Mother Russia and the welfare of the Russian people. I know there is no perfect utopian government and never will be as long as humans exist with all their acompanying weaknessses. But, I have come to a conclusion mankind has changed very little in the 6,000 or more years of our recorded history. Humans have been genetically hardwired to be easily manipulated compliant. The intelligent mind or the free thinking mind is the abboration not the norm. So, unless we reconfigure our genetic make up we will always be doomed to be slaves to something or someone.
Randall B. Buchanan
Sugar Hill, Georgia USA
Maria Alyokhina (Member of Pussy Riot, closing statements at the Moscow Khamovniki District Court)
This trial is highly typical and speaks volumes. The current government will have occasion to feel shame and embarrassment because of it for a long time to come. At each stage it has embodied a travesty of justice. As it turned out, our performance, at first a small and somewhat absurd act, snowballed into an enormous catastrophe. This would obviously not happen in a healthy society. Russia, as a state, has long resembled an organism sick to the core. And the sickness explodes out into the open when you rub up against its inflamed abscesses. At first and for a long time this sickness gets hushed up in public, but eventually it always finds resolution through dialogue. And look—this is the kind of dialogue that our government is capable of. This trial is not only a malignant and grotesque mask, it is the “face” of the government’s dialogue with the people of our country. To prompt discussion about a problem on the societal level, you often need the right conditions—an impetus.
And it is interesting that our situation was depersonalized from the start. This is because when we talk about Putin, we have in mind first and foremost not Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin but Putin the system that he himself created—the power vertical, where all control is carried out effectively by one person. And that power vertical is uninterested, completely uninterested, in the opinion of the masses. And what worries me most of all is that the opinion of the younger generations is not taken into consideration. We believe that the ineffectiveness of this administration is evident in practically everything.
And right here, in this closing statement, I would like to describe my firsthand experience of running afoul of this system. Our schooling, which is where the personality begins to form in a social context, effectively ignores any particularities of the individual. There is no “individual approach,” no study of culture, of philosophy, of basic knowledge about civic society. Officially, these subjects do exist, but they are still taught according to the Soviet model. And as a result, we see the marginalization of contemporary art in the public consciousness, a lack of motivation for philosophical thought, and gender stereotyping. The concept of the human being as a citizen gets swept away into a distant corner.
Today’s educational institutions teach people, from childhood, to live as automatons. Not to pose the crucial questions consistent with their age. They inculcate cruelty and intolerance of nonconformity. Beginning in childhood, we forget our freedom.
I have personal experience with psychiatric clinics for minors. And I can say with conviction that any teenager who shows any signs of active nonconformity can end up in such a place. A certain percentage of the kids there are from orphanages.
In our country, it’s considered entirely normal to commit a child who has tried to escape from an orphanage to a psychiatric clinic. And they treat them using extremely powerful sedatives like Aminazin, which was also used to subdue Soviet dissidents in the ’70s.
This is especially traumatizing given the overall punitive tendency and the absence of any real psychological assistance. All interactions are based on the exploitation of the children’s feelings of fear and forced submission. And as a result, their own cruelty increases many times over. Many children there are illiterate, but no one makes any effort to battle this—to the contrary, every last drop of motivation for personal development is discouraged. The individual closes off entirely and loses faith in the world.
I would like to note that this method of personal development clearly impedes the awakening of both inner and religious freedoms, unfortunately, on a mass scale. The consequence of the process I have just described is ontological humility, existential humility, socialization. To me, this transition, or rupture, is noteworthy in that, if approached from the point of view of Christian culture, we see that meanings and symbols are being replaced by those that are diametrically opposed to them. Thus one of the most important Christian concepts, Humility, is now commonly understood not as a path towards the perception, fortification, and ultimate liberation of Man, but on the contrary as an instrument for his enslavement. To quote [Russian philosopher] Nikolai Berdyaev, one could say that “the ontology of humility is the ontology of the slaves of God, and not the sons of God.” When I was involved with organizing the ecological movement, I became fundamentally convinced of the priority of inner freedom as the foundation for taking action. As well as the importance, the direct importance, of taking action as such….
continued at: http://nplusonemag.com/pussy-riot-closing-statements
Well-done job, Tom, by posting this here in an open medium. I have to stand corrected – they aren’t stupid girls, though obviously their bevaiour still remains to me rather arguable, but knowing current political situation inside Russia, one shouldn’t unambiguously condemn them – what seems to be in the society where actual social problems that Russia is facing now was resolved longed ago and the member of that society can let himself a luxury of being “politicly corrected”- the artifact of the modern Western covilization that always served in my eyes as a synonim for hypocricy – then under current Russian conditions plus concidering a very temperament Russian nature that in no way resembles this of Western people and that doesn’t pay an attention to various formalities of communication to the same degree as Western people do – believe me, I’m a Russian myself, hahaha – it doesn’t show up as something extraordinary.
I think this sort of provocation is a deliberate attempt to create a fascist response. The pussy power backers are well aware their numbers are insignificant and will not create a colour revolution (Russia is intrinsically conservative, heck homosexuality was taboo even during communism).
This looks like WWII all over again, except this time Russians are playing the role of Germany.
“What’s New Pussy Cat?” The good Dr. Farrell was what, 8 when that damnable Tom Jones song came out?
I’m glad my dear Mother didn’t live to age 92 just to hear of a Russian Pussy riot. She died at 91 last year.
The shock of it all! Pussy Putin…I think not. Maybe Panther Putin, I can buy that.
Aren’t my comments about the shallowest ever seen here?
I’m transgendered (FtM, spent 50+ yrs as female) and gay and pt. NW Indian (reservation raised) and was a labor activist blue collar worker until a late in life education. Thus BIG minority points.
It’s always just so amusing to me how “tolerance and multiculturalism” are touted by the safely enclaved social theorists. Until these ideas run up against something they don’t approve of. Like traditional religion. Imagine this were this a case in reverse– where some fundamentalists, upset about the challenge to their values, had interrupted a goth alt. rock performance. What do you suppose the reaction by the agnostic elite would have been?
I was also chrismated as Russian Orthodox. Which, btw, is a long standing Alaska native tradition.
So then some empathy here for a unique, culturally based interpretation of Christianity. Under siege for 70 years from within: surviving despite the many predictions to the contrary. It really angers the Orthodox that during the years of repression, convert charismatics and evangelicals were allowed into the US as special refugees. And they are angry about how US political opportunists decry the lack of “religious freedom” because it plays well at home. Ignoring why the long beleaguered Russian Orthodox are deeply suspicious of current well-funded evangelical de facto alien colonizers.
Yes, I am aware of the xenophobic right-wing connection to the extremes of Russian Orthodoxy. But do a search for Fr. Pavel Florensky or Fr. Alexander Men– exemplars of the best. Anyway, why are we in the US entitled to define the bounds of acceptability for a very different culture? Especially considering that native American genocide thing… and slavery. And how are we in the US such shining models of universal rights, considering the continuing erosion of our own Bill of Rights and refusal to sign onto the UN declaration?
I agree with you RaPhi
Dr. Farrell…. I think we already know how they handle “free speech” at a Bilderberg conclave, with clubs, etc. These kids are just dupes for the Soros crowd and look what it got them. Another great blog by the way.
db
Joseph,
Come on now — “radicalized blockheads in the gay community?” No, it was ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and WHAM (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization) activists that invaded the on-going service and on person who threw a broken communion wafer at Cardinal O’Conner, NOT the “gay community” (whatever that is). Moreover, not all members of ACT-UP supported that particular demonstration or the invasion of the church service going on inside St Patrick’s.
The demonstration involved a few thousand ACT-UP and WHAM demonstrators who were OUTSIDE the church. “A few dozen” went inside the catherdal and interrupted the church service. About 100 people were arrested. Most were sentenced to community service. None did jail time.
Hey dude, he said “IN the gay community.”
He in no way implied the ENTIRE gay community in his remarks. Nor did he say anything about ALL of the demonstrators who were there.
I read his remarks as being about “the few dozen” that you mention.
I read the “in” word in the quotation.
My point is that it was not a “gay” demonstration. To attribute the demonstration to radicalized gay blockheads is an error. It was an AIDS and women’s-right-to-choose demonstration. Those who invaded the church were AIDS-and women’s-reproductive-rights activist blockheads.
They were also mostly democrats or “liberals.” But no one has said that the church service was disrupted by “liberal” or “democrat” nutcases.
Just to be clear:
1. I am not implying the Dr F is being anti-gay or engaging in some unacknowledged hate-baiting. He has demonstrated in previous writings that he is nothing of the sort.
2. I am saying that the attribution to gay people is a mistake
just my own cheap 25 cents opinion but I think people are paying too much atention to this “pussy riot” concept (notice I avoided stating the word “crap” for “concept”- I hope everyone can appreciate the fact that I’m trying to raise my consciousness)-
it’s a cheap act- anyone who works in the world of theater, like I do, can see it- even those who don’t work in theater should be able to see it (like being able to see through the cheap acts of Tele-Evangelists- yeah, the ones who push over their newest converts and cause them to fall backwards- ever noticed this?- I have- we might want to consider them to be “push-overs”- it’s right in our faces)-
I somehow don’t think this “Pussy Riot” scenario has much to do with defending free speech- it’s a pathetic attempt to keep us distracted from more important things-
God only knows what is really behind this whole farce (I’ve read this group hasn’t “sung” one note but don’t know if that’s true- and if they have, where is the proof that they, themselves, sang?- remember the scandal behind “Milli-Vanilli”?)-
anyway, what group would want to call themselves “Pussy Riot” unless they wanted to purposely recieve negative attention?- and we’re dealing, supposedly, with native Russians who learned English in schools- I somehow don’t think the concept “pussy” was taught to them in a classroom- I somehow think the concept of “kitty” probably wraped it up in a Fabergè-designed yokeless egg- there are/were other forces at work here-
and look at their empty faces (see above under concept “there are/were other forces at work here”)- they “aint” exactly Russian Dolls unless they’ve been pre-programmed to emerge as something other than they appear to be on the surface-
please, all, connect the dots/pixels-
many regards-
Larry
Another example of the “color” revolutions sponsored by Western Intelligence.
They want their man Fridays($) running the puppet master’s illusion of a democratic world-stage.
“Radicalized blockheads”?
“If, then, the legitimacy and truth of fantasy become the demands for political action, if surrealist forms of protest and resistance become widespread within the rebellion of the young intelligentsia, this apparently meaningless development could mark a groundbreaking change of conditions.”
-Herbert Marcuse, An Essay On Liberation
Браво! Лучше не скажешь. Некоторые американцы разъясняют суть дела лучше и смелее чем многие русские.
Hi Юрий (otherwise known as ‘Yuri’ in English, French, German, Italian and ‘Lower Slavic/Slavonic (term used to try to be ‘politically correct’) Languages’ using the Cyrillic alphabet (maybe start with Serbian- well, just a thought)-
“русские”- “Russian”- yeah, this much Russian I can still read and dicipher from my pitifull high school Russian (what’s left of it) but if you really have something important to say to the masses you might want to consider writing in the Latin alphabet to enlighten us capitalists- well, you know, it’s just a concept….
During their “performance” in the Cathedral they shouted “God’s Mother, please save Russia from Putin” – so, they did mention his name. And the point is not were they right or not in such expression, but the fact is that they were arrested and were contained in a pretrial detention center 2 MONTHS and were sentenced for 2 YEARS of imprisonment under paragraph that cover serious Сriminal Code violations. And one more paradox is that some crimes are punished gentlier than an ordinary, though provokimg chuliganism of stupid girls. As for Russian Orthodoxal Church (of so called Moscow patriarchate – the structure created by Stalin in 1943 specially to manipulate religious feelings of the russian people to mobilize them to the Red Army), contrary to what is written in the New Testament it is relying upon – forgiveness, mercy it showed martial intolerance and the dependance on the state’s power.
I should like to know how Stalin created the Patriarchate in 1943, when Patriarch St. Tikhon (Belavin) was Patriarch of Moscow long before 1943? Or am I once again misunderstanding you?
By saying that ” Stalin created the Patriarchate in 1943″ I didn’t mean the whole history of Russian Orthodox Church. I had in mind that the modern “Russian Orthodox Church” has nothing in common with the historical Russian Church that existed till the death of the Patriarch Tikhon. As you probably know, during 1927-43 the church system of the old Russian Church was annihilated troughout the whole of the country, many churchmen were repressed, imprisoned and exterminated, there didn’t happen the new Patriarch elections untill 1943. In this situation the bunch of timid, hungry priests headed by well-known metropolitan Sergius famous for his ambiguous and infamous declaration of recognizing the Soviet State on the part of clergy went on the service to Stalin, who immediately after he met with them on – pressed by his urgent practical needs and by the Allies to stop religious persecution – granted them with a new location in the former German ambassy and allowed the Patriarchate print media to be renewed etc with the help of the soviet administrative machine. The new organization happened under the guidance of NKGB, presented by the NKGB officer G.Karpov, who was appointed to the position of the Chief of the Russian Orthodox Church affairs. That was accomplished in a short period of 3-14 September. The procedure of recreation of Patriarchate was accompanied by violetion of the canons, a considerable part of priest, were in opposition to Sergius, feeling he usurped his position to carry out his plans to rapproachment with the Soviets. Don’t want to go much into details, just emphasize: Russian Orthodox Church was in fact split into several fractions – I mean not onle groups that were supported purposedly by the Soviets to weaken the Church’s and the religion influence on masses, but the True Ortodox Church that went underground for the rest of the Soviet period and served as the bridge between local residents and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside. they actively fought against the officially recognized “Russian Orthodox Church” and were on the same side with the latter, depictind the official Moscow Patriarchate “the Red Church”, that was staffed heavily with KGB employees and the members of the Communist Party, serving as the corridor and the branch of the KGB actions both inside and, especially, outside the USSR. For example, The Patriarch Alexei I, became the agent of Estonian KGB in the Febr. of 1958 undeer Nickname “Drozdov”, if you uncoevr the biography of the current head of ROC (it’s easy nowadays, as this is an open information, because anyone amongst “them” is rather proud of being a part of KGB than is ashamed). The “reunification” of 2007 wasn’t so perfect as the offical Kremlin’s and ROC’s propaganda, many of the ROCO didn’t accept it and descriabe the act as “betrayal”, with the result of the new escalation of tension in the Orthodox World, accomanied with the attempts of the ROC to obtain the estate, realty, treasures of the ROCO’s eparchies and so on and on endlessly,a sighnificant part of the ROCO refused to reunite with the ROC and elected their own authorities. This is in fact an old and very-well known story, but for further reading (at least as introduction to the problematics) you might like to read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Russian_Orthodox_Church
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%86%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%B2%D0%B8#1941.E2.80.941991_.D0.B3.D0.BE.D0.B4.D1.8B – in Russian
the latter link contains more details and what’s more important – SOURCES that can provide you additional info that you could not came across.
http://www.rusbaptist.stunda.org/mp.htm – in Russian
http://krotov.info/history/20/1950/1953_stalin.htm – in Russian.
Hope some good online translator will help you
Oh, sorry for numerous typing errors, I was in hurry and smts was losing my mind to end what I intended to say 😛
In the first paragraph, Dr. Farrell refers to “that nasty Catholic-looking Russian Orthodoxy.” With good reason. The average Protestant American is unaware of the Orthodox. To the conservative evangelicals, the Orthodox are just some weird version of Catholic. Add the adjective “Russian,” and that becomes a fearful vision of Cold War enemies mixed in with a strong dislike of Catholicism.
Therefore long paragraphs about Russian Orthodox history and internal politics might as well be in Old Church Slavonic. Very, very few will understand anything. For those of us who do, the basics aren’t necessary.
Ilja, this may come as a surprise to you, but I’m well aware of all the politics of Russian Orthodoxy.
Yeah, that studying with Timothy Ware and teaching at St. Tikhon’s are clues.
Well, Joseph, then if you know that – to be honest I had supposed that till I posted – then it somehow isn’t evident through your political reviews, otherwise would one call this “Church” , which by many thinking people inside Russia is just the lackey of the KGB/CPSS originated oligarchized regime, and the policy of the modern “Russian national” gvmt towards the problem protection of “its national identity and culture” ? Having in mind all these facts, I think, no one could do that unless one sees KGB and the Communist regime as an expression of the russian “national culture and identity”. Therefore the impression is sometimes that you know more that you show us.
I would suggest that there are other ways of interpreting the RESULT of that “bargain” Ilja, than that it resulted in the Moscow Patriarchate as being nothing but a lackey of the KGB… for that matter, don’t forget the “synod” method of Tsar Peter the Great, and the tight relationship it forged between the Russian Orthodox church and the Preobrazensky Prikat and other tools of the oligarchy of THAT day… I am suggesting other ways of interpreting what happened as a result of the “deal” between Sergius and Stalin.
“don’t forget the “synod” method of Tsar Peter the Great, and the tight relationship it forged between the Russian Orthodox church and the Preobrazensky Prikat and other tools of the oligarchy of THAT day” – you’re 100 percent right. Indeed! However it just confirms my view – these were the 2 darkest periods of Russian history . But, sincerely, I don’t think there’s an urgent need to add more interpretations to the facts that influenced the general state of matter, obvious for the consequances it caused. Antinational trends of Peter “the Great” and the Communist regime are unjustifiable. Thre’ re well-known facts that nobody dares to deny – too sounding they are. yes the Russian Orthodox Church was faunded by Chekists and Communists and serve for the utilitarian goals of its bosses, many clerics were CPSS members and KGB agents – any interpretation won’t change that. My respect.
However the members of PR were not simply fined or jailed for a couple of days on the charges of trespassing.