The Strain of Civilization II

"In order to understand Plato we must visualize the whole contemporary situation. After the Peloponnesian war, the strain of civilization was felt as strongly as ever. The old oligarchic hopes were still alive, and the defeat of Athens had even tended to encourage them. The class struggle continued. Yet Critias’ attempt to destroy democracy by carrying out the programme of the Old Oligarch had failed. It had not failed through lack of determination; the most ruthless use of violence had been unsuccessful, in spite of favourable circumstances in the shape of powerful support from victorious Sparta. Plato felt that a complete reconstruction of the programme was needed. The Thirty had been beaten in the realm of power politics largely because they had offended the citizens’ sense of justice. The defeat had been largely a moral defeat. The faith of the Great Generation had proved its strength. The Thirty had nothing of this kind to offer; they were moral nihilists. The programme of the Old Oligarch, Plato felt, could not be revived without basing it upon another faith, upon a persuasion which re-affirmed the old values of tribalism, opposing them to the faith of the open society. Men must be taught that justice is inequality, and that the tribe, the collective, stands higher than the individual." Karl Popper [1945], Ch. 10, Section IV

"This dream of unity and beauty and perfection, this aestheticism and holism and collectivism, is the product as well as the symptom of the lost group spirit of tribalism. It is the expression of, and an ardent appeal to, the sentiments of those who suffer from the strain of civilization. (It is part of the strain that we are becoming more and more painfully aware of the gross imperfections in our life, of personal as well as of institutional imperfection; of avoidable suffering, of waste and of unnecessary ugliness; and at the same time of the fact that it is not impossible for us to do something about all this, but that such improvements would be just as hard to achieve as they are important. This awareness increases the strain of personal responsibility, of carrying the cross of being human.)" Karl Popper [1945], Chapter 10, Section IV

"I suppose that what I call the ‘strain of civilization’ is similar to the phenomenon which Freud had in mind when writing Civilization and its Discontents. Toynbee speaks of a Sense of Drift (A Study of History, V, 412 ff.), but he confines it to ‘ages of disintegration’, while I find my strain very clearly expressed in Heraclitus (in fact, traces can be found in Hesiod)—long before the time when, according to Toynbee, his ‘Hellenic society’ begins to ‘disintegrate’. Meyer speaks of the disappearance of ‘The status of birth, which had determined every man’s place in life, his civil and social rights and duties, together with the security of earning his living’ (Geschichte des Altertums, III, 542). This gives an apt description of the strain in Greek society of the fifth century B.C." Karl Popper, [1945], footnote 8 to Chapter 10.

... coming together............ 'circling-the-drain'...: Oligarchs Rule

... coming together............ 'circling-the-drain'...: Oligarchs Rule: " 'When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes..."

God's Own State: Russia

Boiko the Great

News agency Reuters reported last week "Russian dairy to dismiss women over abortions". The story is about Russian "oligarch" Vasily Boiko-Veliky announcing his orthodox fundamentalist staffing policy in an interview. His dairy "Russkoye Moloko" was "established  to promote the revival of the Orthodox church in Russia" by applying new rules: no new employees having previously performed abortion, a wedding ultimatum for the unmarried (living in sin) until October 14 , ... and the wildfire catastrophy in Russia this summer being a punishment for sin but improvable by suggested weddings. (Back to the old days of spell and counter-spell)

Boiko-Veliky (his artist name meaning "Boiko the Great") is not the only Russian business man or politician (which often comes to the same thing in Putin's Russia) carrying his prayer-book . Putin himself embraces and propagates "traditional confessions" - as he called Russian Orthodox Church. And as with Yeltsin's tennis club - which anyone had to visit in order to get acquainted to him and make some money, it almost comes down to an obligation in todays Russia to expose oneself as a believer, not unlike for U.S. politicians in order to win elections. No TV-event without orthodox priests.

German Sterligoff

Another Russian business man, German Sterligoff, showed similar fundamentalist attitudes towards labour and politics. In a talk  together with Boiko the Great and some journalists of radio station "Echo of Moscow" he expressed his religious redneck views as shown by the following Question-Answer excerpt [translated by a member of base 2014].

Interview in Echo of Moscow

Question: What shall we do with all the godless people, gays and lesbians?

Sterligoff: As it is written by apostle Paul "there shall be blood on their heads" [this quotation is rather known by Leviticus 20:33: "If a man has intercourse with another man in the same manner as with a woman, both of them have committed a disgusting perversion. They shall be put to death by stoning", comment by base2014]

Question: Are  there gays and lesbians mentioned explicitly?

Sterligoff: Yes, it said specifically about men having intercourse with other men.

Question: So, they ought to be killed?

Sterligoff: Yes, unconditionally.
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Question: German, do you exercise birching?

Sterligoff: Birching whom?

Question: Children?

Sterligoff: Yes sure! It's written in the holy scripture: "you are an enemy to your son if you spare birch for him" ... It's important to do it with love. Because, if you punish your children with anger, it humiliates them - ...

Question: Do you birch your employees?

Sterligoff: No, I don't. When it comes to abortions - since already 15 years it has been forbidden [in my firm]  - I pay no salary to those who kill children. I don't have such female employees.

Question: Does that mean that your employees are aware of this precondition?

Sterligoff: Yes, during our interviews I ask everyone if they have performed abortion or not. As a rule, they don't lie and answer openly. It's such a question where it's hard to lie.

Question: But you haven't issued any printed directives on this topic?

Sterligoff: No, everybody simply knows it. It's self-evident because it's scary to work with a murderer of a child. Because you don't know - since he/she had managed to kill a child - ... The same applies to men, bacause some of them force their broads to perform abortion.
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Question: This is a very important moment for me, because I have to understand that this political correctness which we all curse all the time and which exists in Europe as well as in the U.S. ... Maybe the time has came for us to adopt certain provisions or to initiate their adoption?

Sterligoff: I'm convinced that we have to adopt all your laws based on the holy scripture.