Existentialism Philosophy

The Grand Inquisitor Planet

Understanding the world is difficult at best. However, knowing how the world works is a task that can be readily recognized. The ability to grasp and admit both functions, is seldom achieved by most souls. Those who accomplish a rare and accurate comprehension of the human condition, appreciate the social conflict that permeates civilized life. Society is an invention to effect dominance. The Grand Inquisitor exacts compliance, for that is his function. Not that it is essential, but because it is ingrained and instinctive.

In The Brothers Karamazov, Fydor Dostoevsky has Ivan Karamazov use his intuition to deliver a psychological view of his internal struggle. “My poem is called ‘The Grand Inquisitor’- an absurd thing, but I want you to hear it.” His encounter bears witness to duel aspects of mankind. On the one hand God is needed, even if He is denied; and if His presence is in dispute, humankind will invent His omnipotence in the form of a civil structure.

Enter the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor:

“But you did not know that as soon as man rejects miracles, he will at once reject God as well, for man seeks not so much God as miracles. And since man himself cannot bear to be left without miracles, he will go and create new miracles for himself, his own miracles this time, and will bow down to the miracles of quacks, or women’s magic, though he be rebellious, heretical, and godless a hundred times over.”

“You did not come down again [from the cross] because, again, you did not want to enslave man by a miracle and thirsted for faith that is free, not miraculous…But here, too, you overestimated mankind, for, of course they are slaves, although they were created rebels.” “I swear, man is created weaker and baser than you thought him!”

The refuge of the Church required an obedience to the Cardinal. The primacy of the Holy See demanded submission to Catholicism, not to God. Organization took precedence over belief. Inquisition as an ecclesiastic tribunal to establish membership in good standing could be valid. However, persecution by authorities to force compliance, as the measure of adherence to their system of earthly order; is abhorrent.

The intellectual Karamazov son, Ivan, explains that faith is not easy to understand. The poem also explains that free will is the single greatest burden placed upon any individual. Freedom, according to Ivan's poem, is intolerable. “The tragic nihilism of the Grand Inquisitor is, in turn, parodied by Ivan's devil, the "true" devil. The Grand Inquisitor's secret is that he does not believe in God, but he is a victim of a terrible love for mankind. His indictment of Christ is that Christ himself does not love man and does not understand him; Christ, in refusing to display his powers through miracle, excludes from the State-as-Church most of humanity. Father Zossima is the mystic, and his mysticism has the psychological power of ridding the peasant (most of humanity) of his burden of freedom; the Grand Inquisitor is the mystic-turned-political figure, the organizer and savior of mankind. Both Zossima and the Grand Inquisitor are altruistic, ruled by love of man”.

Basically the modern day parallel, conforms to a parable that has haunted mankind from his inception. The record is real, even when the homily is ridiculed. The political role of the Christendom Church invested authoritarian reign within bishops, in matters of religious rite. Princes and kings accepted canon law as a prerequisite for their own salvation. Civil governments acknowledged influence from Popes and his cardinals because they validated their legitimacy. Public policy was often confirmed by papal sanctification.

As miracles became optional and mystics were relegated to visions that conformed with public policy, the State gradually assumed the supremacy that was once the province of the Church. The excesses of the Grand Inquisitor became the creed of administration by the temporal regime. Their doctrine was taught as the achievement of the common good. Judgment for defining and attaining that criterion rested in the politic that kept the ruling structure in place. Canon law for the holy faithful was cast aside as civic decree transformed into the religion of the State. No longer was belief required to guide behavior; man made codes, regulations and laws determined the appropriate conduct.

Freedom to reject this formula remains as testimony that the work of achieving altruism necessitates the torments of the Grand Inquisitor. Penalties and methods of discipline have become the sacraments of salvation. Redemption, no longer needed - now requires - only uniformity to consummate the religious dogma of contemporary society.

What lesson can be learned, when Ivan says:

"Why, it's all nonsense, Alyosha (his father). It's only a senseless poem of a senseless student, who could never write two lines of verse. Why do you take it so seriously? Surely you don't suppose I am going straight off to the Jesuits, to join the men who are correcting His work? Good Lord, it's no business of mine. I told you, all I want is to live on to thirty, and then... dash the cup to the ground!"

"But the little sticky leaves, and the precious tombs, and the blue sky, and the woman you love! How will you live, how will you love them?" Alyosha cried sorrowfully. "With such a hell in your heart and your head, how can you? No, that's just what you are going away for, to join them... if not, you will kill yourself, you can't endure it!"

"There is a strength to endure everything," Ivan said with a cold smile.

"The strength of the Karamazovs -- the strength of the Karamazov baseness."

"To sink into debauchery, to stifle your soul with corruption, yes?"

"Possibly even that... only perhaps till I am thirty I shall escape it, and then-"

"How will you escape it? By what will you escape it? That's impossible with your ideas."

"In the Karamazov way, again." "'Everything is lawful,' you mean?
Everything is lawful, is that it?"

The popular culture has adopted the Karamazov ethic and the planet has become the dependency of the Grand Inquisitor. The rejection of God, as a condition to serve man, is the work of the devil. Altruism is torture that accentuates agony. Our human nature is condemned to the anguish of permanent suffering, without the eternal relief from atonement. The State is not a vessel for redemption. No government will offer salvation. And no system of administration can or will be a substitute for submission before the living divine creator.

Faith in God obligates distrust and opposition to profane temporal torturers, who promote a forced punishment, as the reward for authentic fidelity. Love for your fellow man, does not necessitate worship of a secular beast. The miracle of life is not a product of a public program. Miracles are the results of revelation. Our nature is designed to embrace faith, not to fear it or renounce its importance. The Grand Inquisitor brotherhood is doomed, when believers deny the lies and revolt against their rule. You have the freedom - show your faith.

SARTRE - March 30, 2004

posted by SARTRE ! at 3/29/2004 |

Nikolai Berdyaev and the Eighth Day of Creation

Freedom is a topic that consumes our modern day society. While, it is assumed, by most; that being free is natural and essential, few understand the boundaries that fix the limits of freedom. Nikolai Berdyaev may not be a well known philosopher, but his fresh outlook offers valuable insights. A Russian who in 1909 contributed to a symposium which reaffirmed the values of Orthodox Christianity was later appointed by the Bolshevists to a chair of philosophy in the University of Moscow. Imprisoned and exiled, he remained a Russian. He announced his adhesion to the Soviet government, while criticising the return to a policy of repression.

Berdyaev viewed freedom as “the ultimate: it cannot be derived from anything: it cannot be made the equivalent of anything”. He qualified this absolute with some real world pragmatism: “It would be a mistake to think that the average man loves freedom. A still greater mistake would be to suppose that freedom is an easy thing. Freedom is a difficult thing. It is easier to remain in slavery”.

Our technocratic age views truth as a function of the verifiable. Since Berdyaev recognized a spiritual nature to man, his view of truth conflicted with the Marxist regime of his homeland. For him: “Truth is not of the world, but of the spirit: it is known only in transcending the objective world. Truth is the end of this objective world, it demands our consent to this end”. The dignity of each human being is a concept that escapes the materialist. For the Communist, the value of the individual is diminished, as the collective is exalted. Berdyaev attempts to bridge this gap, while remaining true to his Russian roots. For him, the unique personality is based upon the communal interaction.

He sees the “personality as an existential centre, presupposes capacity to feel suffering and joy. Nothing in the object world, nation or state or society, or social institution, or church, possesses this capacity”. However, this singleness of "personality is communal; it presupposes communion with others, and community with others. The profound contradiction and difficulty of human life is due to this communality”.

No doubt we all share space on this same planet. Nonetheless, the inherent conflict that runs throughout all of history pits the forces of conformity against the need to resist regimentation and control. Do governments and the social influences draw people into accepting limits upon their drive for freedom, or are they mere reflections of methods that demand conformity? Force is used to require behavior that is desired by a any given society. Berdyaev seeks to explain and theorize a different standard. “The affirmation of the supreme value of personality is not at all concern for personal salvation, but rather the expression of the person's supreme creative calling in the life of the world”.

This conclusion seems tailored for the scientific environment that views the world as knowable and eventually; perfectible. The function of creativity for the materialist is to extend and achieve the notion of progress. Berdyaev avows a spiritual element that most post-modernists are eager to dismiss. His vision of the Third Epoch or "Eighth Day of Creation", is the final chapter of the divinely created universe. Berdyaev sees three separated stages:

“The three epochs of divine revelation in the world are the three epochs of the revelation about man. In the first epoch man's sin is brought to light and a natural divine force is revealed; in the second epoch man is made a son of God and redemption from sin appears; in the third epoch the divinity of man's creative nature is finally revealed and divine power becomes human power”. (MCA, 320)

This perspective has an intriguing appeal that is absent from Statist systems. However, how is it possible for mankind to make that gigantic leap from constant conflict to communal harmony? Freedom involves choices. The capacity to select evil is always an option when people have the ability to decide. If truth stands independently from individual consciousness, can the same be said for evil? Or does it require the proactive decision and corresponding action and behavior that creates the harmful result?

Those who uphold freedom as the ideal, must explain how it would be probable, or even possible; to achieve a creative advancement to a higher level, if one is free to commit evil deeds. Since choice resides within each person, the responsibility of one’s actions cannot be repudiated. Bureaucracies of all forms, pursue courses that impose restrictions. Freedom can never be legislated. Only relief from adverse consequences can be bestowed from governments, since they are the very institutions that design coercive penalties for disobedience to their contrived laws.

If an Eighth Day of Creation would come to be realized, self imposed limits to unrestrained choices would need to be made by ALL persons, under EVERY circumstance. That seems to require perfection! While it is nice to postulate that man is destined to become God, the reality of human nature offers little evidence that such a possibility is forthcoming. The immutable truth stands witness to the shame of human behavior. The freedom to act with depravity is surpassed only by the acquiescence of individuals to resign themselves to their servitude under governments.

Berdyaev proclaims that “the opening of a new epoch of the Spirit, which will include higher achievements of spirituality, presupposes a radical change and a new orientation in human consciousness. This will be a revolution of consciousness which hitherto has been considered as something static. The religion of the Spirit will be the religion of man's maturity, leaving behind him his childhood and adolescence.... “ (DH, 222) Can man achieve such a rebirth of thinking through his own efforts? It seems that the influence of the Marxist mentality was not completely purged from Berdyaev’s mind. Since much of our world repeats the mantra of the “so called” benefits for global unity, it is hard to dismiss, that the adolescent attitude of wishful fantasy, is nothing more than the triumph of evil within the prevailing culture.

Freedom is glorious, when it is tempered by individual restraint and guided by moral conduct. Berdyaev’s optimism has a long way to go to convert the children into a congenial community. That Eighth Day seems a long way off . . . and creation requires more than what humans can offer.

SARTRE - March 9, 2004

posted by SARTRE ! at 3/11/2004 |