Ignoring the Underground Man

“What if man is not really a scoundrel, man in general, I mean, the whole race of mankind-then all the rest is prejudice, simply artificial terrors and there are no barriers and it’s all as it should be.” - Rashkolnikov

That previous quote is a dangerous concept.  I recently finished the book “Notes from the Underground” by Fydor Dostoyevski.  I’m a big Dostoyevski fan he was one of my first reads after becomming a new Christian and his book “Crime and Punishment” struck me deep inside.

“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, ‘Make us your slaves, but feed us” – The Grand Inquisitor

It seems though in reflecting on much of the nonsense being batted around in the seats of power in Washington the lessons and wisdom that Dostoyevski shared with the world are being ignored as we lay our freedom at others feet.  Most importantly and dangerously we are ignoring the Underground Man who was the predecessor for many of Dostoyevski’s other famous characters.  For those of you that don’t know Dostoyevski here is a quick bio.  He lived in Russia in the mid-1800s and wrote several famous books.  He was the antithesis of Marx before Marx existed, he predicted much of the rise of socialism, discussed and explored psychological concepts prior to their explanation by actual psychologists, was precurser of much of existential philosophy, and as an orthodox Christian struggled with many issues of theology, faith and grace.

“Humiliate the reason and distort the soul.” – The Idiot

Most importantly to this analysis though are probably his books “Notes from the Underground” and “Crime and Punishment” although I’ve provide quotes here from “The Idiot” and “The Brothers Karamazov” which are the depth of my Dostoyevski readings to date although surely not the end.   Dostoyevski’s Undeground Man mimics the cry needed today.  As our reason is being humiliated today Dostoyevski in his time was concerned with Russia following the Europeans into socialism and their “enlightened” philosophies where mans fallen nature was ignored to Dostoyevski this was a grave threat to Russia.  Unfortunately, Russia did not heed Dostoyevski’s warning and within slightly more then 30 years from Dostoyevski’s death (or 53 from the writing of “Notes…”) the Bolsheviks came into power and communist Russia was born under the iron fist of the supreme technocrat Lenin.

“I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too” – The Underground Man

Today America is treading the same path.  Following the “enlightened” Europeans into Socialism whether in energy, health care, autos, or banking we are heading down the same path of Russia in the 1800s.  Less then 200 years out and we have already forgotten the lessons of history.  Washington whether under Bush, McCain, or Obama are ignoring the Underground Man or perhaps more importantly we as American’s do not know the story of the Underground Man and allow our politicians the power to indanger us all by ignoring the story.  A story of why two plus two most sometimes equal five.   Human’s are corruptable, man has a tendancy towards egoism, and a technocrat cannot predict all of humankinds actions as human nature will cause rebillion by definition of being human.  Oh, how the Underground Man would have railed against the concept of “Compartitive Effective” research.

“Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man.” – The Idiot

And how Rashkolnikov from “Crime and Punishment” mimics our modern day politicians in his mindset of being above the law his justifications of how the ends can and could justify the means.  He was a prediction then of the rise of Lenin as he is today the prediction of the rise of our modern politicians who “sacrifice free markets to save free markets”.  The McCain’s, Obama’s and Bush’s for whom the ends justify the means.  Although, “Crime and Punishment” also deals with the salvation and redemption of a man from these ideals it is just sad to see how far we have to fall before our redemption.  The millions of Russians that died under Lenin and Stalin.  The millions of American’s who will surely suffer under the comming chaos. And yet we ignore…

“Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element.” ~ The Underground Man