“It is only necessary that these people should be governors , inspectors , policemen ; that they should be fully convinced that there is a kind of business , called government service , which allows men to treat other men as things , without human brotherly relations with them , and also that these people should be so linked together by this government service that the responsibility for the results of their actions should not fall on any one of them separately .”
“‘ Perhaps these governors , inspectors , policemen , are needed , but it is terrible to see men deprived of the chief human attribute , that of love and sympathy for one another . The thing is , ’ he continued , ‘ that these people consider lawful what is not lawful , and do not consider the eternal , immutable law , written in the hearts of men by God , as law .”
Extracts from “Resurrection” by Leo Tolstoy.
Times and circumstances don’t change do they? The divisive politics in many countries now, especially the UK and the USA, the massive difference between the haves and the have nots of society.
As a comparison with times gone by I’ve been reading Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy written back in 1899. His character’s journey of enlightenment from a wealthy prince who serves on a jury and recognises the defendant as a woman who he wronged as a young guy. He went off to the army as a young man and left her pregnant. As a servant to his family, she was kicked out and ended up in prostitution to survive. His sense of guilt engulfs him and when she is sentenced to Siberia for a crime she did not commit and he swears to prove her innocence, and travel to Siberia to marry her and save her.
He gives up all his property to his peasant farmers and travels with the prisoners on the long route and becomes a champion of the oppressed and an early advocate for prison and societal reforms. The privileged in his old world see him as crazy his view hardens as he sees the brutality of the system, whilst others turn a blind eye.
There are so many similarities with today’s world and human behaviour in general and shows that those of us with a social conscience are in the minority while the population in general are themselves fighting for survival. When people still get disparaged as ‘do-gooders’ or ‘woke’ or even ‘tree-huggers’ for attempting to make the world a better place, when racists in the UK abuse black players for simply missing penalties in a football final and the Prime Minister and his Home Secretary call taking the knee ‘gesture politics’ instead of calling the boo-boys out, because they know all along that those thugs, racists and hooligans would vote for his side in an election, they are perpetuating inequality and injustice.
These excerpts from Leo Tolstoy’s excellent novel “Resurrection” show that we haven’t really learned the lessons of the past. That division and harsh laws do not have an effect, but the establishment would rather malign those of a softer persuasion and create false new enemies such as “Political Correctness” or “Cancel Culture” or the “Woke.” What they really seek is to keep the masses down, all the talk of “levelling up” is just pandering to the lowest common denominator, those very same uneducated thugs, and racists who in the old days marched for Oswald Mosley’s fascists. They try to turn that argument around by calling those of us who want to shut them up as ‘fascists’ ourselves for stopping their freedom of speech.
Germany has laws to stop those that deny the holocaust because they know where it leads. With freedoms come responsibilities and the need for integrity, something our current government does not have at all. They are now swinging the blame onto the social media platforms for allowing those who abuse, while refusing to accept that they are encouraging those voices. We need leadership from both. Social media has given abusers and bullies a platform to spout hatred, but those same politicians knew that was their audience. They are as much guilty as the abusers.
These extracts from Resurrection highlight that we have not moved on much from the last century.
“It is clear that he is not an exceptional evil – doer , but a most ordinary boy ; everyone sees it – and that he has become what he is simply because he got into circumstances that create such characters , and , therefore , to prevent such a boy from going wrong the circumstances that create these unfortunate beings must be done away with . ‘ But what do we do ? We seize one such lad who happens to get caught , knowing well that there are thousands like him whom we have not caught , and send him to prison , where idleness , or most unwholesome , useless labour is forced on him , in company of others weakened and ensnared by the lives they have led . And then we send him , at the public expense , from the Moscow to the Irkoutsk government , in company with the most depraved of men . ‘ But we do nothing to destroy the conditions in which people like these are produced ; on the contrary , we support the establishments where they are formed . These establishments are well known : factories , mills , workshops , public – houses , gin – shops , brothels . And we do not destroy these places , but , looking at them as necessary , we support and regulate them . We educate in this way not one , but millions of people , and then catch one of them and imagine that we have done something , that we have guarded ourselves , and nothing more can be expected of us . Have we not sent him from the Moscow to the Irkoutsk government ? ’ Thus thought Nekhlyudov with unusual clearness and vividness , sitting in his high – backed chair next to the colonel , and listening to the different intonations of the advocates ’ , prosecutor’s , and president’s voices , and looking at their self – confident gestures . ‘ And how much and what hard effort this pretence requires , ’ continued Nekhlyudov in his mind , glancing round the enormous room , the portraits , lamps , armchairs , uniforms , the thick walls and large windows ; and picturing to himself the tremendous size of the building , and the still more ponderous dimensions of the whole of this organisation , with its army of officials , scribes , watchmen , messengers , not only in this place , but all over Russia , who receive wages for carrying on this comedy which no one needs . ‘ Supposing we spent one – hundredth of these efforts helping these castaways , whom we now only regard as hands and bodies , required by us for our own peace and comfort . Had someone chanced to take pity on him and given some help at the time when poverty made them send him to town , it might have been sufficient , ’ Nekhlyudov thought ,”
Society is happy to brush these things under the carpet. The same mentality that would hang someone as a deterrent rather than care whether they are innocent or not as the Home Secretary stated on “Question Time” during the General Election campaign.
The following extracts sum up how I see myself when I go amongst old friends, those who are happy to be comfortable and call their casual racism “tongue in cheek humour.”
“Everything seemed so clear to him now that he could not stop wondering how it was that everybody did not see it , and that he himself had for such a long while not seen what was so clearly evident . The people were dying out , and had got used to the dying – out process , and had formed habits of life adapted to this process : there was the great mortality among the children ,”
“Nekhlyudov perceived all this now as clearly as he saw the palace , the sentinels , the fortress , the river , the boats , and the Stock Exchange . And just as on this northern summer night there was no restful darkness on the earth , but only a dismal , dull light coming from an invisible source , so in Nekhlyudov’s soul there was no longer the restful darkness , ignorance . Everything seemed clear . It was clear that everything considered important and good was insignificant and repulsive , and that all the glamour and luxury hid the old , well – known crimes , which not only remained unpunished but were adorned with all the splendour which men were capable of inventing . Nekhlyudov wished to forget all this , not to see it , but he could no longer help seeing it . Though he could not see the source of the light which revealed it to him any more than he could see the source of the light which lay over Petersburg ; and though the light appeared to him dull , dismal , and unnatural , yet he could not help seeing what it revealed , and he felt both joyful and anxious .”
His almost final statement sums up what should be the goal for all of us, where I try to live my life despite being called “Snowflake” and “Woke” which to me are now not terms of abuse but a badge of honour!
“It cannot be otherwise , because natural love is the fundamental law of human life .”
Rock on Leo.
