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.The horizontally-oriented person is always unhappy, butunfortunately he cannot remain unhappy all by himself: his business isthat of others.He has a theory, he sacrifices himself for the sake of ourhappiness, he wears a modest uniform, and he is concerned not withhimself but with the entire society; indeed, with the whole of the world.In the 20th century these selfless servants of the common good broughtthe world to the brink of destruction.In comparison with Western Europe, in Russia previous generationsleft relatively little: there was a tradition of sharing, individual rightswere weak or non-existent, and people who were hell-bent on destructioncould easily have their way.In terms of literature and music, previousgenerations of Russians left a great deal: poems are very hard to destroyonce they are out, but houses and businesses are not so lucky.In a vertically-oriented society people do nothing but consume, theytake, and take, and take! They take paper, food, package tours and allfor their egoistical personal needs, without any regard for society.As aresult, new poems, new buildings, new products are left behind.Eachnew generation is richer and happier.But there is hope for the world! There are societies where eachperson will selflessly tell you how others should live.No one ispermitted to take too much, there is absolute fairness in everything.Theland becomes barren and empty, and should someone fail to hide somuch as a piece of bread, there is an ugly and bloody fight.Once theoffender is punished, the discussion of fairness and justice resumes.249 Matthew MalyIn a vertically-oriented society, each citizen, each consumer, enrichessociety by producing (on average) very much more than he consumes.Ina horizontally-oriented society, you always destroy more than you create,even if you consume very little.Under Stalin, the Soviet Union hadthousands of wonderful scientists and artists, but they were all made toserve evil ends.Here is another description of Stalin: Stalin was the onewho made Andrei Sakharov, the kindest person and a real humanist,produce a hydrogen bomb for the world s bloodiest and most crueldictator.SELF-SACRIFICEThe Communists claimed that only a member of a collective is capableof self-sacrifice.This is what they had in mind:Having accepted the thoughts and actions of the collective as hisown, each member of a collective dissolves in it and in so doing indeedsacrifices himself.A member of a collective becomes indistinguishable from othermembers and, from the point of view of the collective, utterlyunimportant.Should he die, his death will go unnoticed, and that is self-sacrifice.It was fear and inability to manage one s own life that brings peopleinto a collective.Having rejected themselves, they no longer fear death,but will fanatically defend the ideology that has now become their onlyconnection to reality.There are many people for whom joining acollective was just a career move, but there were also those who fearedreality so much they were ready to die for their ideological illusions.And what can we say about real self-sacrifice, for example, aboutsomeone who died trying to save the life of a child? We said that verticaldevelopment is a process whereby spiritual existence becomes moreimportant than material existence.A person equates himself with thespiritual world he has created, with that which creates harmony betweenhim and God s world.The death of a child that he could have preventedwould so disrupt this spiritual harmony that he prefers to risk his physicalexistence trying to save the child.His attempt signifies that he hasreached the pinnacle of spiritual growth, that his egotism now tells himto value his spiritual world more highly than his physical existence.250 Russia As It Is: Transformation of a Lose/Lose SocietyAs a vertically-oriented person develops himself, he realizes that allthe vertically-oriented people are united in God and, since all people areone, the suffering of the child becomes his own.As horizontally-orientedpeople are unable to feel unity with God and with humanity, they arereduced to joining the collective, which proves a very poor substitute forGod s world.Soldiers who died so that we could live did not get anything from us,and we are said to owe them a debt that can never be repaid .In fact,these soldiers have fulfilled their mission as individuals and their livescan be seen as a complete success, set as an example.During World War II, there were German soldiers who fought verywell and died for Germany , and they were no less loved and no lessdeserving to live than the Russian or American soldiers who killed them.What can we say about these German soldiers? Were their lives a successas well? And the answer is that in order to have successful lives we mustnot only maintain our physical, but also our spiritual health.Ideology canblind us, it can paralyze us, and it can kill us: it can destroy our lives,make our lives lose their meaning and purpose [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.The horizontally-oriented person is always unhappy, butunfortunately he cannot remain unhappy all by himself: his business isthat of others.He has a theory, he sacrifices himself for the sake of ourhappiness, he wears a modest uniform, and he is concerned not withhimself but with the entire society; indeed, with the whole of the world.In the 20th century these selfless servants of the common good broughtthe world to the brink of destruction.In comparison with Western Europe, in Russia previous generationsleft relatively little: there was a tradition of sharing, individual rightswere weak or non-existent, and people who were hell-bent on destructioncould easily have their way.In terms of literature and music, previousgenerations of Russians left a great deal: poems are very hard to destroyonce they are out, but houses and businesses are not so lucky.In a vertically-oriented society people do nothing but consume, theytake, and take, and take! They take paper, food, package tours and allfor their egoistical personal needs, without any regard for society.As aresult, new poems, new buildings, new products are left behind.Eachnew generation is richer and happier.But there is hope for the world! There are societies where eachperson will selflessly tell you how others should live.No one ispermitted to take too much, there is absolute fairness in everything.Theland becomes barren and empty, and should someone fail to hide somuch as a piece of bread, there is an ugly and bloody fight.Once theoffender is punished, the discussion of fairness and justice resumes.249 Matthew MalyIn a vertically-oriented society, each citizen, each consumer, enrichessociety by producing (on average) very much more than he consumes.Ina horizontally-oriented society, you always destroy more than you create,even if you consume very little.Under Stalin, the Soviet Union hadthousands of wonderful scientists and artists, but they were all made toserve evil ends.Here is another description of Stalin: Stalin was the onewho made Andrei Sakharov, the kindest person and a real humanist,produce a hydrogen bomb for the world s bloodiest and most crueldictator.SELF-SACRIFICEThe Communists claimed that only a member of a collective is capableof self-sacrifice.This is what they had in mind:Having accepted the thoughts and actions of the collective as hisown, each member of a collective dissolves in it and in so doing indeedsacrifices himself.A member of a collective becomes indistinguishable from othermembers and, from the point of view of the collective, utterlyunimportant.Should he die, his death will go unnoticed, and that is self-sacrifice.It was fear and inability to manage one s own life that brings peopleinto a collective.Having rejected themselves, they no longer fear death,but will fanatically defend the ideology that has now become their onlyconnection to reality.There are many people for whom joining acollective was just a career move, but there were also those who fearedreality so much they were ready to die for their ideological illusions.And what can we say about real self-sacrifice, for example, aboutsomeone who died trying to save the life of a child? We said that verticaldevelopment is a process whereby spiritual existence becomes moreimportant than material existence.A person equates himself with thespiritual world he has created, with that which creates harmony betweenhim and God s world.The death of a child that he could have preventedwould so disrupt this spiritual harmony that he prefers to risk his physicalexistence trying to save the child.His attempt signifies that he hasreached the pinnacle of spiritual growth, that his egotism now tells himto value his spiritual world more highly than his physical existence.250 Russia As It Is: Transformation of a Lose/Lose SocietyAs a vertically-oriented person develops himself, he realizes that allthe vertically-oriented people are united in God and, since all people areone, the suffering of the child becomes his own.As horizontally-orientedpeople are unable to feel unity with God and with humanity, they arereduced to joining the collective, which proves a very poor substitute forGod s world.Soldiers who died so that we could live did not get anything from us,and we are said to owe them a debt that can never be repaid .In fact,these soldiers have fulfilled their mission as individuals and their livescan be seen as a complete success, set as an example.During World War II, there were German soldiers who fought verywell and died for Germany , and they were no less loved and no lessdeserving to live than the Russian or American soldiers who killed them.What can we say about these German soldiers? Were their lives a successas well? And the answer is that in order to have successful lives we mustnot only maintain our physical, but also our spiritual health.Ideology canblind us, it can paralyze us, and it can kill us: it can destroy our lives,make our lives lose their meaning and purpose [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]