All Bark and No Bite

    Almost any time we attempt to receive some assistance from a government bureaucrat we find it to be extremely frustrating.  Instead of answering a simple question, these bureaucrats either ignore you or quote government policy which is, more often than not, very unhelpful. 

    Everyone deals with such frustrating experiences in a different way.  Some people will write a letter to the manager of the office, others will complain to their elected officials, others will simply do nothing, and some people will respond with either humor or sarcasm. 

    Frustration with bureaucracy is nothing new.  I am sure that there were many people who found the Roman government or those appointed by Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) to be very difficult to deal with when these two empires were in control of much of ‘the known world”. 

   In Russian literature, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) expressed such frustration in his stories The Government Inspector, The Nose, The Overcoat, and Diary of a Madman.  Another Russian author, Ivan Andreyevich Krylov (1769-1844)¹, expressed his frustration using fables. 

    A fable is defined as “a narration intended to enforce a useful truth; especially: one in which animals speak and act like human beings.”  One such fable is “The Elephant and the Pug Dog”².  One of the great things about using fables as a way of conveying a message is that everyone can relate to the message and people will often be able to see some character in the fable who reminds them of someone they know in real life. 

    Krylov wrote this fable as a way of dealing with his frustration regarding the bureaucracy in Moscow, but this story could just as easily be discussing two nations dealing with each other or the way that some people act when they are afraid. 

    Unlike fairy tales, fables have a “moral” which is clearly expressed at the end of the story.  A fairy tale can also have a “moral”, but it is contained within the story instead of expressed simply at the end.  One of the most famous fabulists, one who tells fables, was Aesop (c. 620-564 BC)³ of ancient Greece.  Ivan Krylov and other fabulists would borrow Aesop’s fables and then rewrite them so they would appear to be written for a particular audience or based upon a particular situation. 

    Humor can be a wonderful way of dealing with frustration since it does not produce anger and helps people to realize that what they are experiencing at that moment.  The same is true when it comes to dealing with difficult people. Being able to see someone as either an elephant or a pug dog allows one to place a given situation in its proper context.  If this person is truly acting like the pug dog, why get upset about it?  If this person is truly the elephant then no amount of anger or frustration will affect them.

                                                  End Notes

1)    “Ivan Krylov” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Krylov

2)    “Elephant and Pug Dog” http://marika-eva.blogspot.com/2009/08/russia-and-georgia-as-elephant-and-pug.html

3)    “Aesop” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop

The Need for a Hero

   Every society needs heroes. In fact, every society has them. The reason we do not often see them is because we don't bother to look. There are two kinds of heroes. There are heroes who shine in the face of great adversity and/or who perform an amazing feat in a difficult situation. There are also heroes who live among us, who do their work unceremoniously, unnoticed by many of us, but who make a difference in the lives of others. Heroes are selfless people who perform extraordinary acts. The mark of heroes is not necessarily the result of their action, but what they are willing to do for others and for their chosen cause. Even if they fail, their determination lives on for others to follow. The glory lies not in the achievement, but in the sacrifice. Heroes serve to remind us of the higher purpose of self and society.¹

   One such hero was Taras Bulba, a legendary figure immortalized in the novella Taras Bulba by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809-1852).  This novella tells the story of Taras and his two sons, Ostap and Andrei.  Taras is a Ukrainian Cossack living in the seventeenth century and his two sons are students at the Orthodox seminary in Kiev.  Andrei and Ostap return home from seminary and go off with their father to the Cossack camp at the Zaporozhian Sich.  Taras attempts to inspire the Cossacks to go to war against various groups.  The Cossacks finally agree to go to war against the Polish after hearing that the Polish people have been trying to convert the people of west Ukraine to Roman Catholicism and that they were attacking beliefs of the Orthodox Church.  

   Taras’ son, Andrei, is in love with the daughter of the Polish governor of Kovno.  At one point the Cossacks trap this young woman and the rest of the people inside their castle and prevent supplies from reaching the people.  One of the servants of this young woman appeals to Andrei for help and Andrei brings bread to the young woman and her family inside the castle. When Andrei sees what is happening inside the castle he abandons his fight against the Polish people and actually joins them in their fight against the Cossacks. 

   Taras makes a decision which most people would find extremely difficult to make and decides that he must kill his son, Andrei, as a result of Andrei’s disloyalty to the cause of the Cossacks.  He confronts Andrei in person and kills him with a single shot from his pistol. 

   Taras Bulba is a legendary inspirational figure who has little difficulty inspiring others to follow his lead.  He is faithful to Cossack traditions, well known among the Cossack leaders, and will engage in combat as quickly as he would send others to do so.  There are few other qualities that someone would look for in a leader. 

    At one point he is fighting along with his son, Ostap, when Taras is knocked unconscious and Ostap is taken prisoner by the Poles.  Turning to Yankel, a Jewish merchant, for help Taras explains that he must go to Warsaw in order to offer moral support for Ostap. 

    Taras is smuggled into Warsaw in a pile of bricks and with the help of other Jewish merchants and providing bribes to some guards, he is able to be present as Ostap is tortured.  Following his father’s example, Ostap does not say a word as all of his limbs are broken one at a time, but simply cries out at the end and asked, “Father, do you see this?”  Unable to control himself, Taras shouts out, “I do see this” and then quickly disappears. 

    Upon his return to Ukraine, Taras finds that all of the men he knew were now dead and a new Hetman (leader) has taken over.  This new leader wants to make peace with the Poles, but Taras protests and explains that the Poles cannot be trusted and they will not abide by any peace agreement.

   He fails to convince the new Hetman and forms his own band of soldiers who continue in their fight against the Poles.  At one point, Taras is taken prisoner, nailed to a stake, and burned alive.  Like Ostap, he does not cry out in pain, but simply declares that the glory of Russia will remain forever and a new czar will arise to continue this glory. The story ends with the Cossacks recalling the great deeds of Taras Bulba and his devotion to the spirit and cause of the Ukrainian Cossacks. 

    This same period of history was also written about in With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916).  This novel discusses these same events, but tells the story from the standpoint of the Poles instead of the Cossacks.  It is not surprising that Taras Bulba is not seen as a hero in this novel.  In fact, it has often been said that one man’s hero is another man’s terrorist. 

     The novel, Taras Bulba, originally written in 1835 was considered to be “too Ukrainian” by the Russian government and Gogol was forced to revise the novel.  A second addition was published in 1842.  Even with the revision, there is no denying that this novel is about Ukrainian life and culture.  The Ukrainian people can look to someone like Taras Bulba as a hero even in this period of history. 

     If history had been different, there would be no mention of men such as a George Washington as patriotic American heroes.  Instead, he would have been considered another in a line of anti-British terrorists.  Everyone needs a hero and the Ukrainian people certainly have one in Taras Bulba.

                                                     End Notes

 

1)    “The Making of a Hero” by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono  http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054335,00.html#ixzz2HkfrCHsE

 

Learning to Fish for Yourself

     "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime". This well known quote by Lao Tzu (6^th Century BC) expresses the reality of life in the countries which made up the Soviet Union quite nicely.  It has been twenty years since the breakup of the Soviet Union and many people are still looking to the government to do things for them.

      A Russian physician in his forties expresses the frustration of many when he says, "The Soviet system deliberately kept us as dependent children," he said. "They told us when to sit, when to stand, what to say, what to think, what to do — we were punished severely if we ever tried to think for ourselves or to show any initiative. Then when the Soviet system fell in 1991, we were like 3-year-olds who someone had thrown out into the snow, saying, 'Here, now you go take care of yourselves!'"

      His right arm thrust upward with flexed muscles and clenched fist as he declared: "We are not stupid! We are not lazy! We just don't know how!" Both his arm and his voice dropped as he softly said, "Please help us. Please teach us how to be good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, friends and lovers, employers and employees. No one has ever role-modeled to us how to become these people in a healthy, balanced way." ¹

      Most Americans would be astonished to read this, especially since we were raised to be very independent, self-reliant, and taught not to rely upon the government for assistance unless absolutely necessary.  The United States is more of a "left-brained culture" that respects and encourages: logical and analytical thinking, rationality, objectivity, responsibility, initiative, independence, honesty, dependability, trustworthiness and punctuality; and an active work ethic that emphasizes quality workmanship and accomplishing objectives in a timely manner. While there are many people in the United States who are innately more right-brained, the country as a whole still remains a left-brained culture in education, business and government. Emphasis is placed on "doing."

    Russia is more of a "right-brained culture" that respects and encourages: communication, connections, spirituality, philosophy, subjectivity, adaptability, flexibility, survival, communal concepts, formality, and tradition; and emotions that are deep and passionate. Relationships with friends and family are a high priority, and most Russians have a wide knowledge and love of the arts and culture. They are more reactive than active. While there also are many people in Russia who have left-brained personalities, the country as a whole still remains a right-brained culture, and this affects all aspects of life. Emphasis is placed upon "being." ²

    What is true of people in Russia is also true of people from the other nations that comprised the Soviet Union.  There are some individuals in these countries who have taken personal initiative to improve their own personal surroundings, but the number of people who have done so is very limited. There are also cases where people get together with the intention of improving their surroundings, but they lack the necessary funds to accomplish this goal. 

     Overall, the people are very kind, but they feel helpless because they lack the necessary resources to bring about the changes that they want and need.  Public roads and buildings are the responsibility of the government, but taking pride in one’s neighborhood or home is a matter of personal initiative.  

    One of the major differences between the American and Russian people is the influence of the Orthodox Church on Russia.  The Russian soul has been described as: sensitive, imaginative, compassionate, patient, strong (well-known for survival in unbearable circumstances), poetic, mystical, fatalistic, introspective, mistrusting of rational thought, trusting intuition, fascinating, having ability to feel a wide array of extreme human emotions (from absolute joy and peace to the darkest despair) — the list goes on. Russians maintain their integrity in a way that conforms to their inner notion of what a human being should be, with a blatant honesty and integrity seldom seen elsewhere in the world. Above all they have an appreciation for wholeness or complete commitment and faith, no matter what that faith might be related to.³  

    The Russian soul evolved and entered into Western consciousness in the 1860s and 1870s, most famously through the work of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In his novels and stories, Dostoevsky often exhibited an anti-European nationalism and frequently suggested a “people’s spirit” held together by “unexpressed, unconscious ideas which are merely strongly felt.” By the time of Dostoevsky's death in 1881, the “Russian soul” had completed its evolution in Russia.⁴  

     From about 1880 to 1930, largely thanks to Dostoevsky, the “Russian soul” concept spread to other countries and began to affect foreign perception of the Russian people. For many Europeans the idea offered a positive alternative to the typical view of Russians as backward, instead depicting the Russian people as an example of the innocence the West had lost. The popularity of the “Russian soul” continued into the 20th century but faded as Soviet power increased. By the 1930s the concept was slipping into obscurity, but it would survive in the work of the numerous writers who devised it.⁵

     The concept of the “Russian soul” may have gone out of fashion as Soviet power increased; however, now that the Soviet Union is no longer a reality, it is my contention that this concept is returning.  Even among those who do not profess a faith in the Orthodox Church, the ethos of Orthodox spirituality is very much a part of the daily life of the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian people.      

   Since the fall of the Soviet Union, life has been very challenging in these various countries; however, there is hope that things will improve over time. What has helped the people to deal with these major changes is their Russian soul which is their source of inner strength allowing them to cope with so many things that would have probably destroyed them, had it not been for their soul.

   The impact that men such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, and others have had on Russian culture has been profound.  These men were certainly products of their generation, but they also influenced and continue to influence countless generations that have come after them. 

    As long as the spirit of these men remains alive in the East the “Russian soul” will also remain alive.  Suffering for its own sake makes no sense, but since suffering is a part of human life it is easier to suffer knowing that one’s suffering is united to the suffering of Jesus than believing that it has no point at all.  This is one of the aspects of a Russian soul.  It is an indication of the resilience of the human spirit and confirmation of the words of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who said, “Anything which does not kill you, will only make you stronger.” ⁶

     Hopefully, the younger generation of people from the former USSR will be able to learn to fish for themselves so they will not be so dependent upon the government.  This is necessary for the survival of the nation and the culture.  Imposing Western ideas on the Slavic people is not the answer because their thought process is different from the West; however, it is important to introduce such ideas so that they can be understood and adapted into an Orthodox mindset.

                                                   End Notes

1)    “Left Brained Americans, Right Brained Russians” http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/left-brained-americans-right-brained-russians/455021.html#ixzz2DVzitDT  

2)    “Left Brained Americans, Right Brained Russians”

3)    “Russian Soul” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_soul

4)    Robert C. Williams, "The Russian Soul: A Study in European Thought and Non-European Nationalism," Journal of the History of Ideas 31 (1970): 573-588, accessed November 28, 2012.

5)    Robert C. Williams, “The Russian Soul…”

6)    “The Beauty of the Russian Soul” http://heideggerm1.blogspot.com/2011/10/beauty-of-russian-soul.html

 

A Ukrainian in Russian Society

   A great Russian novelist, dramatist, satirist, founder of the so-called critical realism in Russian literature, is best-known for his novel Мертвые Души I-II (1842, Dead Souls). Gogol's prose is characterized by imaginative power and linguistic playfulness. As an exposer of grotesqueness in human nature, Gogol could be called the Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)1 of Russian literature.
  "The moon is made by some lame cooper, and you can see the idiot has no idea about moons at all. He put in a creosoted rope and some wood oil; and this has led to such a terrible stink all over the earth that you have to hold your nose. Another reason the moon is such a tender globe it that people just cannot live on it anymore, and all that is left alive there are noses. This is also why we cannot see our own noses - they're all on the moon." (from Diary of a Madman, 1835)
    Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) was born in Sorochintsi, Ukraine, and grew up on his parents' country estate. His real surname was Ianovskii, but the writer's grandfather had taken the name 'Gogol' to claim a noble Cossack ancestry. Gogol's father was an educated and gifted man who wrote plays, poems, and sketches in Ukrainian.
    Gogol started writing while in high school. He attended Poltava boarding school (1819-21) and then Nezhin High School (1821-28). In 1828 Gogol, an aspiring writer, settled in St. Petersburg with a certificate attesting his right to 'the rank of the 14th class'. In an effort to support himself, Gogol worked at minor governmental jobs and wrote occasionally for periodicals. Although he was interested in literature, he also dreamed of becoming an actor. However, the capital of Russia did not welcome him with open arms and his early narrative poem, Hans Küchelgarten (1829), turned out to be a disaster.
    Between the years 1831 and 1834 Gogol taught history at the Patriotic Institute and worked as a private tutor. In 1831 he met Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) who greatly influenced his choice of literary material, especially his "Dikinka Tales", which were based on Ukrainian folklore. Their friendship lasted until the great poet's death. Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka was Gogol's breakthrough work.  It showed his skill in mixing the fantastic with the macabre and, at the same time, saying something very essential about the Russian character.
    After failing as an assistant lecturer of World History at the University of St. Petersburg (1834-35), Gogol became a full-time writer. Under the title Mirgorod (1835) Gogol published a new collection of stories, beginning with 'Old-World Landowners', which described the decay of the old way of life. The book also included the famous historical tale Taras Bulba, which showed the influence of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The protagonist is a strong, heroic character, not very typical of the author's later cavalcade of bureaucrats, lunatics, swindlers, and humiliated losers. One hostile critic described his city dwellers as the "scum of Petersburg". In his short stories, Gogol fully utilized the St. Petersburg mythology, in which the city was treated "both as 'paradise', a utopian ideal city of the future, the embodiment of Reason, and as the terrible masquerade of Antichrist." (Yuri Lotman in Universe of the Mind, 1990) Gogol was also the first to publish an extended literary comparison between Moscow and St. Petersburg, concluding, "Russia needs Moscow; St. Petersburg needs Russia."
    "I am destined by the mysterious powers to walk hand in hand with my strange heroes," wrote Gogol once, "viewing life in all its immensity as it rushes past me, viewing it through laughter seen by the world and tears unseen and unknown by it." St. Petersburg Stories (1835) examined social relationships and disorders of mind; Gogol's influence can be seen among others in Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground (1864) and The Crime and the Punishment (1866). Gogolian tradition continued also among others in the stories of Franz Kafka (1883-1924).
    The Nose from this period was about a man who loses his nose, which tries to live its own life. Gogol himself had a long nose, but the motifs in the story were borrowed from other writers. According to V. Vinograd's study (1987), these kind of surrealistic images were popular the 1820-1830s. It is still a puzzle since there no explanation has been found to explain why Collegiate Assessor Kovalev's nose transforms into civil servant and back into nose. The central plot circles around Kovalev's quest to recapture his runaway organ – he has arrived in Moscow to climb up the social ladder, but without a proper face it is impossible. Without an arm or leg it is not unbearable, thinks the Major, but without a nose a man is, the devil knows what...'In the outwardly crazy story lurks a serious idea: what matters is not the person but one's rank.’
    In 'Nevsky Prospect' a talented artist falls in love with a tender poetic beauty. She turns out to be a prostitute and the artist commits suicide when his romantic illusions are shattered.  The Diary of a Madman asked why is it that "all the best things in life, they all go to the Equerries or the generals?" 'Пальто' (1842, The Overcoat), one of Gogol's most famous short stories, contrasted a person’s humility and meekness with the rudeness of the 'important personage'. The central character is Akakii Akakievich, a lowly government clerk. When winter begins he notices that his old overcoat is beyond repairing. He manages to save money for a new, luxurious coat. His colleagues at the office arrange a party for his acquisition. However, his happiness proves to be short-lived. On the way home he is attacked by thieves and robbed of his coat. To recover his lost possession, Akakievich asks help from an Important Person, a director of a department with the rank of general. He treats Akakievich harshly and Akakievich dies of fright within three days. One night when the Important Person is returning home, he is attacked by a ghost, the late Akakii, who steals his overcoat. The stealing of outer garments continue, even though now the ghost is a big man with a moustache and enormous fists.
   In 1836, Gogol published several stories in Pushkin's journal Sovremennik, and in the same year appeared his famous play, The Inspector General. It told a simple tale of a young civil servant, Khlestakov, who finds himself stranded in a small provincial town. By mistake, he is taken by the local officials to be a government inspector, who is visiting their province incognito. Khlestakov happily adapts to his new role and exploits the situation. His true identity is revealed, but then the real inspector arrives. Gogol masterfully creates with a few words people, places, things, and lets them disappear into the flow of the story. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) wrote: "Who is that unfortunate bather, steadily and uncannily growing, adding weight, fattening himself on the marrow of a metaphor? We never shall know – but he almost managed to gain a footing."
    Its first stage production was in St Petersburg, given in the presence of the tsar. The tsar, as he left his box after the première, dropped the comment: "Hmm, what a play! It gets to everyone and, most of all, me!" Gogol, who was always sensitive about reactions to his work, fled Russia for Western Europe. He visited Germany, Switzerland, and France, and settled then in Rome. He also made a pilgrimage to Palestine in 1848.
    While in Rome Gogol wrote his major work, Dead Souls. "The prophet finds no honor in his homeland," he said. Gogol claimed that the story was suggested by Pushkin in a conversation in 1835. Wishing to embrace the whole Russian society in the work, Gogol regarded the first volume merely as 'a pale introduction to the great epic poem which is taking shape in my mind and will finally solve the riddle of my existence'. The story depicted the adventures Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, who arrives in a provincial town to buy 'dead souls', dead serfs. As a character, he is the opposite of starving Akakii Akakievich. By selling these 'souls' with cheaply-bought lands, Chichikov planned to make a huge profit. He meets local landowners and departs the in a hurry, when rumors start spread about him. During the last decade of his life, Gogol struggled to continue the story and depict Chichikov's fall and redemption.
    Except for two short visits to Russia in 1839-40 and 1841-42, Gogol was abroad for twelve years. The first edition of Gogol's collected works was published in 1842. It made him one of the most popular Russian writers. Two years before his return, Gogol had published Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends (1847), in which he upheld the autocratic czarist regime and the patriarchal Russian way of life. The book brought about disappointment among radicals who had seen Gogol's works as examples of social criticism. In the play ZHENITBA (1842) nearly everybody lies and the protagonist, Podgolesin, cannot make up his mind about marriage. He hesitates, agrees, then withdraws his promise.  Life is full of cheating, but when people jeer at each other, they actually tell the truth. Игроки (The Gamblers), a play about professional card-sharps, was first staged in 1843; Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) based his unfinished opera upon this comedy.
  In his later life Gogol came under influence of a fanatical priest, Father Konstantinovskii, and burned sequels for Dead Souls, just 10 days before he died on the verge of madness on the 4th of March 1852. Gogol had refused to take any food and various remedies were employed to make him eat – spirits were poured over his head, hot loaves applied to his person and leeches attached to his nose. Rumors arise from time to time that Gogol was buried alive, a situation familiar from the story 'The Premature Burial', of the contemporary writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).2  
   It was not until Bernard Guilbert Guerney's 1942 translation, a century after the novel's first publication, that English-language readers acquired Dead Souls that took the full measure of Nikolai Gogol's satire, with its linguistic playfulness and phantasmagoric invention. In Vladimir Nabokov's idiosyncratic 1944 study of Gogol, he forever linked  Dead Souls to the Russian word poshlost, a noun that defies easy translation but suggests the vulgar and commonplace -- ''the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, and the falsely clever.'' In this regard, Dead Souls is a novel that has less to do with Russia than with the defects of human character.3 
   In The Nose and Diary of a Madman, Gogol addressed the issues of St. Petersburg bureaucracy.  These are interesting stories.  In The Nose, the main character attempts to confront his nose which had taken on a life of its own. In Diary of a Madman, the main character slowly descends into madness and becomes convinced that he is the reigning king of Spain.  By the end of his life, Gogol appears to have also slowly descended into madness.  This can easily be seen as an example of art imitating life. 
   In both of these stories, we meet two men who are rather insignificant.  They are pieces in a machine and have lost their own identity.  In Dead Souls he has the main character say, “They don’t listen to me, they don’t hear me, and they don’t see me.”  This is very sad commentary.  He is an insignificant person whose job is sharpening pencils.  Is it surprising that they don’t listen to, hear, or see him?
    Gogol is considered one of the greatest Russian authors, but he was also dedicated to keeping his Ukrainian culture alive.  These two nations have many common factors before and after the rise of the Soviet Union; however, they also have their own histories.  In his novels, he spends a great deal of time describing life in Ukraine. His father even changed his surname in order to reflect the family’s Ukrainian Cossack background. 
   He was buried at the Donskoy Monastery, close to his fellow Slavophile Aleksey Khomyakov (1804-1860). In 1931, when Moscow authorities decided to demolish the monastery, his remains were transferred to the Novodevichy Cemetery. His body was discovered lying face down, which gave rise to the story that Gogol had been buried alive. One of the Soviet critics even cut a part of his jacket to use as a binding for his copy of the Dead Souls. A piece of rock which used to stand on his grave at the Donskoy was reused for the tomb of Gogol's admirer Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940).4 
   Gogol’s impact on Russian literature was astounding.  After writing Poor Folk, Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was referred to as “the next Gogol” by Nikolai Nekrasov, editor of A Petersburg Collection.5   He was a product of the same generation as Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) and Alexander Pushkin, and made an equally valuable contribution to literature. He certainly was a Ukrainian in Russian society and his stories will be read for generations to come.
                                                           End Notes
1) “Hieronymus Bosch” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch (accessed 5/27/12)
2) “Nikolay Gogol”  http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gogol.htm (accessed 5/27/12) 
3) “Nikolai Gogol” http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/g/nikolai_gogol/index.html (written 8/4/96, accessed 5/28/12)
4) “Nikolai Gogol” http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nikolai_Gogol (accessed 5/28/12)
5) “The Poor Will Always Be With Us” http://heideggerm1.blogspot.com/2012/05/poor-will-always-be-with-us.html (accessed 5/28/12)

The Love Which Keeps Giving

   There are few holidays which have the same emotional impact on people as Christmas.  Anyone who grew up in the US would be familiar with The Night before Christmas by Charles Dickens (1812-1870).  This story tells the reader about the life of Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy, bitter, wealthy man who dislikes the Christmas season.  He alienated himself from his family and tells his lone employee, Bob Cratchet, that if does not come to work on Christmas day he would be fired.  Cratchet has a   handicapped son, Tiny Tim, and his family is rather poor, but happy. 
   The evening before Christmas, Scrooge receives a visit from the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley. Marley informs him that he will be visited by three more ghosts (Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come).  After being visited by these three ghosts, Scrooge has a change of heart and wakes up on Christmas Day a new person.  He buys a turkey for Cratchet and   his family and reunites with his own family. 
    This is the story that most people think of when they think of Christmas.  However, there is another story which does not have the same tone, but also sends a very important message. The story I am speaking about Christmas Eve by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852).  It opens with the devil flying above the small village of Dikanka, enjoying one last night of freedom before he must return to hell, when he decides to steal the moon and put it in his pocket in order to thwart the amorous designs of the local blacksmith, Vakula. In addition to being an excellent blacksmith, Vakula is also a talented painter, and his favorite theme is the vanquishing of Satan. His artistic triumph was a picture painted on the church wall in the chapel on the right. In it he depicted St. Peter on the Day of Judgment with the keys in his hand driving the Evil Spirit out of hell: the frightened devil was running in all directions, foreseeing his doom, while the sinners, who had been imprisoned before, were chasing him and striking him with whips, blocks of wood and anything they could get hold of.
In stealing the moon, the devil hopes that the father of Vakula’s beloved will stay at home instead of attending a Christmas Eve party at the sacristan’s. And because the father—Tchub is his name—dislikes Vakula, Vakula will be prevented from visiting the daughter.
   Things don’t turn out as the devil expects, however. Without giving too much away, Tchub goes out despite his laziness and, before the novella ends, finds himself hiding in a rubbish sack, along with the mayor and the sacristan (at whose party nobody arrives because of the darkness), all at the home of Vakula’s mother, who, for good measure, also happens to be a witch. Vakula does indeed visit his beloved (as well as St. Petersburg on the back of the devil) and outmaneuvers his scheming mother.
   The tale first appeared in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, and as a number of scholars have pointed out that it contains many staples of traditional Ukrainian folklore. Victor Erlich notes that the comedy of these tales “rests more often than not on unabashedly farcical, slapstick effects drawn from the traditional repertory of the Ukrainian puppet theater.” The characters of the stories—such as “the shrewish wife, the cunning gypsy, the gullible peasant, and the ‘dashing’   Cossak”—are “stock characters.”
   While Gogol wears his religious commitments somewhat more lightly in his earlier works than he does in Dead Souls, he nevertheless uses slapstick (a form of comedy) and stock characters in Christmas Eve to serious effect. He reminds us that the devil will be confounded by his own darkness and that God, in his infinite wisdom, will use simple folks, like blacksmiths, with all of their crudeness and selfishness, to participate in his vanquishing of St. Nicholas.  God does not use the self-righteous—the merely pristinely polished life—to further his kingdom. He rarely uses the elite or the religious “pundit.” Most often, He uses the simple and unrefined to accomplish His work   because they, at least, will give glory where glory is due.1
   This is definitely not a children’s Christmas story, but this does not mean that the story should not be made available to children.  Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) wrote an opera, Vakula the Smith 2, (1874) based upon Gogol’s short story.  Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) also produced an opera (1895) entitled Christmas Eve 3 which was based upon this short story. It is true that this story includes a witch and a devil among its characters, but it makes a very important moral message   which can easily be understood by children. 
   The love of God can and will overcome any difficulty.  He may not respond in the way that we expect, but that does not mean that He is not responding.  Gogol shows us another way which God interacts with us, even though we may not realize it at the time. 
 
                                                                                  End Notes
1) “Nikolai Gogol’s The Night before Christmas” http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/12/nikolai-gogolrsquos-the-night-before-christmas (accessed 5/23/12) 
2) “Vakula the Smith” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vakula_the_Smith (accessed 5/23/12)
3) “Christmas Eve (opera)” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Eve_(opera) (accessed 5/23/12)

The Challenges of Poverty

   Every nation in the world has poor people.  Some of these people are unable to work, some cannot find work, and others work in jobs which do not provide much income or any additional benefits.  In the US, we refer to these people are “the working poor”.  These people earn too much money to receive any additional support, but not enough money to be able to provide for all of their basic necessities.  Many of these people are forced to choose between paying rent and buying food.  In some cases they are able to receive government assistance to buy food, but if they are required to take any medication they often cannot afford that.
   This situation is certainly not limited to the US.  In Russia, this situation has also been common for many decades.  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) wrote about this in his story, Poor Folk, and Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) wrote about this in The Overcoat. 
    The plot of this story is rather simple. It is a story about a poor Russian official named Akakii Akakievich, a rather pathetic figure.  Akakii lives entirely for his duties as a copier. His co-workers laugh at him and abuse him. He often has bits and pieces of filth on his uniform due to his “peculiar knack, as he walked in the street, of arriving beneath a window when all sorts of rubbish are being flung out of it.” Akakii’s coat is threadbare and he is finally forced to have a new overcoat sewn for him by Petrovich the Tailor. The cost of the overcoat is exorbitant for Akakii, but he scrimps and saves, denying himself food and other basic necessities until he is able to purchase the coat. Overnight, he becomes respectful. His co-workers fawn over his beautiful, new coat – and even throw him a lavish party in celebration. However, disaster falls upon Akakii … his joy is short lived when the coat is stolen.
   Gogol’s short story takes an interesting twist as Akakii seeks help to recover the overcoat – going first to the police and then a “very important person.” He is lost amid a barrage of bureaucracy:
    “Don’t you know etiquette? Where have you come to? Don’t you know how matters are managed? You should first have entered a complaint about this at the court: it would have gone to the head of the department, to the chief of the division, then it would have been handed over to the secretary, and the secretary would have given it to me.” -from The Overcoat-
    The Overcoat is a story about a common man who is beneath everyone (much is made in the beginning about Akakii’s name which comes close to the Russian word kaka – translated as “poop”), but who rises in esteem simply upon the purchase of an overcoat. He falls again with the loss of this possession, and must appeal to the government for assistance – which does not come. Gogol pokes fun at those in power, showing them to be insubstantial and shallow despite their titles. He allows Akakii to come out on top – demonstrating it is not material gain which grants one power.1
    Akakii Akakievich is not an unusual character.  It is a very common experience to meet people whose job is rather mundane and who becomes overwhelmed when dealing with bureaucracy.  Gogol wrote several stories dealing with government bureaucrats.  In his stories The Nose and Diary of a Madman he wrote about St. Petersburg government officials.  These are not very flattering stories.
    One major challenge with bureaucracy is that the bureaucrats often operate as though they are taking money out of their own wallet when someone comes to them for help.  Also, they often do not think for themselves.  They often fail to take into consideration that they are dealing with human beings.  This is very apparent in regard to Akakii’s dealing with the “very important person’, a retired general.  Instead of receive the help he needed, he is attacked for not “going through the proper channels”. 
    It would have taken no effort at all for this general to offer this man some help, but he chose to scold him for some remarks that Akakii made about department secretaries. As a result of being beaten in the freezing weather and the scolding he received from the general, Akakii becomes ill with a fever and is dying. In his last hours, he is delirious, imagining himself again sitting before the VIP, who is again scolding him. At first, Akakii pleads forgiveness, but as his death nears, he curses the general.2
    While it is true that bureaucrats have to deal with numerous people throughout the day, this does not justify treating anyone that the meet as less than human.  For many people there is a certain level of embarrassment having to go to the government for help.  The fact that their sense of personal dignity has been taken away by having to go for such help is bad enough, but it is even worse when this person is then treated as almost subhuman once they ask for help.
    Gogol makes this point by informing us that Akakii’s ghost began haunting certain areas of St. Petersburg and steals the coats of various people.  Then his ghost confronts the general who is terrified at the sight. Having felt satisfied by the general’s response, this ghost is never seen again. 
    Every action does have consequences. Apparently, the general became aware of the fact that he had treated Akakii poorly and regretted it, but, by that point, it was too late.  There are many people who believe in karma. Karma is defined as an action seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or after being reincarnated.3 There is an American idiom which states, “What goes around comes around” which is the same idea as karma.  Whether a person believes in karma or not, treating someone as subhuman cannot be justified. 
  The poor have enough personal difficulties without being mistreated by those who are in a position to help them.  Nikolai Gogol was a very sensitive soul who struggled with poverty at various times in his life.  In fact, his finances were so bad that he did not leave enough money for his own funeral.  It is due to the fact that Gogol actually experienced poverty which made him particularly sensitive to the poor. 
  It is sad that Akakii becomes respectable only after buying a new overcoat.  He has not change as a person, but simply by purchasing a coat he is now considered a human being who is unworthy of being made fun of.  He is not a person because who he is, but because of what he has.  This shameful materialism is still alive and well.  Human dignity is still equated with material possessions.  This is sad dynamic of human nature which seems to be getting worse with every successive generation.  Hopefully, this trend can be eventually be reversed.
                                                               
                                                                End Notes
1) “The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol—A Short Story Review” http://www.caribousmom.com/2008/03/01/the-overcoat-by-nikolai-gogol-short-story-review/ (accessed 5/22/12)
2) "The Overcoat” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Overcoat   (accessed 5/22/12) 
3) “Karma” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/karma  (accessed 5/22/12)  

Being Outside of the Norm

   Historically the medical field has had a variety of ways of dealing with what is commonly called mental illness.  Early on, there was a belief that such illness was caused by an imbalance in the humours ¹ within the body, which could be dealt with by bleeding patients with knives or leeches. They also believed that organs like the stomach, spleen, and tonsils were the cause of mental issues, so these organs would be removed. Later it was determined that surgical procedures such as lobotomy would be successful in helping to deal with such problems; however, it was later discovered that such surgery did not work the way it was intended. 

   It is very difficult to watch a friend or a loved one slowly lose their mind.  For many years the idea that someone in a given family may have “mental issues” was something which that particular family would often try to keep hidden from their neighbors and co-workers.  People who were not consider “normal”, according to societal standards, were often locked away in a sanitarium or an insane asylum for the rest of their natural lives. 

   As a culture we do not know what to do with people who are outside the “normal range”.  A young child is enrolled in school and this child is subjected to standardized tests in order to determine their “ability to cope in a particular academic environment”.  If this child has difficulties, such as attention problems, emotional development issues, or other things, which need to dealt with it is the parents’ responsibility to see that the school district is doing what it is supposed to be doing in order to provide this child with the help that he or she needs. Regardless of the fact that the school district may have a policy in place or a given state might mandate that such assistance be offered, in most cases the parents have to fight on behalf of the children to guarantee that their children’s rights are upheld. 

   This is also true with students who do not show any sign of emotional development issues, but are simply highly intelligent.  The school districts are not designed to meet the needs of these children either.  Quite often these children become extremely bored in school and therefore a source of distraction for other students.  The average school district operates on what can best be described as a “bell curve” (a statistical analysis where the results are shown on a curve which is literally in the shape of a bell).  If a given student’s performance is somewhere in the middle of this bell curve the school has no trouble dealing with this particular student.  However, if a given student’s test results are on either end of this curve he or she could be in serious trouble unless someone intervenes on their behalf.

    Another issue which children suffer from, but often goes unnoticed is depression.  There are ways of helping young children with depression which do not necessarily involve medication. The California Department of Mental Health Medical Evaluation Field Manual states: “Mental health professionals working within a mental health system have a professional and a legal obligation to recognize the presence of physical disease in their patients...physical diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder [or] may worsen a mental disorder.…” ² The Swedish Social Board cited several cases of disciplinary actions against psychiatrists, including one in which a patient was complaining of headaches, dizziness and staggering when he walked. The patient had complained of these symptoms to psychiatric personnel for five years before a medical check-up revealed that he had a brain tumor.  Thomas Dorman, M.D. says, “…please remember that the majority of people suffer from organic disease. Clinicians should first of all remember that emotional stress associated with a chronic illness or a painful condition can alter the patient’s temperament. In my practice I have run across countless people with chronic back pain who were labeled neurotic. A typical statement from these poor patients is ‘I thought I really was going crazy.’” Often, he said, the problem may have been “simply an undiagnosed ligament problem in the back.”

  Paul Runge, M.D., a German psychiatrist, says he’s helped more than 100 children without using psychiatric drugs. He has also helped reduce the dosages of drugs prescribed by other physicians. L.M.J. Pelsser, M.D. of the Research Center for Hyperactivity and ADHD in Middelburg, The Netherlands, found that 62% of children diagnosed with “ADHD” showed significant improvements in behavior as a result of a change in diet over a period of three weeks. Many medical studies show the following could be causing the child’s symptoms:

• High levels of lead from the environment place children at risk of both school failure and delinquent behavior.

• High mercury (chemical) levels in the body

• Pesticide exposure causes nervousness, poor concentration, irritability, memory problems and depression

• Too much sugar

• Allergies, environmental toxins

• Gases, cleaning fluids, scents and other chemicals can make a child irritable, inattentive or hyperactive

• Malnutrition

• Eye or ear trouble

• Worms

  Educational problems can be the result of a lack of or no phonics (understanding the sounds of letters and their combinations) in school. Creative and/or intelligent children become bored, fidget, wiggle, scratch, stretch, will not focus and start looking for ways to get into trouble.  There may be an unchallenging curriculum. Goal-oriented children have a rough time focusing unless a specific challenging goal is given to them.  A simple lack of discipline may also be the cause of behavioral issues.

  Psychiatrists commonly claim today that depression is an “illness, just like heart disease or asthma” but physicians who conduct thorough physical exams say this simply is not true.

  The late Carl C. Pheiffer, Ph.D., a researcher with a doctorate in chemistry, discovered that depression, as well as many mental and behavioral disturbances often result from either vitamin or mineral deficiencies, or possibly mineral imbalances, something prescription drugs are known to contribute to.

David W. Tanton, Ph.D., author, as well as founder and research director for the Soaring Heights Longevity Research Center, states that eating foods that create allergies or sensitivities can easily affect moods. Hypoglycemia (abnormally low level of blood sugar), hypothyroid (insufficient thyroid gland), or adrenal fatigue, as well as the use of many prescription and over-the-counter medications could easily contribute to feelings of depression.

• One patient wrote: “When I was 18, I spent three weeks in a mental hospital for what I was told was ‘depression.’ I was on psychiatric drugs for ten months after that. The drugs made me feel lethargic, impatient and irritable. They also clouded my thinking [but] I was so convinced by the ‘experts’ that I had some fundamental

brain chemistry problem and that their drugs were my only hope. Years later I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as well as debilitating food allergies! This was the cause of my so-called depression.”

• Antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs create feelings of “depression.”

• Abnormal thyroid (gland that produces hormones that influences every organ, tissue, or cell in the body) function may dramatically effect mood and cause severe depression, fatigue and memory loss. Adrenal gland exhaustion may also be a contributing factor.

• Long-term use of antibiotics alters the immune system, causing exhaustion and anxiety.

• Lyme Disease (a serious bacterial infection from a tick bite that attacks the nervous system) can cause symptoms of depression and psychosis.

  Psychiatry makes “unproven claims that depression, bipolar illness, anxiety, alcoholism and a host of other disorders are in fact primarily biological and probably genetic in origin….This kind of faith in science and progress is staggering, not to mention naïve and perhaps delusional,” says psychiatrist David Kaiser, M.D..

• Following years of publicity exposing the fraud of ADHD, psychiatrists suddenly claimed the diagnosis was wrong and the child really suffered from bipolar disorder. This is more fabrication. Ty Colbert, Ph.D., warns parents about psychiatrists who label children: “Children labeled ADHD, who are put on Ritalin, begin demonstrating [so-called] obsessive-compulsive and depressive symptoms (side effects of Ritalin). Then they are put on [antidepressants] and the parents are told that the real problem was the obsessive-compulsive behavior from the depression. Then due to the side effects of the [antidepressants], the child may be labeled bipolar….”

• The FDA now warns that stimulants such as Ritalin, Adderall and Celexa actually cause “bipolar” symptoms.

• Orthomolecular (mega doses of vitamins and minerals) research has shown that B complex deficiencies commonly occur in 80 percent of individuals diagnosed with “bipolar disorder.” According to Joan Matthews Larson, Ph.D., founder of the esteemed Minnesota Health Recovery Center, anemia is also a major factor in the cause of “bipolar” symptoms.

• Dr. Carl Pfeiffer discovered through scientific studies that blood histamine levels were elevated in lab tests of individuals diagnosed with the symptoms of so-called obsessive-compulsive disorders. As these patients improved, their histamine levels dropped and their symptoms disappeared.

• Several recent studies point out that these symptoms were typically triggered by throat infections at a very early age. One study in particular showed that among 50 children, 45 (31%) had suffered documented throat infection, 60 (42%) showed symptoms of pharyngitis (throat infection) or upper respiratory infection. The studies suggest that in some susceptible individuals, obsessive-compulsive disorder may be caused by an autoimmune response to streptococcal infections.

  “Charlie” was a 10-year-old who suffered violent mood swings, yelled obscenities, kicked his sister and could not control his temper. His mother was told, “You have two choices: give him Ritalin, or let him suffer.” Charlie was put on Ritalin, but a second medical opinion—based on physical examination and thorough testing—discovered he had high blood sugar and low insulin. “Either condition, if uncontrolled, can lead to mood swings, erratic behavior, and violent outbursts—the very symptoms ‘hyperactive’ Charlie had exhibited,” Dr. Sydney Walker III stated. After proper medical treatment, his “behaviors cleared, his aggression and tantrums stopped….”

  In September 2005, the British National Health Service Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence released a clinical guideline for treatment of “Depression in Children and Young People.” It advised that because “all antidepressant drugs have significant risks when given to children and young people,” children should be “offered advice on the benefits of regular exercise,” “sleep hygiene,” “nutrition and the benefits of a balanced diet.”

  The December 2005 issue of The Journal of Medicine and Science in Sport & Exercise reported that exercising rather than antidepressants relieves symptoms of “depression.” The subjects who exercised also experienced positive effects such as “vigor” and “wellbeing.” Citing a 2000 study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, Dr. John B. Bartholomew, an associate professor at the University of Texas, at Austin, said, “[R]egular exercise has been shown to protect against relapse” in “depressed” patients.

  Overall, medical facilities must be established to replace coercive psychiatric institutions. These must have medical doctors on staff, medical diagnostic equipment, which non-psychiatric medical doctors can use to thoroughly examine and test for all underlying physical problems that may be manifesting as disturbed behavior.  Government and private funds should be channeled into such programs and cut from abusive psychiatric institutions and programs that have proven not to work.

   There is no denying the fact that certain people do suffer from one or more mental health issues either at one point in their life or throughout their entire life. However, there are alternatives to psychotropic medications even for those who have suffered their entire lives with mental illness.  Putting highly toxic chemicals into your body in order to “manage” your condition when the method of action listed in the information provided by the manufacturer is “unknown” is, at the very least, dangerous.       

   There is no reason to have to fall into the trap of taking psychotropic drugs, if you do not have to.  As I have shown, these medications are highly addictive and are much more difficult to withdraw from than cocaine or heroin.  It is essential when you speak to your doctor about the possibility of taking one of these medications that you receive all of the facts, including all of the adverse side effects and the risk of dependency and addiction.  This is your right as a patient and it is the physician’s obligation to provide this information to you.

    How a society deals with those who need their help the most is a good indication of the future of that society.  What should be done with someone whose mind has slowly “drifted away”.  This person is not a threat to themselves or others, but they are delusional.  

    One of the challenges with all these psychiatric medications and idea that people should exist within the center of the “bell curve” is that it gives the impression that everyone must be the same.  Individuality and uniqueness are considered to be “problems” which must be dealt with.  This does not mean that certain people do not genuinely suffer from some form of mental illness, but what it does not mean is that anyone who is unique or different is automatically mentally ill.

    In 1835, Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) wrote a short story entitled “Diary of a Madman” which deals with this issue.  This story deals with the life of Poprishchin, a low-ranking civil servant who yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, the daughter of a senior official, with whom he has fallen in love. His diary records his gradual slide into insanity. As his madness deepens, he begins to suspect two dogs of having a love affair and believes he has discovered letters sent between them. Finally, he begins to believe himself to be the heir to the throne of Spain. When he is hauled off and maltreated in the asylum, the madman believes he is taking part in a strange coronation to the Spanish throne. Only in his madness does this lowly anti-hero attain greatness. As he said in his first sight of her, just after being a beast of a civil servant himself, “A footman opened the carriage door and out she fluttered, just like a little bird.” ³

    The 1830s was a very difficult period of history in the lives of the average person in Russia.  The idea of maintaining a sense of individuality in an increasingly cold and impersonal urban environment was very important.  This is still true, even today.  

    Being unique is not an illness.  While it is true that not everyone believes he is the new King of Spain, expressing one’s individuality is extremely important. There is no shame in this.  How do you express your own uniqueness?

                                                        End Notes

1)    The theory of the four humours is quite ancient.  It is based upon the belief that the body has four states (phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, and melancholy) which need to be in balance in order to function properly.  These states are related to the blood and one way that they were kept in balance was through the use of various herbs which we meant to impact each humour individually.

2)    “The Truth about Mental Illness”  http://heideggerm1.blogspot.com/2011/03/truth-about-mental-illness.html

3)    “The Diary of a Madman” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary_of_a_Madman_(story)