From "The Exhortations of Fr. Zossima" from Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov:
Look at the worldly and
all who set themselves up above the people
of God; has not God's
image and His truth been distorted in them? They
have science; but in
science there is nothing but what is the object
of sense. The spiritual
world, the higher part of man's being is
rejected altogether,
dismissed with a sort of triumph, even with
hatred. The world has
proclaimed the reign of freedom, especially of
late, but what do we
see in this freedom of theirs? Nothing but
slavery and
self-destruction! For the world says:
"You have desires
and so satisfy them, for you have the same
rights as the most rich
and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying
them and even multiply
your desires." That is the modern doctrine of
the world. In that they
see freedom. And what follows from this
right of multiplication
of desires? In the rich, isolation and
spiritual suicide; in
the poor, envy and murder; for they have been
given rights, but have
not been shown the means of satisfying their
wants. They maintain
that the world is getting more and more united,
(as families grow more
distant from one another) more and more
bound together in
brotherly community, as it overcomes
distance and sets thoughts
flying through the air.
Alas, put no faith in
such a bond of union. Interpreting freedom
as the multiplication
and rapid satisfaction of desires, men distort
their own nature, for
many senseless and foolish desires and habits
and ridiculous fancies
are fostered in them. They live only for mutual
envy, for luxury and
ostentation. To have dinners visits, carriages,
rank, and slaves to
wait on one is looked upon as a necessity, for
which life, honor and
human feeling are sacrificed, and men even
commit suicide if they
are unable to satisfy it. We see the same thing
among those who are not
rich, while the poor drown their unsatisfied
need and their envy in
drunkenness. But soon they will drink blood
instead of wine, they
are being led on to it. I ask you is such a
man free? I knew one
"champion of freedom" who told me himself that,
when he was deprived of
tobacco in prison, he was so wretched at the
privation that he
almost went and betrayed his cause for the sake of
getting tobacco again!
And such a man says, "I am fighting for the
cause of
humanity."
How can such a one
fight? What is he fit for? He is capable
perhaps of some action
quickly over, but he cannot hold out long.
And it's no wonder that
instead of gaining freedom they have sunk into
slavery, and instead of
serving, the cause of brotherly love and the
union of humanity have
fallen, on the contrary, into dissension and
isolation, as my
mysterious visitor and teacher said to me in my
youth. And therefore
the idea of the service of humanity, of brotherly
love and the solidarity
of mankind, is more and more dying out in
the world, and indeed
this idea is sometimes treated with derision.
For how can a man shake
off his habits? What can become of him if he
is in such bondage to
the habit of satisfying the innumerable
desires he has created
for himself? He is isolated, and what concern
has he with the rest of
humanity? They have succeeded in
accumulating a greater
mass of objects, but the joy in the world has
grown less.
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