Orthodox Reflections

Well, Dear Readers, Cassandra St. John is back. She dragged herself here simultaneously kicking and screaming yet ready to rumble. Such is the life of your restless end-times political correspondent.

Today’s provocative topic is my Prime Directive: Never trust politicians; and don’t vote, because it encourages them.

Heresy! you scream. How dare she? Why is she stirring up controversy on this polite website? Who is this Cassandra St. John, anyway? Somebody call the secret police!

In the face of the endless pleas to exercise your “civic duty” to vote and the stories of the poor, pitiful politicians who need your support, how can I possibly justify not voting? How can I be so heartless?

I cribbed my philosophy from Psalm 145:3 — “Do not trust in rulers and in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation” — and from P.J. O’Rourke’s book Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the B******s.

I actually advocate radical acceptance of the political situation coupled with radical self-examination. Voting ain’t gonna change anything, because you live in an empire that is a curious mixture of Babylon, Rome, Big Pharma, and Star Trek.

The long-prophesied global government is now. Do you actually think voting will slow down the impending end-times events? The entire world is a technocratic, debt-laden, interlocking collection of Potemkin villages masquerading as sovereign governments. Are you naïve enough to believe that good guys behind the scenes will save the system and make everything okeydoke? Sorry to burst your bubble: Evil is baked in, no matter where you live, and most political endeavors result in unintended consequences and moral blindness. Despite your self-importance as a proud voter, this interconnected, overblown, worldwide system spearheaded by the U.S. will carry on with or without you. You are just along for the ride.

In short, the devil and his minions have the entire world by the throat, and they are tightening their grip. As Tom Cochrane sang in 1992: A new world order is on its way. . . . It’s a mad, mad world, getting madder every day.

You the individual can improve only yourself. And I have a personal plea for some of you: Please try harder.

If you are an Orthodox Christian, you should know what that means: Read your Bible and the lives of the saints, fast, pray, attend the services, partake of the sacraments, practice love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Meditate on this petition: “Enlighten the eyes of my understanding, that I may not sleep to death in sins.”

Christian living is a tall order for anyone. But this autumn I hope you’ll also add another element to your inner work, which is to realize that you do not have to degrade yourself by voting for the immoral people who are running for public office. I mean all of them, everywhere. You can pray for politicians and wish them well without supporting them. You can stop groveling.

And if the politicians attempt to close your parishes again, for another narrated pandemic, do not obey them. Orthodox Christians do not fear disease or death or fake pandemics.

Neither should they fear abstaining from the voting charade. Voters sell themselves so cheaply that it is embarrassing: They never hold politicians accountable for anything, nor do they ever make them earn a vote. No matter what politicians say or do, they always have support. I sometimes imagine modern voters electing Vlad the Impaler and then glibly remarking, “He has a nice stake, and he doesn’t use it that much.”

What are the consequences of such rationalizations?

Let’s say you like Politician X. Let’s say you support him however you can and encourage other people, even strangers, to do likewise. After sidling up to Politician X, do you think you’ll drop your support once he bombs brown-skinned civilians, oversees gun-running operations, has an affair, rapes minors, embezzles money, and conducts insider-trading deals? This is an abbreviated list for a modern U.S. president of either party.

Will you turn a blind eye to Politician X’s crimes? Will you argue that Politician X actually is not that bad? Will you ever contemplate that you’re just a teensy bit complicit in his crimes because you support him? Or will you wave off that idea by saying he’s not as bad as the other side? What could Politician X do to lose your support? Do you treat politics like a religion? Do you call evil “not so bad”?

These quandaries face ideologues (true believers) and others focused on political schemes, which seems to be everyone these days.

The Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warns about this ideological temptation in his 1974 essay “Live Not by Lies.” In the piece, he “equates ‘lies’ with ideology, the illusion that human nature and society can be reshaped to predetermined specifications.” Solzhenitsyn explains that the individual’s singular power lies in his or her moral agency, in the ability to reject lies.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote many things, including the essay “Live Not by Lies,” which everyone should read regularly.

He writes:

“And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!

 “And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”

Can you distinguish the truth from a lie? How sure are you?

Not only communists are ideologues. In The Diary of a Russian Priest, Father Alexander Elchaninov warns that nationalists also should beware: “How far astray we are led by false ideals! In this way many revolutionaries have lost their souls: starting from a correct (but narrow) concept of the good of the people, they have ended up with nothing but satanic hatred, falsehood, murder. A similar fate awaits the adherents of the ideal of nationalism unless they subordinate this ideal to the highest ideal of all.”

The Russian priest Fr. Alexander Elchaninov warned against allowing political ideals to supersede Christian ideals.

I’m not against all authority, nor am I advocating for violence or revolt. But as far as I can tell, there is no “better” side in the upcoming election. There is nothing to vote for, so why bother? As an individual, my main job is not trampling my conscience. Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let their rule hold not through me.

I removed my name from my state’s voter rolls a few years ago. Before that, I mostly voted NO on everything. But I abandoned that futile exercise after a majority of local voters removed an amendment that restrained residential property taxes and also passed an initiative that reintroduced wolves into the state’s rural areas. The entirely predictable outcomes are that many homeowners cannot afford to stay in their homes because of high property taxes, and free-range wolves have destroyed livestock.

These results gave new life to the metaphor “keeping the wolf from the door,” which describes desperation and economic hardship. The ravenous wolves actually concern me less than the politicians and the zombie voters.

In this unholy alliance of politicians and voters, who benefited? Not residential property owners who lost property; not ranchers who lost expensive livestock; not consumers whose beef prices will rise.

Perhaps the American writer Edward Curtin is right when he argues that the U.S. is not a democracy after all. It is an oligarchy, a government by a small group of powerful people, who string along the credulous voters:

“Voters in the U.S.A. live in fantasy and probably always will. No matter how obvious it is that the U.S. is an oligarchy, not a democracy, the ardent pipe dreams of a new face in the White House go to their heads every four years. It can only be explained by a combination of intellectual ignorance, the acceptance of propaganda, and the embrace of illusions. . . .

“Quadrennially, this love affair with the presidential candidates burns hot and heavy despite their records, as if they were heart throbs of stage and screen, straight from Broadway or Hollywood deeply concerned for the public’s welfare.

“Americans love actors, and the presidential candidates are of course actors, following the directions of the fat cats who produce their shows. As the grand opening of election day approaches, the supine public is aroused to a fanatical frenzy of excitement from its years’-long sleep by a mass media that spews out drivel to deceive.”

Echoing Curtin’s views on the oligarchic political system, the comedian George Carlin explained during a 1996 performance why he avoided voting: “First of all, it’s meaningless. This country was bought and sold and paid for a long time ago.”

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Not voting is only one part of a larger nonconformity program I follow. Besides election ballots, I also avoid smartphones, mainstream news, mainstream doctors, loan debts, McDonald’s, and public K-12. Instead, my routine involves anything small or old-timey, including reading, gardening, homemaking, homeschooling, walking, and attending church. Surprisingly, these activities are still legal, so I have not been forced underground — yet. Any day now.

Politically speaking, in the U.S., decentralization and jury nullification would provide some political relief by peacefully thwarting the federal government. But if people haven’t caught on to these concepts in 248 years, how likely are they to do so at this point? If you’re curious about these subjects and about the frauds that the Constitutional conservatives perpetuate, please listen to this clarifying podcast interview. The fact is, if you know a little history, you will be glad to exercise your freedom not to vote.

Also, ponder why anyone allows a corrupt political system to narrowly define one’s “civic duty” as casting a vote? What about your civic duties to become as spiritually, mentally, physically, and financially healthy as you possibly can? Do you ever hear about those duties? No voting necessary.

I agree with Will and Ariel Durant, who wrote in The Lessons of History: “The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.”

I recall Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And Matt. 10:16: “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

I think of Archimandrite Athanasios Mitilinaios’ advice in Revelation: The Seven Angels: “There is no other remedy for this but to stay very close to Jesus Christ and to reject all the latest ideological imports and theories which have begun to circulate and will continue to circulate until the point when the final person of the Antichrist comes. The key is to stay very close to Christ.”

I hear your discontented rumblings and your tribal murmurings: But what if I don’t vote and the other side wins? I know the candidates are immoral, but I want to vote anyway. But, but . . .

If you have read this entire column and you feel compelled in any way to justify voting, do me a favor and don’t leave a comment. I’d recommend a deprogramming protocol, along with a strict media fast, but you’d ignore me anyway.

I would like to hear from those who plan not to vote. If you feel like sharing that, chime in.

—Cassandra St. John, an Orthodox Christian