RUSSIA KICKS SATANIC TEMPLE OUT; OHIO WELCOMES IT IN
There's some interesting cultural politics going on right now, according to these two articles shared by V.T., and they are - at least to my mind - illustrative of the cultural war taking place right now. On the one hand, in Ohio, the Satanic Temple has been allowed to launch a program in an elementary school, while in Russia, the same organization has been outlawed:
Satanic Temple outlawed in Russia
In glancing at the first article, one can easily see what the central issue or problem is:
The “Hellions Academy of Independent Learning,” also known as “HAIL,” program is offered to Edgewood Elementary School students in Marysville.
The Satanic Temple targeted the school because of its partnership with LifeWise Academy, a Christian Release Time Religious Instruction (RTRI) program, which teaches students about the Bible for one hour each week if their parents opt them into the program.
The organization claims that since the program is permitted for Christians, it must be allowed for any religion — including Satanists.
The real corker is this:
The Temple claims that during the meetings, “students will be presented with various educational arts and crafts, games, and community service projects through which they can learn about Satanic values, such as empathy, compassion, and justice.”
Yes, I seem to recall how widespread and pervasive the association of Satan with justice, empathy, and compassion is in our culture. Uh huh. And if you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale, cheap. It's that traditional and symbolic association of Satan and evil that is my main point: the inability of any society or culture founded on an absolute agnosticism with respect to what constitutes goodness, virtue, moral and acceptable behavior to survive. Such societies and cultures are incapable of understanding the traditional virtues or vices associated with traditional symbols, and thus inevitably, an inversion of their meaning and significance occurs. Unfortunately, that inversion itself is part of the very very ancient trick associated with that symbol: "You shall not die; your eyes will be opened; you will be as gods." The problem is a simple one, but it is one that a materialist and consumerist cosmology such as prevails in America and the West cannot understand: if you invoke the symbols of evil - whether you believe in them or not, or believe them to be evil or not - do not be surprised if the real thing shows up, and in full force.
The RT article suggests this:
Russian authorities have designated the US-based Satanic Temple as an undesirable organization, claiming that the quasi-religious group justifies violence and supports extremist and terrorist entities.
Under Russian law, any foreign or international organization which is believed to pose a threat to the country’s security and political system can be labeled undesirable. This status essentially prohibits such entities from operating in Russia; their bank accounts are frozen and local branches are shut down. Those found in breach of the law could face fines or even prison sentences under certain circumstances.
Since the legislation came into force in 2015, numerous not-for-profit organizations have had to close their doors in Russia, including the Church of Scientology and the Jehovah's Witnesses.
In a statement on Wednesday, the prosecutor general’s office said that the “so-called Satanic Temple was registered in the US in 2012” by several Harvard University graduates. According to Russian officials, the group has 23 chapters in the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland and several other nations. It is believed to have over 10 million members worldwide.
The Russian authorities claimed that the organization “promotes occult ideologies [and] uses Satanic imagery to discredit traditional spiritual-ethical values.” The Satanic Temple, which allegedly enjoys US government support, also justifies violence and “actively backs members of extremist and terrorist movements,” the prosecutor general’s office explained. (Emphases in the original: note to the editors of RT, italics are not used in English orthography to denote quotations, that's what quotation marks are for).
Russia understands the danger of maintaining a pure and militant agnosticism on moral and metaphysical issues; after all, that was more or less the official position of the Soviet government. In an ideology and culture where there are no such bounds, the death of a few million people is, as one of the best-known and infamous prophets of Marxist demonology once observed, just a "statistic." Nor am I exaggerating to associate Marxism with demonology, for anyone familiar with Marx's early works or "poetry" will encounter a clear and undisguised fascination with the demonic and with evil that is not only obsessive, but idolatrous.
What both of these stories suggest to me is, however, something perhaps even deeper, more profound, than merely this or that state's view on the Satanic temple (and yes, I mean the word "state" to apply both to Ohio and to Russia). What the articles suggest to me is that the West, like it or not, has turned some sort of cultural corner, that it has reached, and passed, some sort of inflection point or threshold, that it is undergoing some sort of paradigm shift, that being the choice between a militant agnostic moral and metaphysical order to be administered by technocrats, which is pretty much what we've been witnessing since the "Enlightenment", or a recognition that the attempt to construct a political and technocratic order without reference to the wider culture, its tradition, its symbols, virtues, and mores, is doomed to failure. Both revolutionary France, and the purer version of it in the Soviet Union, ended as failures precisely because what sustained the culture itself in the Soviet Union's case was no longer there; and brute force was a poor and unsuccessful substitute.
In other words, I'm suggesting that like it or not, people are beginning to reflect, and to reflect deeply, not only on what "freedom of religion" or "conscience" means, but also, what is does not mean. The fundamental questions of good, and of evil, and of the symbols and icons of either that society at large chooses to venerate, are once again front and center. I suspect that it will not be long before someone notices that religion is one of those reserved and non-delegated powers of the states... when that happens, the fissures and fault lines will become even more apparent. John Adams, anyone?
See you on the flip side...
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