Taking Spiritual Responsibility

For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men — and everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life for the monk and for every man."  Elder Zossima in "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Here's a succinct way to describe the Russian attack on Ukraine:

The invasion has inspired a very large percentage of individual Ukrainians to take responsibility for their country's survival.   It has inspired a small percentage of Russians to take responsibility for their country's current crime against humanity, and protest it at great cost to themselves.  But the invasion has resulted in a much larger percentage of Russians abandoning that responsibility.

I recently re-read "The Brothers Karamazov", the late 19th century Russian novel that is a classic of world literature.   Over and over and over, this line is repeated in various forms:  we must take responsibility, each of us for all of us and for the whole world.  If the novel has a punch line, this clearly is it.

Real patriotism results from each citizen assuming this kind of responsibility. It is a spiritual orientation, a deeply held conviction, moving hearts to move minds to move hands and feet to do what it takes to make justice and peace real.

It is depressing to think that Russia, a nation endowed with such a rich culture, could fall into such a abyss that the great majority of its people have resigned themselves to a kind of moral and political serfdom.  Polls suggest that most of them support what their dictator is doing in Ukraine.  But of course those polls are being conducted in a context where the people know they have no real choice in how they are governed, nor in what their government does beyond their borders. 

It is even more depressing to consider that in the United States, where we do have such choices, a huge percentage of our people lack any real sense of social responsibility.  Millions of our people can't be bothered to vote at all, much less for candidates who would heed Elder Zossima's call. 

Ukrainians who were iffy about their country, who were alienated from civic engagement, suddenly find themselves each taking responsibility for everyone else... resisting the Russian army, delivering food to hungry people trapped by the fighting, driving people out of war zones to safety, organizing to maintain their social institutions during the conflict. 

Does it have to take a war - one perceived as an existential threat to one's nation - to motivate people into taking responsibility for themselves and their fellow citizens?  In 1906 the philosopher William James argued for a "moral equivalent of war", an ethic of public service that would inspire the sort of selfless devotion and fellow-feeling that, at its best, the military can inspire in soldiers.  In America, we must elevate the struggle to prevent human-caused climate catastrophe to a "moral equivalent of war", and act on it with the level of seriousness with which Ukrainians are facing the attack on their country.  Not just to save the planet, but to save our souls from spiritual serfdom.

Let us admire and imitate - and support with practical help - the people of Ukraine who have that crowning knowledge that Zossima, the fictional Russian monk, admonished us to attain....