{"id":1671,"date":"2007-08-13T12:21:34","date_gmt":"2007-08-13T12:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2007\/08\/13\/cossacks-and-pr\/"},"modified":"2007-08-13T12:21:34","modified_gmt":"2007-08-13T12:21:34","slug":"cossacks-and-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2007\/08\/13\/cossacks-and-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"Cossacks and Prairie Muffins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If you believe that every human being has the right to self determination, then how do you cope with people who claim not to want that right?<\/p>\n

The BBC\u2019s Steven Eke had a fascinating report last week on Russia\u2019s Cossacks<\/a>. The radio broadcast version of this story, ended with the man pictured at that link, Ataman Viktor Vasilyevich, explaining his ideal of the future of Russia:<\/p>\n

We need a tsar, one annointed by God. Then there\u2019ll be complete order in Russia. That\u2019s how it always was. Democracy doesn\u2019t suit us. We need a firm hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eke asked him if he had anyone in mind, and Vasilyevich suggested Vladimir Putin, adding, \u201cMay God grant him health, and may he rule over us.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what do we make of this? How do we accommodate people who say, \u201cDemocracy doesn\u2019t suit us\u201d and insist that they want an autocrat to \u201crule over\u201d them rather than an elected leader to serve them?<\/p>\n

I suppose one answer would be to send Bush and Cheney over to southern Russia \u2014 the Cossacks would have the autocrats they always wanted, Cheney would have the complete lack of accountability he\u2019s<\/i> always wanted, and American citizens might get their democracy back. Sounds like a win-win-win scenario.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m mostly kidding there. America is heading towards a constitutional crisis provoked by the Bush administration\u2019s insistence that executive privilege trumps the rule of law. As a small-d democrat and small-r republican, I think that\u2019s a Bad Thing, but not everyone agrees. It\u2019s not only the Cossacks who don\u2019t think democracy suits them and who long to be ruled by a \u201cfirm hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viktor Vasilyevich\u2019s attitude isn\u2019t all that different from that of our old friends the Prairie Muffins<\/a> or of Concerned Women for America<\/a> (run by Mrs. Tim LaHaye).<\/p>\n

The problem with all such groups is that their embrace of hierarchy is unable to tolerate freedom for others. In order for the world to be the way they want it to be, the firm hand they desire has to hold sway over everyone. I suppose, from their point of view, the same could be said of those of us who favor freedom, rights and democracy.<\/p>\n

What right do we have, they ask, to impose liberty and dignity on them when that\u2019s not what they want? That\u2019s how they\u2019d like to frame the question, although I\u2019m not sure any sense can be made of it. It\u2019s a bit like the \u201cYou don\u2019t tolerate my intolerance\u201d nonsense \u2014 an ouroboros swallowing its own tail. And it\u2019s not a harmless bit of nonsense, since the freedom from freedom they insist on requires others to join them in servitude.<\/p>\n

When I encounter people like this \u2014 whether Cossacks or Concerned Women \u2014 I always have a hard time accepting that they\u2019re for real. I tend to think of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a> as an expression of universal human desires. I realize, of course, that there are always going to be some people who behave inhumanly \u2014 seeking to dominate others and deny them their rights. But it\u2019s always jarring to be reminded that some of their victims embrace this. I expect to see would-be autocrats and patriarchs reciting Orwell\u2019s dystopian mantra, \u201cFreedom is slavery,\u201d but it always surprises me to see their would-be subjects chanting along and claiming that slavery is freedom. The Cossack villagers and the thousands who have joined Concerned Women or the Prairie Muffins claim to desire<\/i> submissive servitude. I think they are deceived or deluded or, at best, codependent. (Like any expression of pity, that may come across as condescending, but it would be inconsistent of them to complain that it does.)<\/p>\n

There does seem to be another category, though, where we find people like Viktor Vasilyevich and Bev LaHaye. They seem to be trying to carve out a niche for themselves as the middle managers of autocracy, already staking out a position as collaborators with a future authoritarian regime. The Cossack ataman rules his family and village with unchallenged, unchecked authority. A tsar would likely permit him to continue to do so, while the spread of democracy and freedom could undermine his local authority. LaHaye has become a powerful woman, the executive of a large organization and a D.C. mover and shaker. The source of that power is the thousands of women she has helped to convince to embrace powerlessness. Convince them otherwise and she\u2019d be out of a job. Vasilyevich and LaHaye are probably also deceived or deluded at some level, but I can\u2019t seem to muster the pity for them that I feel for their followers.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you believe that every human being has the right to self determination, then how do you cope with people who claim not to want that right? The BBC\u2019s Steven Eke had a fascinating report last week on Russia\u2019s Cossacks. The radio broadcast version of this story, ended with the man pictured at that link, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCossacks and Prairie Muffins<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you believe that every human being has the right to self determination, then how do you cope with people who claim not to want that right? 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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