An Orthodox priest gave a disappointing forecast for the “golden billion”
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This happened in 2012. The end of the “Mayan calendar”, and therefore the world… Nowadays they try not to remember that panic. I managed to mention the wave of suicides due to the “calendar” in the book “Apocalypse in World History” that was published at that time. There was also a section “Spiritual Expertise”, where I posted the answers of some significant people to my questions. Scientists commented on forecasts about the threats of global warming, the fall of the asteroid Apophis, the planet Nibiru, hiding from us behind the Sun, but stubbornly waiting for the moment… And I asked the late Archbishop Alexy the question: “Which of the theories, ideas seems to you the most dangerous now?” I was tempted to include his thoughts by long-standing and rather hostile feelings towards a certain group of citizens who had heard from every mouth about the “obscurantism of retrograde priests” and believed in their superiority. Really, these snobs are funny, studying “your financial/sexual horoscope”, buying gray, footcloth-looking brochures “How to become a millionaire” for 40 rubles, renting out their savings somewhere “at 1700% per annum”, but proudly keeping their intellectual supremacy from “the encroachments of the priests.”
This happened in 2012. The end of the “Mayan calendar”, and therefore the world… Nowadays they try not to remember that panic. I managed to mention the wave of suicides due to the “calendar” in the book “Apocalypse in World History” that was published at that time. There was also a section “Spiritual Expertise”, where I posted the answers of some significant people to my questions. Scientists commented on forecasts about the threats of global warming, the fall of the asteroid Apophis, the planet Nibiru, hiding from us behind the Sun, but stubbornly waiting for the moment… And I asked the late Archbishop Alexy the question: “Which of the theories, ideas seems to you the most dangerous now?” I was tempted to include his thoughts by long-standing and rather hostile feelings towards a certain group of citizens who had heard from every mouth about the “obscurantism of retrograde priests” and believed in their superiority. Really, these snobs are funny, studying “your financial/sexual horoscope”, buying gray, footcloth-looking brochures “How to become a millionaire” for 40 rubles, renting out their savings somewhere “at 1700% per annum”, but proudly keeping their intellectual supremacy from “the encroachments of the priests.”
So I posted the answers of the archbishop and the academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences next to each other. The reason for turning specifically to Bishop Alexy will be discussed a little later.
To be honest, I myself expected an answer… not that limited, but somehow functionally related to the current concerns and anxieties of the bishop, the church (as I imagined them). I thought: the archbishop would “lash out” at some of the most brazen sects, Scientologists, televangelists, fashionable charlatans. You never know the number of sects growing through “network marketing.” In general, it will hit the “closest enemies.”
But… Vladyka touched upon a topic that had nothing to do with “competition of religions”:
“The most dangerous, in my opinion, is the “Golden Billion Theory”, a model of life for a selected part of the people of several highly developed countries, united, as an idea, by a high level of consumption. The entire modern civilization is built on the colossal successes of natural sciences and technology. But, obviously, there will not be enough resources even to simply maintain the existing level of consumption of the “golden billion” in the near future, and an environmental catastrophe will become inevitable. No government can offer Americans, Europeans, our new Russians, the emerging “middle class” to tighten their belts or moderate their demands. Imagine what will happen! Until recently, it seemed to man in an ecological sense that he was still in paradise. The forces of nature were used for production, but nothing was done for reproduction. But today we are given the opportunity to evaluate all the consequences of our expulsion from paradise and understand the scale of the curse: “Cursed is the earth for your sake; you will eat of it in sorrow all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17). Today the entire falsity of the audacity to regain heaven on earth has been revealed in spite of Divine providence.”
Having already wonderfully dashed my expectations, Archbishop Alexy continued:
“They usually say: “Since science has led to all this, let it lead to it!” We have no choice, we have to influence the environment.” And when the time approached to pay all the bills, it turned out that modern civilized man is incapable of either the asceticism of consumer self-restraint or the asceticism of true creativity.
While maintaining the ascetic religious component, one can hope for internal self-discipline. Then science can develop in the right direction. If Christian asceticism dries up, a personality type will prevail that does not tolerate any restrictions in the desire to consume, and does not want to answer to the future. Scientific research and experiments to save the existing type of consumer civilization can lead to the destruction of life on earth. The only alternative to such development may be an ascetic Christian civilization…”
But how deeply Vladyka Alexy saw the religious roots of the problem and the possible solution! The idol of intellectuals of recent decades, Jean Baudrillard, wrote about the same thing: “A consumer society is one where not only there are objects and goods that can be bought, but where Consumption itself is consumed in the form of a myth.” But where the famous philosopher, confused or fascinated, states the onset of the Age of Consumption, our theologian also points out the way out, finds a possible source of strength for passing this path.
Now about the person of my interlocutor. Archbishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Alexy (Frolov) at that time collected a solid bouquet of positions. Chairman of the Synodal Commission for Monastery Affairs, the Commission for the Artistic Decoration of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior under restoration, the Synodal Liturgical Commission, Vicar of the Moscow Diocese. And above all: the abbot of the Novospassky Monastery, known for many successful projects like the Heir magazine. In general, Novospassky is now a real “motor” of youth policy, but I met Vladyka Alexy thanks to the fact that I taught a course on the history of the Fatherland at the Russian University of Transport (MIIT), now the largest technical university in the country. And in the 1940s, the future famous church and statesman Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev) was a student at MIIT. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, founder of the Cultural Foundation and much more. Already in our time, at his alma mater, he created and headed, don’t be surprised, the department of theology. The first was generally in technical universities. But, I repeat, the relationship between science and the church is much more complicated than Khrushchev’s patter: “Science made a rocket, Gagarin flew, saw: there is no God!” It would take a long time to list scientists who honor the Church. Not long ago, Academician Velikhov came to the Miitovsky home church and recalled how his parents got married here. After the death of Metropolitan Pitirim (2004), the department was headed by his student Archbishop Alexy. He died in 2013, leaving a rich intellectual legacy, which is what I tried to tell about here.
Yes, still this “golden billion”! It turned out to be not only a dangerous, but also a hidden theory. Wikipedia, which preserves fragments of objectivity, throws itself out of line here: “This is the central concept of the conspiracy theory, according to which some secret forces (“Western elite”) are seeking to redistribute the lion’s share of goods in favor of a small rich portion of the Earth’s population (“the golden billion”).”
Hundreds of articles ridicule conspiracy theories: “the secret of the golden billion would quickly become common knowledge.” It’s only about “secret” that maniacs of a certain sort keep repeating, and the economic order and the robbery of the countries of the South are as “secret” as the daily sunrise. And the term “neocolonialism” has been in global scientific circulation since the 1950s.
On the occasion of a recent international conference, I learned one of a billion examples. Mexicans chop agave, make tequila, income and royalties flow to the owner of the Olmeca brand (Deerfield, Illinois). This is for the 2000s, now the brand is owned by the French Pernod Ricard. They did something similar with our vodka brands in the 1990s. Northern Sakhalin was removed from Russian jurisdiction under the PSA (Production Sharing Agreement). It’s clear their attitude towards those who not only returned theirs, but also recently gathered indignant Africans in St. Petersburg: it turns out that it’s the same story with coffee – the largest “producer” (beneficiary) is Germany. And the Frenchman Baudrillard did not write about the impasse of overconsumption in rich countries under Lavrov’s dictation.
Newspaper headline:
Orthodoxy against the golden billion
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