23.01.2014OUR PERCEPTION OF THE NATIONAL AND UNIVERSAL
Deputy Leader of RPA
The diversity and differentiation in nature existed from the outset. There is no abstract humankind per se, as it consists of nations and each person with his/her ethnicity is part of the overall humankind. Each nation is unique and inimitable by its spiritual mindset. Humankind is rich with nations and loss of any nation makes it poorer, because a unique natural form of feeling, thinking and expressing is lost, along with a whole spiritual world. Therefore, whatever acts against the national, is directed against humankind.
Obviously, national distinctiveness does not imply isolation from the world or national egocentrism. Along with differences, nations also have commonalities. These are vivid in their relations with God (as it is said, all true religions lead to the same God), as well as social structures, forms of economy and approaches to science. However, all of these still bear the impress of the nation to one extent or another. Accordingly, each nation has its own Christianity or socialism; or one may also add liberalism inherent to it, democracy in line with its perceptions, etc.
Therefore, although all races converge in the dimensions of the Eternal and Absolute as children of the Creator, each of them has its own way leading to the Creator, or more precisely, its own destined way. This is the natural/divine formula for a harmonious co-existence of the nations. It also means that only through perfection the national becomes universally human.
Cultural convergence (but not merger) of nations, scientific, technological and economic unification (and not isolation), i.e. spiritual/cultural distinctiveness and civilizational commonality – this is how we understand the natural order of the world, and this is our perception of the national and universal.
Our conservatism
Generally “conservatism” is understood as preservation of the mores positively appraised and historically vindicated by the humankind (or rather, by its elite).
At the same time it has to be noted that conservatism is about validation of the eternal, but not of anything old. It guards not the past, but the timeless, i.e. everything valuable that has been created in the past and will be created in future. In this sense conservatism is not only about reverence of the past, but also aspiration for the future, because it believes in continuity of the history and linkage between the times, and through this, it looks forward to constantly creating eternal values.
Although there is no single common perception of conservatism in the modern world and there are many different conservative movements, yet there are some key concepts, common principles and notions that are characteristic to the phenomenon of “conservatism” as a whole. Thus, the conservative worldview implies the following:
- Faith in God and His commandments;
- Preference of the timeless and eternal (homeland, family, etc.) over the fad and momentary (one or another way form of government, model of organizing the society, etc.);
- Specificity of thinking as opposed to abstractedness: abstract mental structures, seemingly perfect theoretical schemes are alien to conservatism;
- Ardent attitude toward traditional (national, religious) values;
- Classless nature.
What is characteristic to the classical conservatism is the fundamental approach that the development of the society should be implemented through partial and phases-based reforms and that any reform has to be aligned with the system of the society’s traditional values. Hence, conservatism principally rejects revolutionism, because the latter disrupts the natural course of the societal life development. Conservatism’s objective is to prevent revolutionary situations through reforms.
The conservative system of values contains the following main concepts:
Traditional family: Conservators have a negative attitude towards unregistered couples, homosexual couples, and especially the latter’s right to register marriage and adopt children. Conservatism accepts and values only the “classical” family.
Religious life. Conservators accept the norms and customs of the religious life rooted in the given society, and consider that to follow those is an important precondition for a robust political and social life. They disapprove various cults.
Stable system of moral norms. Conservators believe that there is an established system of mores that have been given to the humans by God, that it is the sacred duty of both an individual and the society to follow those, and that deviation from those disrupt the harmonious state of the world.
One of the fundamental values of conservatism is the private ownership right and economic liberalism.
So to what extent does our society embrace the system of values of the conservative ideology?
By and large, our society is both conservative and constantly strives for novelty. It tends to preserve its fundamental values and simultaneously keep abreast of and master innovation.
However, the current processes of globalization pose serious challenges to the national identity and state sovereignty. At the same time, under the current conditions of crisis of liberal democratic system and discredited socialist ideas, there is considerable upsurge of conservatism in today’s world.
In this sense, conservatism is a reliable ideological tool both for maintaining our spiritual/cultural distinctiveness and staying tuned to the developments in the world.
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