Society & Philosophy

Vladimir Morozov31.12.2025

As we look back on the outgoing and challenging year of 2025, I’d like to share my observations on how our people perceive the current situation. Not the self-appointed comprador elite of the 1990s, no, but those very people (I’ve had the opportunity to speak with various people), who are the bearers of those traditional […]

Vladimir Golstein19.12.2025

Dostoevsky’s Demons/Possessed is usually viewed as the satire of Russian nihilists of the 1860s, and their random acts of violence, including the murder of the student, named Ivanov, in Moscow. But Dostoevsky sets his novel not in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but in a small provincial town, and besides individual crimes and a set of […]

Vladimir Golstein16.12.2025

In the sixties, people were worrying about subliminal messages used for brainwashing. Fine, one can talk about it or write some journalistic exposes. But I suspect, that type of messaging requires some extra deliberation and sophistication, and therefore practiced less frequently than we imagine. What we have instead, and something much easier to accomplish, is not […]

Vladimir Golstein09.12.2025

So there are pragmatic political systems, when politicians are not restrained by sloppily or sophisticatedly concocted ideology. Such was the capitalism of the laissez-faire period, or today’s China, Russia and even Trumpism. And there are ideologically driven political systems. Nazism, Soviet Socialism and now Wokism that took over United States and EU. Since I did’t […]

Vladimir Morozov07.12.2025

Previous Article: Economics and Chrematistics Its conflict with the economic doctrine of Christianity before its split into Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The art of “making money” To understand why the world ultimately arrived at the financial capitalism of the last third of the 20th century and the first third of the 21st century, and why “monetary civilization,” […]

Vladimir Morozov30.11.2025

How Ethics and Approaches to Economic Management Influence Crises. To better understand the underlying causes of modern economic crises, let’s turn to Aristotle, the renowned Greek philosopher of the 4th century BC. Aristotle defined two entities in the socioeconomic relationships of citizens in society. One entity is economics, which is a system whose purpose is […]

Yuri Chekalin23.10.2025

Shinto has no founder, no doctrine, no commandments, no idols, and no organization. What it does have are ambiguous characteristics like sympathy and silent experience. This is the very reason why it has been often considered a non-religion by Japanese scholars as well as foreign intellectuals. Japan’s unique historical circumstances and cultural background explain the […]

Yuri Chekalin12.09.2025

A peculiar form of society was created in Japan after World War II. The birth of such a secular, materialistic, and atheistic society perhaps cannot be found in any other age and place in history. It is said that most Japanese, when asked for their religious status in filling out an application form for a […]

Yuri Chekalin20.08.2025

“We live in a city of brotherly love, We are remembered as long as we disturb others…” Nautilus Pompilius “WELFER is a colloquial name for social benefits that are part of the system of assistance to the poorest categories of citizens. Welfare programs cover individuals and families who, for one reason or another, do not […]

Yuri Chekalin25.06.2025

In 2006, the book Makeinu no toboe “Howl of an Abandoned Dog” became a bestseller in Japan. The author, Junko Sakai, called single women over 30 “abandoned dogs” (負け犬, makeinu). But if you think this is an insult, then no — she herself belonged to this category and, on the contrary, finally found a “normal” […]

Happy New Year!

When Societies Go Mad… Or Become Possessed

A Triggered Society

The Tale of the Two Systems

The Ethics of Economics as Chrematistics

Economics and Chrematistics

The Tragedy of “Not-Having-Any”

Japanese Atheists and Faithless Japanese

City of Brotherly Love

Are You a Slouching Dog or a Losing Dog?

Priestesses of Love

August 17

Japanese Communism: A Century of Revolution, Underground Struggle, and Parliamentary Politics

Shipyards Matter More Than Aircraft Carriers