“The Road to Perdition”

Who Are the Guardians Who Lead us to … Perdition.

Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov has this insightful episode. Drunken Fyodor, the father of the Karamazovs, embarks on one of his favorite diatribes against the church. They are dishonest, they trade in superstitions, they exploit the peasants, they make up stories, and they try to shame scoundrels as he is.

So what is your conclusion, asks his intellectual son, Ivan. Well, says, Fyodor, we have to cancel the church. Who needs it. — Fine, says Ivan, but I hope you are aware, that after canceling church, they will come and cancel you!

— Wow, — response Fyodor, I never entertained this scary thought. In that case, we, the smart people should keep the truth to ourselves, act as if the church and its teachings do not exist, and do as we please, but we should maintain the facade of religion to fool the gullible and exploit them as much as we want.

Dostoevsky clearly saw through the cynical elites, both in Russia and Europe, who acted exactly like Fyodor. It is hardly surprising that in the same novel, he created the figure of Grand Inquisitor — Fyodor Karamazov on steroids — who actually does not believe in anything, but controls the gullible flock in Spain and under the guise of religious authority, saves them from themselves by leading them into slavery.

What Dostoevsky only imagined in his novel, had long became the reality, and not just a piece of fiction as in Zamiatin’s Benefector or Orwell’s Big Brother. I can’t help but think of cynical, extremely clever, and utterly corrupt Fyodor, when I think of current rulers of EU and their side-kick, the Democratic Party of the US, whose leaders went through the thorough grooming by Brits in the form of Rhodes Scholarships and other forms of control, who keep on mocking the Deplorables, keep on abusing them in any form and shape, but maintaining the fake piety, fake morality, and fake expertise to keep masses under their thumb.

Of course, US has a rather different tradition from Europe, and — for good reason — the country is very suspicious of “egg-heads” and other experts and pundits, who are acting as Grand Inquisitor or Grand Benefectors. Trump is simply one more chapter in this revolt of the masses against their fake guardians.

But not so in Europe. The endless parade of educated, articulate bastards, like Johnson, Macron, Holland, EU leaders and so on is the case in point. They don’t care and they don’t believe in anything. They despise their own population. They’d rather starve it by high inflation, lack of housing, lack of opportunities, and pay money to corrupt Zelensky to create the aura of “saving Europe” and “protecting freedom.” You don’t save Europe by destroying it, Messrs. Starmer, Macron, and Merz. Americans tried to do it with the Mai Lai village, earning the high marks in cynicism and shame.

At least, Americans seem to learn something and did their best to change the course. Trump might as well fail in most of his endeavors, but American Fyodors are feeling  nervous, and spend sleepless nights contemplating the ways to preserve status quo. Similar to Fyodor, they know that people don’t like corruption and cynicism, and as Ivan Karamazov observed, they might one day decide to cancel scoundrels like Fyodor.

But cynical EU leaders still don’t get it. They cancel elections, they ban politicians, they invent bogus threats from Russia, they create fake excuses, like “le bien public” which, according to Milton, is the favorite tool of a tyrant, and they use all their intelligence and cynicism to remain on top.

No wonder these elites hate Trump so much. But common people are listening and observing. They feel the economic squeeze on their skin and their bones. Many of them are openly desperate and angry. If I were Sciences Po or Oxford educated banker running the world from my posh office, I would shake in my boots. But then again, I am not a banker, and I don’t have years of experience cheating people out of their hopes and aspirations.