Good morning, my friend, fine reader of this post! Happy Saturday, and happy Eve of the Christmas twin days. As I came to realize, I had some thoughts over the "hero's journey" so to speak, of Catherine of Russia. It is a lenghy post, this one. I don't know if I made sense. But first, how are you? How are things? As for me, I am okay, happy that is Christmas season. I miss mom, but I want to spend the season at my grandma's, I shall return home on the 26th-27th. New Year's eve and the day, I will probably again spend at my grandma's, but until then, I hope some days at my own place I can be. Well, as I wrote a lot, we should jump into the post, that is lengthy!
Listening to my second Catherine's Biography, I cannot help but to gaze in awe of her maturation as a ruler and thinker. She started her political education at Montesquieu and Voltaire, but later, she had to face the reality that her subjects were not meek students, willing to learn how to improve themselves, no. They were all wolves in potential. Each and everyone of them, from serfs, peasants, townsmen, priests and nobles, courtiers and traders, all of them had agendas and ambition of their own, truth is, how can't one be without will of power and one's own values? Had Catherine listened to the English thinkers as well, not just the french fashionable in the courts of the west, and had she observed the same attitude as the founding fathers of America, much personal vexation could have been avoided. Alas, she had to learn that a ruler does not rule on paper, but on human skin. And by that, she could not abstain of using of her absolute power, to keep order and peace, keep her subjects afloat and the commanded to be commanded. As she, as myself, had more liberal inclinations, this lesson was hard to be learnt, but in the end, she had an empire to keep.
It is frustrating, however, that many of her subjects still longed for the erratic and lunatic Peter III, her abusive husband that drank into oblivion and that loathed Russia with all his heart. They did not care that Catherine was the better choice. They were willing to forget the potential woes that Peter III would have bestowed upon Russia, if that suit their interests. Frankly, the ragged peasants had some backwards ideas, that give a hint on why Russia overall was so undeveloped, coming of the 18th century. They were no friends of Europe, not fond of its beautiful fashion and ideas, not even of any reform to the orthodox faith, however reasonable those may be. I have seen, playing Victoria 3, that they were traditionalists, not on our sense, but on the eastern one, with women to be confined to their household room, without freedom of thought and more liberty of movement. Nay. They were not friendly towards the free market, instead resounding to a situation where one is willing to mount on the other, if that advances their interest. It goes to show what a beautiful thing Western Europe was at her best, and why the french philosophes thought the whole world to be as potentially benign.
It is frustrating also because many thinkers of the west paved the way to their own destruction, of the demise of her own civilization. Of course Christianity is important, but only Christianity won't do, as Russia proves. Of course Humanism is important, but in the world of today, we see it is also capable of degeneracy, and it opens the door towards socialism, which is the desire to always be scientific, without anything else, that in the end, leads to the most gruesome death. So, when I defend the West, I don't do that saying I agree and subscribe to the Atheist Diderot, to the scournful Voltaire. I much rather prefer the approach of folk such as Locke, Adam Smith, the men who were more influential towards the good founders of America. More recently, men such as Ludwig von Mises and his students, they bring me a more careful approach, a balanced view. Balance, that is key. For I am not really for catholic traditionalism, least of all for Orthodox traditionalism, neither I am for the Christian Nationalism of the protestants of America. But I also loathe what is on its other extreme, the blob mass of stupid folk, derived from derivations of Marx, that today occupy many seats of power, the globalists, the most mediocre amongst the mediocres.
Catherine had a long maturation, that led her into a more conservative approach. She was true more to the english kind of conservatism, that Burke talked about. Of preserving good tradition, and slowly casting aside the bad ones. It can be a frustrating journey, the one of governing, she discovered with much pain. So caution, moderation whenever possible, and balance, the nature of wisdom, come into hand always. Such is life.
I am so beyond happy for tomorrow is Christmas eve, one of the twin days of the height of the season! I really hope I can return tomorrow. And the day after, taking some rest from writing most likely on the 26th, though I may write if I so feel like it. Nothing is set in stone, but I pray that I can write on the 24th and 25th. After that, the schedule is more loose. I shall return on the space between the 26th-31st to write both about December and 2023 as a whole, and what to expect of 2024. Well, for now, I can only say that I hope to see you tomorrow, and that I wish you the best. Cheerio!
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