By the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlasios, fr. Hierotheos Vlachos
Nowadays,
two prominent ways of life prevail in mankind,
which have been transformed into two ideologies
respectively; that is, Western individualism and
Eastern collectivism. In Western individualism,
characterized by liberalism, an unbridled
freedom of the individual prevails, along with
competition which is a detrimental factor to
society overall. In Eastern collectivism state
dominance prevails, which undermines people’s
freedom. In both instances, man is overlooked as
a person, just as human society is not regarded
as a society of human persons.
These two systems of living
and ideological models are both made manifest in
societal reality. Liberalism prevails in the
West and its “headquarters” are the United
States of America – the “Mecca” of
globalization, while collectivism appeared in
countries of the former Soviet Union, but also
in countries of the Far East in general.
In both cases capital has a
prominent place, except that it is differentiated in
who possesses it and who manages it. In
liberalism, capital ends up among the few and it
moves, mostly unrestrained, along the principle
of market self-adjustment. In
collectivism-communism, capital is
state-controlled. In both cases the average
person is victimized, the difference being that
he is victimized either by the oligarchy of a
handful of wealthy tycoons or by an insatiable
State. Capitalism thus has only a callous face
to show.
The view has been expressed
that capitalism is the creation of Western
individualism and especially of Protestant
morality, as indicated by Max Weber, and that it
aspires to the accumulation of wealth by a few,
while Marxism, which originated from Marx’s
views, is only a reaction to capitalism and is
concerned with the whole of society. Deep down
however, both these systems are the offspring of
the same, Western metaphysics - given that Marx
was a German Jew raised in the West - however
his theories, which were born in the Western
“sphere”, were transfused to the East, because
that was where the practice of Orthodox
Christianity existed, with its principles of
common ownership and communal use and could
therefore be implemented.
In our day, we have become
witnesses to the crumbling of
both these two
systems, but equally of their ideologies. In
the period between 1989 and 1991,
collectivism-Communism collapsed in the
countries of the former Soviet Union where State
power dominated over people’s social and
financial lives, while in our day, we are
witnessing the collapse of liberalism with its
mentality of “free markets” and the market
“self-adjustment”, which functions to the
detriment of society overall. Of course it
should be noted that the bankruptcy of Communism
cannot be regarded as a vindication of
Capitalism, just as the collapse of Capitalism
cannot be ascribed to Communism. It is the
failure of capital’s ideology, which is totally
disrespectful of people’s poverty.
At any rate, both these
systems are contrary to the Orthodox teaching in
its perfect form, since neither liberalism nor
Marxism – as ideologies and world theories – can
be accepted by Orthodox Tradition, in which
extensive mention is made to avoid the passion
of avarice, but also about the experiencing of
love towards fellow-man, especially those who
are suffering. This combination of love and
freedom solves the problem altogether, given
that the freedom of the individual/person
without the element of love will lead to
unbridled liberalism, and the love of the whole
minus the freedom of the individual will result
in unbridled collectivism. ...
***
"...To return to a question raised by earlier podcasts, is capitalism compatible with Orthodox Christianity? Well, the answer is no. [...] Orthodoxy, alone, is capable of offering not only a critique of modernity, but of pointing us to real solutions..."
Clark
Carlton, Debunking two myths on Capitalism
See also
The holy anarchists... in the Egyptian Desert
Capitalism, Protestant Ethics & Orthodox Tradition
Grace and “the Inverted Pyramid”
Église orthodoxe Pères, la richesse et le capitalisme
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