How Theory Driven Intelligentsia Misses Significant Events in the Life of the People.

In 1862, Dostoevsky wrote these important words. He was talking about the historic schism within Russian church, so called "Raskol" ( the name “Raskolnikov,” by the way, is directly related to Dostoevsky's understanding of the phenomenon).

For Dostoevsky, intelligent and intellectual Russians can't comprehend this event, because they are too intellectual, theoretical, and therefore logical.

I find his words totally remarkable, as they expose very directly the blindness of all sort of intelligentsia. It can be Chekhovian characters, it can't be Ivy-educated, martini drinking readers of NYT or Wall Street Journal, but all in all, these guys rarely comprehend the significance of any historical event or personality. Because theory and ideology blinds them. Here is Dostoevsky:

"First of all. What does Russian schism tell us? Neither the Slavophiles, nor the Westernizers can’t properly evaluate this important event of our historical life. That happens, of course, because they both are theoreticians. According to their theories, the schism just can’t produce anything good. The Slavophiles, cherishing only the Moscow ideal of Orthodox Russia, can’t sympathize with people who’ve betrayed the Orthodoxy. The Westernizers, who judge the historical events of Russian life according to German or French books, see in the schism only Russian willful stubbornness and ignorance, as the pursuit of one’s own way of saying 'halleluiah' or crossing with two fingers.

They fail to see in this strange negation the passionate yearning for truth, the deep unhappiness with reality. That’s hardly surprising, since once you start judging things according to theory; you turn yourself blind, as you close your eyes on the actual events. In reality, this fact of Russian ignorance and stubbornness is --according to our opinion-- the most significant event of Russia life; it is the best testimony that the future Russian life would improve."

So many examples of this come to mind. Did intelligentsia really understand such historical figures as Ivan the Terrible or Peter or Stalin? Again, according to theories, they are either murderers or saints, but only people really get it. When they called Ivan -- Grozny, it meant 'awe-inspiring, terrifying," not “terrible.” In other words, there is no acceptance, no rejection, but recognition of the thunderous power, like that of Zeus. So people recognize the significance of that type of rulers or events likePatriotic Wars or Revolutions, while various ideologues argue this or that way, snared by their ideological schemes.

Same applies to the great Russian authors, from Tolstoy to Dostoevsky and Chekhov, looked with suspicion by all sort of theoreticians: leftists and rightists, liberals and conservatives, yet, it is these giants that constitute the most significant event of Russia life, and [are] the best testimony that the future Russian life would improve." And what about other great individuals? Wasn't Socrates strange? Or Milton? Or Spinoza?

To switch gears and go to a much more mundane American example, I can refer to the whole Trump phenomenon. While intelligentsia rejects him -- too racist for the liberals, too crass for the Kennebunkport republicans -- common people respond to him. Yes, similar to Russian schism, he embodies "strange negation." But any honest person should recognize that this strange negation and the strange forms it takes, does point to "passionate yearning for truth, the deep unhappiness with reality." And who knows? Maybe Afghan Talibs belong to the same group?

Musing on patriotism, Lermontov wrote these famous words: "I love my fatherland, but with strange love. My reason cannot conquer it." Indeed. Reason is theory. And a theory can tell you this or that, but love is love, empathy is more insightful than all the reasonable arguments: "Love has reason, reason none," as Shakespeare knew already.

So all these strange negations, strange actions, strange passions, strange characters, strange as they are, contain more truths than any fashionable or acceptable ideology or theory.

Below, is the well-known Surikov's painting of the infamous Russian schesmatic, Boyaryna Feodosia Morozova