Rollo May on totalitarianism

An interesting quotation from Rollo May’s Man’s Search for Himself (1953):

Fascist and Nazi totalitarianism, for example, do not occur because a Hitler or Mussolini decides to seize power. When a nation, rather, is prey to insupportable economic want and is psychologically and spiritually empty, totalitarianism comes in to fill the vacuum; and the people sell their freedom as a necessity for getting rid of the anxiety which is too great for them to bear any longer. (p. 35f.)

This suggests that blaming the emergence of totalitarianism on bad actors is a cop out. The rise of Nazism in 1920s’ Germany cannot simply be laid at the door of Hitler and his cronies. Rather, it was the product of the psychological (moral?) and spiritual bankruptcy of the Weimar Republic.

It follows that Democrats are deluding themselves if they think that by voting Trump out of office, the USA will have dodged the totalitarian bullet. Rather, the phenomenon of Trump and MAGA is a symptom that American society is rotten.

Another thing that follows from May’s thought is that it is never enough to oppose the false ideas of Trump, or Farage, or Le Pen, or Bolsonaro, or Erdogan, or any other of the would be strong men and women of twenty-first century politics. What is required is the much more demanding task of creating and sustaining forms of life in which people can experience freedom and meaningful and bearable, rather than as a burden from which they desperately need release.

Exposure One Awards: update

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that one of my photographs achieved a bronze in the Architecture category of the Exposure One B&W Photography Awards. And, for the sake of completeness, here is the one that achieved a nomination in their Conceptual category:

Exposure One Awards

At Shawlands Cross

Uprooted

Two of my photographs (see above) have been nominated for awards in Exposure One’s Photographer of the Year contest – in the Architecture and Conceptual categories. There is also a People’s Vote Award. If you would like to vote for me, please go to the People’s Vote Award Gallery and search for ‘Lawrence Osborn’.

The essence of capitalism

A striking quotation from Michael Parenti from Against Empire (1995):

The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and force.

St Sergius of Radonezh: A memory not made for war

St Sergius of Radonezh, whose feast day it is today, was one of the great monastic figures of the Christian East: a man of prayer, humility, hospitality, reconciliation, and patient spiritual renewal. He lived in Rus’ in the fourteenth century, a time of division, violence, and oppression. And the tradition remembers him as an ascetic who sought peace, rebuilt common life around prayer and labour, and called people towards unity rooted in love.

Sadly, today the real Sergius is in danger of being supplanted by a Sergius reinvented to serve the purposes of the Russian state. The famous saying attributed to him, ‘By love and unity we shall be saved’, which invokes our union in the body of Christ relativizing all ethnic differences, has been weaponized to justify the forced reunion of Ukraine with Russia (or perhaps we should think of it as Moskovia). The later story of Sergius’s blessing of Dmitry Donskoy before the Battle of Kulikovo has been transformed from a blessing on a defensive campaign after all avenues of peace had been exhausted into a precedent for a war of aggression against Ukraine. 

To invoke Sergius should mean recalling the spiritual discipline required to resist hatred, falsehood, and the intoxication of power. It should mean praying for all who suffer in this war: for the Ukrainians living under attack and occupation, for displaced families, for the Russians drawn into violence or silenced when they speak truth, and for the bereaved on both sides. It should mean refusing the suggestion that any nation possesses a divine mandate to dominate another. Contrary to the poisonous ideology of Russkii mir, a shared Orthodox inheritance, language, or historical memory does not give one people the right to subsume another. Christian communion is not empire. Rather, it is freely received fellowship in Christ. 

May the memory of St Sergius call Christians not to the consecration of war, but to the difficult work of peace: truthful remembrance, solidarity with the vulnerable, repentance where the Church has blessed injustice, and unity formed by love rather than force.

Maxim for (autistic) Christian living (37)

Hopko’s 37th maxim is ‘Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out’. For autistic Orthodox Christians, this is not a command to stop thinking, drop theology, or shut down your rich inner world. Rather, it is a warning about a specific pattern: when imagination, analysis, and fantasy stop serving love and start spiralling into anxiety, scrupulosity, daydreams, escapism, or endless ‘what‑if’ scenarios that keep you from praying, acting, or resting. Many autistic people know this pattern very well: replaying conversations for hours, mentally running every possible outcome of a simple task, building elaborate fantasy scenarios to escape overwhelming reality, or over‑analysing every feeling until you are paralysed. Fleeing, here, means gently stepping out of that loop – not rejecting your mind itself, but refusing to let the loop rule you. 

Because autistic cognition naturally tends toward depth, pattern‑spotting, and detailed internal simulation, this maxim needs to be applied with nuance. Some imagination and analysis are gifts: they help you understand Scripture, theology, other people, and your own sensory world; they fuel creative work and problem‑solving. You can keep those gifts by asking concrete questions like: ‘Is this helping me love God and neighbour right now, or is it only feeding fear, pride, anger, or avoidance?’; ‘Have I thought about this enough to choose a next step?’ When the answer is ‘No’ in the first case or ‘Yes’ in the second, fleeing the loop might look like: returning to a short prayer instead of running the scenario again; moving your body; doing a small task in the real world; or shifting to a grounded, creative use of your mind (writing, art, study, etc.) instead of unstructured rumination.

Practically, you might:

• Set time limits for analysis and problem‑solving, then deliberately hand unresolved pieces to Christ at the end of that time.
• Notice specific triggers – doomscrolling, certain kinds of theological argument, some fantasy worlds – that reliably send you into loops, and limit or reshape your engagement with them.
• When you catch yourself scripting a conversation for the tenth time, say, ‘I’ve done enough figuring out’, and choose one concrete action (send the email, ask for clarification, or consciously postpone the topic).

Lived this way, ‘Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out’ does not forbid you to be an intensely thinking, imaginative autistic person. Rather, it invites your mental powers to come back from the places where they trap you – catastrophic fantasy, endless self‑interrogation, escapist daydreams – and to stand, as you are, in the small, real moment where Christ is actually present and where even one simple act of trust or love is worth more than hours of brilliant but fruitless spinning.

Maxim for (autistic) Christian living (36)

Hopko’s 36th maxim, ‘Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly’, fits many autistic communication strengths when it is understood rightly. For autistic Orthodox Christians, it means letting your words be truthful, minimally complicated, and as free as possible from passive–aggressive hints, double meanings, or performative piety. It is often more loving to say, ‘I’m tired and need quiet now’, ‘I can’t take on that task’, or ‘That noise hurts me’, than to hint, endure, resent, and then melt down later. 

Because autistic communication is frequently misread – ’too direct’, ‘too intense’, ‘too detailed’ – this maxim is best lived with a few gentle adjustments. You might aim for:

• Simple words and short sentences, especially when discussing conflicts or needs.
• Clear structure: say what happened, how it affected you, and what you are asking for, instead of circling the point.
• Firmness without hostility: using calm, declarative statements (‘I will need to leave by 9 p.m’.) rather than apologies for existing (‘Sorry, I’m difficult, but maybe I should go early?’).

Practically, you can prepare brief scripts for recurring situations – at church, at work, with family – so that in moments of overload you have simple, pre‑chosen phrases ready. Written or text communication can often help you keep things simple and clear when speech is hard; this still fulfils the maxim. Over time, ‘speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly’ becomes less about trying to sound like everyone else and more about allowing your God‑given autistic directness to be shaped by charity: words that are honest but not weaponized, straightforward but not contemptuous, so that those around you can actually understand you, and you can live in less confusion and resentment before God and neighbour.