The Alternative to the Law of the Jungle
Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Department for Church and Society of the Russian Orthodox Church, said that Russia might soon provide the world with an alternative to capitalism, now clearly in crisis. In a meeting with university students, he said, “There were many good things in the Soviet period, for example the heroic feat of Russia in the Second World War, outstanding achievements in science and technology and a model of society based on the idea of social justice. It had a major success worldwide; we should include that amongst its unquestionable results”. In his view, the USSR collapsed because it had been based on an atheist ideology, “but the idea of a society where money, profit, and private economic interests did not rule was very important”.
Fr Vsevolod went on to say that the end of the USSR did not bury the search for an alternative to capitalism as a type of society, for a society that does not see profit as the locomotive of progress. Pointing out that economists, politicians and intellectuals agreed on the crisis of capitalism, he did not rule out that Russia, “with its strong instinct toward justice, is destined to offer the world a recipe for a social order where money and selfish personal gain are not the primary motivators”.
Many in Russia see today’s race for personal well-being and consumerism as a sign of decline.
24 April 2012
Nina Akhmatova
AsiaNews.it
