FACES AND PLACES: Christmas year 'round? (12/23/01)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Christmas year 'round?

Christmas is a festival of feeling, a morality play that touches the heart and soul. It is a time when life triumphs over death; it is a joy-filled celebration that brings out the best in people. Christmas reminds us that light will always trump darkness if only we believe and respond to Christ's calling. How often have we wished that the thoughts and emotions people experience at Christmas could last all year around.

In the wake of September 11, Christmas has an extra-special meaning for all of us. Families are strenghtening their bonds this holiday season; we have a greater appreciation for the important people in our life and the events that make our time on earth meaningful. We hunger for closeness, belonging and love.

This Christmas also has special meaning for the people of Ukraine. Long forbidden to celebrate the blessed birth of the Christ child, Ukrainian Christians currently endow this observance with a level of spirituality that seems to be fading in the United States.

Pentecostals have captured the Christian high ground in Ukraine. Their simple message of salvation through Christ's redeeming grace resonates among those who seek spiritual sustenance. For them, the squabbles between Catholics and Orthodox, and within the Orthodox community itself, are largely irrelevant.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, I have been intrigued by what appears to be a moral paradox, ie, the enormous and unceasing emphasis of the Soviet educational system on principled behavior, and the actual product that emerged.

Soviet education stressed high moral standards, especially truthfulness, hard work, self-sacrifice, respect for self and others, helpfulness, courage and patriotism. An early Soviet educational decree was emphatic: communistic re-education of society "is closely tied to the upbringing of the 'new man', who will harmoniously combine spiritual richness, morality and physical fitness."

The Soviets had youth organizations - the Pioneers for younger children, Komsomol for older - which reinforced the character education program of the schools. "Rules for Pioneers" included such directives as: "The Pioneer studies diligently and is disciplined and courteous." "The Pioneer loves to work and to conserve the national wealth." "The Pioneer tells the truth and guards the honor of his detachment." "The Pioneer is a good comrade, who is solicitous of younger children and who helps older people."

As I have observed the behavior of some people in Ukraine, particularly the ruling elite, as well as the actions of some Fourth Wave immigrants in the United States, I am perplexed. Given the intensive program of moral training, why do so many Ukrainians over there still lie, cheat and steal so effortlessly? Why does it take so long for Fourth wave immigrants to adjust to our moral system, to trust us, to tell us the truth? What led to their debasement, their apparent lack of conscience, and their craven and brutal exploitation of each other? Why in a supposedly classless society was individual status so pronounced? As evil as the Soviet system was, evil was not part of the school curriculum. Nor was it encouraged by Soviet youth organizations. On the contrary, Soviet character was associated with such words as "honor," "duty," "citizenship," "manhood," all those "producer values" that sociologist Max Weber identified as the "Protestant Ethic."

So what went wrong? Why is it that the same virtues that are an integral component of the "American Way" can at the same time produce a bountiful, democratic, trustworthy, caring society in the United States, and a hollow, totalitarian, and indifferent society in Ukraine?

In his book "The Death of Character: Moral Education in an Age Without Good or Evil," Dr. James Davison Hunter supplies part of the answer. "A person's moral development does not occur in a cultural vaccum," he writes. "Character is very much social in its constitution. It is inseparable from the culture within which it is found and formed ... Character is at least as much a function of the social order as it is a manifestation of the individual person. For this reason, it is impossible to speak of character ... without also speaking of the larger moral culture in which it is found ... To talk about character is inevitably to talk about the cultural and institutional conditions that allow for us its cultivation in children and its maintenance in adults ... A person's moral development does not occur in a cultural vacuum."

The Soviet character education program failed because it was not maintained by the Soviet culture, which survived on repression, exploitation, injustice, lies, murder and famine. One didn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand early in life that to survive in Soviet society one needed to think one thing, say something else and do a third thing. Having been thoroughly disillusioned in Ukraine, it is difficult for Fourth Wavers to trust us, to truly believe that we are sincere, honest and caring.

We should remember, however, that many Communists accepted, even relished, the evil. As Paul Hollander points out in his book "Political Will and Personal Belief: The Decline and Fall of Soviet Communism," countless die-hard Bolsheviks went to their deaths knowing full well that they were innocent but praising Stalin with their last breath. George Lukacs described this mind-set as follows: "the highest duty for the Communist ethic is to accept the necessity of acting immorally ... The conviction of the true Communist is that evil transforms itself into bliss through the dialectics of historical evolution."

Want Christmas year a'round? Heed the recent words of Pope John Paul II to the Ukrainian hierarchy: "... for contemporary men and women, immersed in the noise and confusion of daily life, words are no longer enough. They do not only want to hear someone talk abut Christ, they want to see Him in some way. Give the Ukrainian people the possibility to see their Savior ... Give witness with your life and works to the presence of the Risen One among you. It is the most eloquent and effective message that you can give to your fellow citizens."

The point? Christmas year 'around begins with us.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected].

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