TIME FOR TYRANNY of Reason and Virtue

Rev. S.N. Kajevich, PhD

ISBN 978-1-63630-117-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63630-118-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 Rev. S.N. Kajevich, PhD

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

The First Taste of Tyranny

Time for Everything

Beware of the Past

Stay Home

A Dangerous Human Journey

Wisdom and Madness of the Mighty

Where to from Here?

The Mirror of Truth

Glorified Decadence

Hatred as Disease

The Danger of an Overcivilized World

Postmodernity and Anti-Americanism

Nobility Versus Beastly Human Life

Racism and Blindness to Truth

Self-Destructive Cleverness

Time for Noble Actions

Pillars of the Best Possible World

Acknowledgements

Iwould like to express my appreciation and heartfelt gratitude to the people who have assisted me in accomplishing this project. Notably, I extend my special thanks to my Philosophy and Ethics students at De Paul and Lewis university who enjoy my lectures and moral arguments supported by stories from my personal experience, and who have inspired me to write this book. My profound gratitude to Ashley Baker, Acquisition Agent, and above all to Adam Mackey, Publication Coordinator, and to the editors at Covenant Books.

Preface

Every form of tyranny opposes the human spirit of freedom; and every human being of sound mind knows that any force that dares to dictate our inner feelings and thinking is unwelcome. Waves of tyranny could be felt everywhere, even within a family in which a parent dictates the life of his or her children not out of love and reason, but out of ignorance about the true nature of right and good. It could happen at our workplaces, in bad neighborhoods, etc. Yet, most of the time, we could avoid fear from some coincidental tyranny; however, fear caused by political tyranny is the worst of all evils and very difficult to get rid of.

Time for the Tyranny of Reason and Virtue is a treatise that will expose the ugly side of political, some religious, cultural, economic, and other forms of tyranny; and it will offer means and ways of how to become free from them.

According to the first article of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (proclaimed December 10, 1948), we can see a message against all manner of tyranny:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

And paragraph two of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America emphasizes that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!

These two ideals—these two declarations—stand categorically against all forms of tyranny that have been brutally practiced from time immemorial. That is why the time has now come for the rule of reason and virtue; the time has come to raise the flag of justice, truth, and of good and to tell the actual or potential tyrants who torture and put opponents to death in order to plant the seeds of fear in the heart of the people.

Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century AD, there are strange new clouds of tyranny that threaten human life with progressive immorality, cultural decadence, and the possibility of the last World War—the Apocalypse. That’s why now is the time to wake up and think about what ought to be done in order to halt the advance of insalubrious postmodernity and of nuclear war. This new danger could happen because of our mental anesthesia as well as in our unwillingness to see and act according to the rule of reason and virtue.

This treatise concerns life based on reflection of the divine blueprints in our mind and the necessity to behave in accordance to the good will of God—and not by the will of the clever beast.

The Noble Prize winner, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, recounts in his novel, The Gulag Archipelago, the Soviet Union’s brutal tyranny under Stalin, this epitome of evil which destroyed millions of innocent people and which instilled fear in the population in the name of Communist tyranny. Some three decades after the Bolshevik Revolution, waves of terror struck Confucian China, the land of the oldest culture in the world. And as the ghost of Communist terror flew rapidly over the earth, and its red bloody wings darkened the doorstep of these United States in Cuba, whose charismatic leader Fidel Castro who, as a student at Columbia University, earned the admiration of retired General Dwight Eisenhower who was at the time the President of Columbia University and later the thirty-fourth president of the United States.

And we cannot forget Nazism, the movement led by the most evil beastly man; this was another bloody flag of tyranny and death for everyone who didn’t match their demonic vision of the human race.

Tyranny is not limited to these foregoing examples; it survives in many forms, and each of them categorically negates the Golden Rule, the freedom of spirit, and the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for all.

Now is the time for reason and virtue to rule. Now is the time to feel inspired and willing to promote harmony among our feelings, passions, and our thoughts. Plato knew that the human mind must be the captain of our feelings and passions. He advised us that whenever we disobey our reason, we behave irrationally. Only the light of reason, with effort, will take us out of the dark and dangerous life in the cave all the way to the plateau of enlightened social nobility.

All the so-called brilliant dictators, military, political, and even some religious leaders who ignore the Golden Rule in word and deed represent the tyranny and evil.

By choosing to follow the Golden Rule, we must harness sufficient energy, strength of will, wisdom, and courage in order to stand up against any tyranny just as we must stand against any form of evil. This treatise concerns the future of the human race and the possibility of a life free of fear from oppression and self-destruction.

The Golden Rule, the rule of good will as envisioned by Immanuel Kant, shall guide this treatise. And I will offer a few blueprints by which we may see the difference between good and evil that swim through the waves of modernity, which Jean-Jacques Rousseau held as decadent.

I will demonstrate that the continual rejection of the rule of reason and virtue will lead the human race to self-destruction. The means are available, they could be used, and it would mean the end of human existence.

Thus:

Any political and/or religious leaders who aspire to establish their kingdom on this earth by fire, sword, and brute force must be outlawed.

Anyone, any group of people, any organization that has an agenda to control people’s lives by using all means in order to secure their own wealth, luxury, and selfish desires must be justly sanctioned by the guardians of truth, of good, and of justice; and

Anyone who has a gift, energy, and good will with which to make great contributions to the greater good of the mankind shall be rewarded more than the average person; while those who have lesser ability, a weaker will, and a limited understanding of the principles of truth, good, and of justice, shall receive sufficient means for living but no authority in any field of leadership.

These arguments shall be guidelines of this treatise!

Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist, contemporary writer, and a magnificent human being, offers us 12 Rules for Life in his book published in 2018. I am offering only two:

The Golden Rule preached by Christ; and the Golden Mean taught by Aristotle.

Thus, in order to attain life free of tyranny, we need to follow Thomas Jefferson’s moral dictum: Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Dr. S. N. Kajevich

Time for the Tyranny of Reason and Virtue is treatise that will expose the ugly side of political, some religious, cultural, economic, and other forms of tyranny, and it will offer means and ways of how to become free from them.

1

The First Taste of Tyranny

It was a long time ago in the middle of the twentieth century in the autumn of 1946 when I was in grammar school. It was the month of September, around sunset. My mother made dinner: an omelet mixed with some flour. Six of us sat around the table with my grandfather at the head. A bottle of homemade plum brandy was there, and glasses were ready to serve my grandfather and my dad, a soldier in the collapsed Royal Yugoslav Army who had escaped to the nearby mountains where he hid from the Nazis and their collaborators, the Albanians.

While my younger siblings, my sister and younger brother, were happy to see Dad alive, and while they were hugging him, a tall man in his thirties with a dark long leather coat, small machine gun slung around his shoulders, and a military hat with a red star on it suddenly walked into our home and stood by our dining table. The intruder pointed his finger at my dad and said, Your name is Nedyo?

Yes, my dad barely managed to say.

The stranger, who had two stars on each of his shoulders, was a captain of the newly established Yugoslav Communist government. With a deadly serious face, he pulled out of his left coat pocket a small piece of paper and read, On May 15, 1945, you were sentenced to death by the military tribunal with eleven other men from this village. All of them were executed as traitors. We couldn’t find you, and now, a year later, you are here. The charges were that all of you were the enemies of communism and pro-Western democrats.

While the captain read the verdict, I saw in our yard a military jeep with three armed soldiers. To our shock and amazement, this Communist officer tore up the paper spelling out my dad’s death sentence, adding, It’s enough of the killings. And he kindly asked my mother, Sister, could I have a glass of brandy?

Oh, yes, yes, my mother said with joy.

My dad was quiet and still in shock.

The captain drank the glass of brandy in a single breath and said, My name is Ivan. Take care. And he left.

My dad still didn’t believe the Communist officer but was so happy that he jumped into the jeep and left. At that moment, my old grandfather said, This is new tyranny. He meant Communism.

That was the first time I heard the word tyranny. I grew up there, went to grammar school, junior high, and spent a year in mathematical-technical school in a nearby city. And soon afterward, my mother, a born-again Christian, convinced me to enroll in the Christian Orthodox Seminary, which I did out of spite against Communist tyranny.

As I grew up, day by day, I learned more and more about the nature of Communist tyranny. On a few occasions, I was slapped in the face by local Communist police agents because I was arguing against atheism with the village school teachers.

When I finished my seminary studies, I was drafted into the Communist army. I served in the mountain infantry and was assigned an MG 40 machine gun. After six months of intensive physical military training, all the soldiers were given assignments. No more running six hours a day. But I was the only one ordered to start book camp over from the beginning, even though I had finished my basic training with the highest score. I was furious, but I didn’t know what to do.

One evening, when we had two hours free and we were allowed to leave the military base, I went straight to a local priest in a small nearby town. It was already dark. As I stepped inside the priest’s house, which was located in the middle of a vineyard, he greeted me with a fatherly hug. His wife looked happy while serving food and wine to us at the table.

Son, please, eat as if you are in your parents’ own home, she said.

I drank the wine with joy and I told the priest about my suffering in the nearby military base.

He stared into my eyes and said, Endure, son. God is testing your faith. Be Spartan. I am going to pray for you. His words and their hospitality elated my spirit. After drinking a few glasses of good red wine, I went back to the base.

Eventually I got used to repeating the difficult military training, so I began to feel a bit more at ease. I hoped that I would finish my two years’ obligatory service in the army of Communist tyranny alive and well and grew stronger.

A week after my visit to the priest, late one night, just as I was falling asleep, a duty officer woke me up and led me to the next building to an office that looked strange to me. As I stepped inside, I was greeted by a stately looking military man who held the rank of major.

His assistant (a sergeant) offered me a leather chair, saying, Welcome young soldier. To my further surprise, the floor of the large office was made of expensive wood and was covered with a Persian rug. Heavy luxurious drapes hung over large windows. The office furniture resembled that of a royal palace. It was unusual for a military office in a poor Communist country. While I was wondering why they had brought me there, suddenly, the officer who introduced himself as Major George, stared at me and asked, Do you know why you are here?

No, I said.

I am a major in the KOS, he returned. Since he sensed that I wasn’t aware what he meant by the initials KOS, he added, Contra Intelligence Service. I have information that you are a foreign spy, that you work for the British MI6.

I felt a shock as Major George recited the charges that I was a foreign spy. His assistant pulled out his handgun and pointed into my left temple, adding, SOB, I will blow your brains out!

I felt frightened, and the major, with a cynical smile, added, What kind of military secrets did you give to the priest you visited last week?

What secrets? I mumbled. I was completely confused by the accusations.

Yes, you’re a spy, and the priest is your connection with MI6, declared the major, his face close to mine as he banged his fist on the table.

At that very moment, I recalled a similar event with my dad who, a dozen years earlier, survived, thanks to a good man, Ivan, who years later ended up in a military prison where he died from torture because he refused to serve Communist tyranny blindly.

Major George went on with the interrogation. Once in a while, he mumbled that the government knew about my father who luckily had not been executed, even though he was a fierce anti-Communist. They also knew about my born-again Christian mother who had convinced me to go to the seminary.

Around 3:00 a.m., they let me go. Soon, it was 5:00 a.m., the time for reveille. I would have to get ready for a full day of training. Each day added another hellish link in the chain of my suffering, and it was growing longer and heavier around my neck.

Every day I planned to escape this tyranny, and I was praying to God to give me the strength to endure the hellish passage of time as the nightly interrogations continued every week for several hours. One night, the major told me, Listen, pal, we could let you off the hook if you listen to me. I looked at the light-blue eyes of this high-ranking servant in the Communist army, and I anticipated his coming words with greater fear and anxiety. Suddenly, he pointed a finger at some document and said, Sign this. It acknowledges that you are renouncing your theological training and that you are condemning your decadent parents as well as the teachers in seminary. Once you sign this, you can go next Monday to our military academy. You can become a handsome officer in our Communist army instead of a stupid anti-Communist priest.

How could I sign something condemning the people who love me more than anyone else? My parents and my seminary teachers are to me like saints. I can’t sign this, I said as the major turned toward the window and grumbled.

Go back to your unit and think it over. When I call you back, you must answer my final questions. Otherwise, you’ll be taken to a military prison, and you’ll be charged with espionage.

Again, it was around 3:00 a.m. when a detail officer led me back to my unit’s barracks. Before I lay down in my bed, and as the other soldiers were sleeping soundly, I knelt to the floor and prayed, O, dear God, help me, save me from these demons. Please, help me! I pledge that after I get out of here, I’ll serve you for the rest of my life. Then I lay down on my bed and fell sound asleep.

One week passed, and then two and three weeks passed, but I was never called back for another interrogation. I felt that God had changed the minds of those evil men. Slowly but surely, I was recovering as my two bloody years of compulsory military services were drawing to a close.

One day, the unit captain told us to get our civilian clothing and be ready for discharge. I had an uncle in the United States, so I wrote him a letter, asking if he could send me a cowboy shirt, a hat, and a scarf, just as some movie stars were dressed at the time.

In a few weeks, I received these articles of clothing, and on the day we were discharged, I wore a beautiful silky Western shirt that had an American flag embroidered on the left, a blue scarf around my neck, and the cowboy hat. Dressed in this outfit, I stood in the line with the other soldiers who were waiting for their honorable discharges. Suddenly, Major George, escorted by two military police, came in front of me and asked, Would you like to go home?

Yes, if you let me, I replied, my jaw stiffening.

Two soldiers with their submachine guns in their hands stood before me while Major George, in company with the unit captain, walked to the nearby office. A few long minutes later, Major George stood in front of me, gave me a military salute and, escorted by his police soldiers, walked away. The unit captain, who was named Peter, leaned toward me and whispered, Come to my office.

I did, and he looked around, took a deep breath, and said, Son, I wish you the best. Go home and serve a God who saved you from this hell.

Now I was happy and confused. Why was a Communist captain, Peter, wishing me good luck? And so I left the military base with an honorable discharge in hand, and I was partially free of military Communist tyranny. Soon afterward, I honored my pledge to God to serve Him and His people always in the name of reason and virtue and against every evil and tyranny. I was ordained into the priesthood before my twenty-third birthday. And then?

2

Time for Everything

Yes, there is a time for everything. From a linguistic point of view, there are many definitions of time. There is a commercial time, psychological time…and there is eternal time. Within eternal time, every temporal event occurs, begins, and ends. Birth, growth, and death are events within time. So are the laws of nature. These laws must have a lawgiver, according to St. Thomas Aquinas. For if there is something, it must have a cause.