Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a story about a revolutionary cadre that attempts to wreak havoc on a Russian village as part of their quest to overthrow the traditional order. It features intense psychological descriptions and analysis by Dostoevsky to reveal the deep-seated emotions and feelings that drive revolutionary behavior.
Losing touch with God
You may be sure that all those who cease to understand their people and lose their connection with them, at once, in the same measure, also lose the faith of their fathers, and become either atheists or indifferent.
Revolutionary ideas were sweeping Russia at the time. Dostoevsky himself was caught up in the fervor and served time in prison for his activities. Being spared execution by the Tsar at the last moment served as his spiritual awakening, allowing him to recede from the darkness and become a force of tradition and Orthodoxy.
The modern drive to “progress” can be understood as destroying any sense of faith and order possessed by the preceding generations. It may be hard to believe, but many humans today still retain some logos within them which makes today’s revolutionary movement that much more worrisome, because once the remainder is removed from those who rightly believe that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, and both should have the ability to seek their daily bread, materially and spiritually, what will be left? The horrors of the 20th century will pale in comparison to what we will soon face.
Whether local or global, revolution is the same
So far as I have understood, and one could hardly not understand, you yourself, at the beginning and then a second time, rather eloquently—albeit too theoretically—developed a picture of Russia covered with an infinite network of knots. For its own part, each of the active groups, while proselytizing and spreading its side-branchings to infinity, has as its task, by a systematic denunciatory propaganda, ceaselessly to undermine the importance of the local powers, to produce bewilderment in communities, to engender cynicism and scandal, complete disbelief in anything whatsoever, a yearning for the better, and, finally, acting by means of fires as the popular means par excellence, to plunge the country, at the prescribed moment, if need be, even into despair. Are these your words, which I have tried to recall verbatim? Is this your program of action, conveyed by you as a representative of the central—but hitherto completely unknown and, to us, almost fantastic-committee?
In the above passage, a revolutionary member is attempting to clarify the aims of the group he is a part of. You may be struck by how their method of subversion is no different than what the elites are subjecting us to today. The “denunciatory propaganda” comes in the form of relentless Jewish-controlled fake news. Their centralization of power and innumerable globalist organizations from the United Nations on down seek to “undermine the importance of the local powers.” The staged Black Lives Matter protests in hundreds of American cities “produce bewilderment in communities.” We are tyrannized by scientific experts who lead us to “complete disbelief” against the truth that goes against the will of the elites while simultaneously giving us false hope about the future and a “yearning for the better” through their lies of “flattening the curve.” Every single tactic that Dostoevsky’s revolutionary character speaks of is currently, actively, and methodically being used on us, because the strategy of revolution does not change.
Destruction for the sake of destruction
In the meantime your whole step is towards getting everything destroyed: both the state and its morality. We alone will remain, having destined ourselves beforehand to assume power: we shall rally the smart ones to ourselves, and ride on the backs of the fools. You should not be embarrassed by it. This generation must be re-educated to make it worthy of freedom. There are still many thousands of Shatovs [revolutionary traitors] ahead and us. We will get organized so as to seize the tendency; it is shameful not to reach out and take what is lying there idly with its mouth gaping at us.
The revolutionaries today are eager to share their “logic” of equality and love, but since they behave in direct opposition to what they profess, the only logic remaining is that of destruction and chaos. They want to destroy for the sake of destruction because that is the only way to synchronize their darkened souls with the environment. If your soul is in chaos, you don’t want to see a society of law and order, and if your passions are disordered, you don’t want to elevate or promote those who have self-control. Society is but a projection of the souls within that society, and when society is atheistic and lacking in tradition, the projection can become close to hell.
The antidote to madness
Listen: this man [Jesus Christ] was the highest on all the earth, he constituted what it was to live for. Without this man the whole planet with everything on it is—madness only. There has not been one like Him before or since, not ever, even to the point of miracle. This is the miracle, that there has not been and never will be such a one.
The further you are away from Lord Jesus Christ, the closer you are to accepting the presuppositions and assumptions of revolution. You become infused with the spirit of the times and participate in it without conscious thought or deliberation. All good comes from God, and when you are far from God, that places you on the streets to agitate for “black lives,” in the workplace denouncing your fellow employees for “racism,” in the shops recording and reporting “violators” who are not wearing a face mask, and online looking to ruin those with whom you disagree. Either you have God in your life or you are a revolutionary to some degree.
Will we be comforted?
In the end it has always been that the most disgraceful cross becomes a great glory and a great power, if the humility of the deed is sincere. It may even be that you will be comforted in your own lifetime!
If God wants to comfort us in this lifetime, I would graciously accept it, but I’m not counting on it because of how clearly we can see the tides of revolution growing. As a Christian, I am called to pick up my cross and carry it, not seek heaven on this earth. I look back at my life and see that I experienced enough comfort for many lifetimes, so I would not mind constant tribulation as long as I’m able to bear it in a way that does not sacrifice my salvation.
Demons wasn’t the easiest book I’ve read. With so many characters and subplots, it wasn’t until page 300 or so where I began having a firm grasp on what was transpiring (pro tip: write down the names and descriptions of characters on a notecard as you encounter them). Nonetheless, the story was a good reminder of how a small group of people can cause immense damage and pain to a community. Woe to us for living in a time where that small group are those at the very top who use all their will and power to foist revolution upon our societies for their own malicious ends. May we survive the fires that are to come.
Learn More: Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky
